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US Construction Employment: Nov 2020
US construction employment gained +27,000 jobs in November to a total of 7.4 million, but employment is -279,000 below its February level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Residential construction employment, specifically, rose by +15,400 in November to 2.9 million. In November, employment rose in residential specialty trade contractors by +14,100. In the past…
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US Construction Spending: Oct and 3Q 2020
The total value of US construction put in place in October rose +1.3% from September, and +3.7% from October 2019, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$1.439 trillion, according to US Census Bureau data released Tuesday. US residential construction spending in 3Q 2020 is the highest since the previous residential boom in 2005-2006. Spending…
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Madison’s Softwood Lumber Prices Dec 4: sneak preview
Here is a SNEAK PEAK at tomorrow’s print for North American construction framing softwood lumber and panel prices: “Robust demand persisted, sending sawmill order files well toward the end of December.” — Madison’s Lumber Reporter In September 2015, the “recent-low” of lumber prices, benchmark commodity Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2x4s were selling for US$249 mfbm. The…
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North America Rail Traffic, Lumber: November 2020
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) Wednesday reported US and Canadian rail traffic volumes for November 2020. US railroads originated 900,194 carloads in November 2020, down -6%, or 55,198 carloads, from November 2019. US railroads also originated 1,136,695 containers and trailers in November 2020, up +11.5%, or 116,915 units, from the same month last year.…
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Continued Unseasonably Strong Demand Sends Lumber Prices Higher
US housing starts were mostly flat in 2019. At this time last year softwood lumber sales improved markedly and prices started to rise from quite low levels. As the beginning of 2020 came on, the data on US home building was much improved over the previous year, sending demand for construction framing dimension softwood lumber…
