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North American Sawmill Capacity Utilization, Lumber Production: July 2018
US #softwood #lumber production dropped by -2.8 per cent in July compared to the month prior but grew +5.4 per cent from July 2017, according to statistics from the Western Wood Products Association’s Lumber Track. US lumber production totaled 2,905 million board feet (MMBF) in July. For the first seven months of 2018, US production…
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US New Housing Starts: September 2018
Total housing starts in the US posted a decline in September due to flat conditions for single-family construction and a pullback for apartment development. Total starts declined 5.3% in September but are 6.4% higher for 2018 on a year-to-date basis, according to the joint data release from the Census Bureau and HUD. The pace of…
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Sawmill Curtailments
There have been sawmill closures and curtailments announced in the past week, some due to log supply issues some due to North American softwood lumber market conditions: Western Forest Products Sawmill in Ladysmith, BC, has been shut down since September 21 when a log shortage sparked by this summer’s wildfires emptied out all of its…
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Current Softwood Lumber Prices Compared to Recent and Historical Highs
The North American softwood lumber market continued it’s inexorable slide downward toward year-end last week, with prices even further lowered over the week before. After a wild ride into the stratosphere over the summer of 2018, the supply-demand balance corrected sharply in favour of buyers. Manufacturers of solid wood construction framing materials in Canada and…
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European Securities Raid of Euromoney’s RISI Offices Over Collusion with Paper Price Fixing
Madison’s finds it difficult to convey precisely the level of deep shock at the surprise raid of RISI‘s European offices by securities officials in January 2018. The details are very ugly, and shed light on some extremely serious credibility issues: By CPI on January 16, 2018 “In a statement to the markets, Euromoney confirmed that…
