An unfortunate truth of life, economics, and physics is that not all things can go up at the same time. Once up, they don’t always stay there. This is a week of mixed news: US home building activity continues to improve, but in Canada forest operators are facing work-stoppage with one of the two railways. In regards to this CN Rail strike; usually these last just a few days. However, at this time the House of Commons does not sit…

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North America Forest Fibre Flow Update: 3Q 2019Overview November 8th, 2019 “It will become clear after Labour Day if North America construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices are going to soften further, as they usually do in autumn, or if buyers and sellers have indeed found a new floor. — Madison’s Forest Pulse July 13, 2019 This was the last line of our update in the previous issue of your Madison’s Forest Pulse. Thankfully, the horrible price drops for North…

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About 3,200 Canadian National Railway conductors, trainpersons, and yard workers could go on strike just after midnight tonight if a deal isn’t reached with the company, said Canadian Press Monday morning. The Teamsters Canadian Rail Conference, the union representing the employees, gave the required 72-hour notice on the weekend. The union says it hopes to reach an agreement before the deadline to address safety and scheduling issues, but workers are prepared to walk off the job if their expectations aren’t met….

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It is widely acknowledged that in British Columbia the utilization of forest residue (wood fibre leftover after timber harvesting) is very low compared to most other jurisdictions. In the past, the cost of moving this cumbersome, oddly-sized material compared to the easy availability of further timber stands, has been the reason for so much of the previously-called “wood waste”. Madison’s has long written that this residual forest fibre in BC is not “waste”, nor an impediment, but rather is an…

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A couple of weeks ago it was panel (OSB and plywood) prices that saw spectacular rebounds, this week Douglas fir green 2×4 prices recovered back to one-month-ago levels. A strong undercurrent of sales activity allowed US sawmills to keep most of their prices flat from last week as many buyers couldn’t avoid coming back to the table repeatedly to keep their inventories from bleeding dry. Customers were looking to other solid wood commodities besides benchmark Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr…

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After flattening out last month, the latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track, for January-August 2019, shows US softwood lumber production volume continues almost flat from the same time last year, to 23,737 mmfbm. Like last month, January – August softwood lumber production in Canada continued big drops through most of this year, falling another -11%, to 16,655 mmfbm, compared to the first eight months of 2018 when it was 18,664 mmfbm. In British Columbia, brutal…

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The size of the global wood pellet market for 2019 was estimated to be valued at over US$8.5 billion, and is estimated to exhibit over 10% CAGR from 2019 to 2025, said Global Markets Insights October 2019. Over 22 million tons of wood pellets were shipped globally in 2018, up 21% from 2017. The US, Canada, Vietnam, Latvia, and Russia, accounted for 69% of global exports in 2018. Demand for imported pellets in Japan and South Korea continued a three-year…

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The full Madison’s Lumber Reporter North America softwood lumber price list will be updated as usual first thing Friday morning Eastern time, however here is a sneak peak at benchmark WSPF prices: After jumping another +$18 last week, The price of benchmark softwood lumber item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr stayed flat this week, Nov 7, 2019, at US$396 mfbm, from US$396 mfbm last week. — Madison’s Lumber Reporter This week’s lumber market story published to the website Wednesday: https://madisonsreport.com/2019/11/05/softwood-lumber-prices-pop-higher-as-seasonal-winter-slow-down-looms/…

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