Good Supply-Demand Balance Keeps Lumber Prices Flat

In mid-November the annual North American Wholesale Lumbermen’s Association gathering took many traders away from their desks to hob-nob with their colleagues, often determining between themselves the condition for lumber sales to the end of the year. As such, sales were slow but somewhat consistent, and prices remained steady. True winter weather came on in […]

US Home Sales Sept, Lumber Prices Oct: 2022

After a pop the previous month, sales of new US single-family homes dropped again in September. There were 603,000 new single-family homes sold last month, which is down -10.9% from the downwardly revised August rate of 677,000 and is a -17.6% drop compared to September 2021 when it was 732,000. Only 6,000 new homes sold […]

North America Softwood Lumber Market Year-End Update: 2022

As the forest products industry matures into this post-Covid landscape, and the new realities of macroeconomic conditions become more clear, a better picture of cyclical lumber price trends is forming. In the past, solid wood manufacturers were able to rely on a relatively stable seasonal cycle; the beginning of slowdown after Labour Day, with lumber […]

Firmer Lumber Prices on Lowered Inventories

The beginning of November brought a slight firming up for lumber prices, due to recent sawmill curtailments — especially in British Columbia — and ongoing reasonable sales volumes. Customers found inventories in the field quite scarce thus had to come back to producers for their purchases. As the usual seasonal slowdown ihttps://madisonsreport.com/s upon us, and […]

US Housing Starts Sept, Lumber Prices Oct: 2022

Go to the websitehttps://madisonsreport.com/subscribe/to get a sample of the full 500 individual lumber and panel commodity prices for that week, as well as the market commentary explaining why the prices are changing. Total housing starts in the US for September 2022 fell -8.1% to 1.439 million units compared to the 1.566 million units reported for […]

Lumber Prices and Market Update: Oct 2022 [video]

Staying even from the previous week, in the week ending October 28, 2022, the price of benchmark softwood lumber item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2×4 #2&Btr KD (RL) was again US$480 mfbm, said weekly forest products industry price guide newsletter Madison’s Lumber Reporter. This is down by -$44, or -8%, from one month ago when it was US$524 mfbm. […]

Lumber Prices Flat on Significant Production Curtailments

As October drew to a close, significant production curtailments at several large British Columbia lumber producers helped keep softwood lumber prices flat. Most of these operators cited high log costs vs lower lumber prices as the reason for taking this downtime. Meanwhile, it seemed that Weyerhaueser and the union came to an agreement, so the […]

Madison’s Lumber Prices Update – Sneak Peak

An early view of what Madison’s Lumber Reporter subscribers will see tonight when the 500 individual softwood lumber and panel commodity prices are updated in our dashboard: This small bump up in benchmark Western S-P-F KD 2×4 and 2×6 #2&Btr during a time of year when construction and building is usually slowing down — thus […]

Good Construction Weather Props Up Lumber Prices Slightly

Into the latter weeks of October, mild weather in many of the densely-populated areas of the US provided the opportunity for an increase in construction activity. As such, demand for dimension lumber and other solid wood building materials brought a bump up in lumber prices, due to limited supply in the field. Sawmills and wholesalers […]

US Housing Market Sept & Softwood Lumber Prices Oct: 2022

After a strong showing in the first half of this year, US housing starts and US new home sales for September 2022 dropped, reversing a small recovery seen in August. While it is true that a slow-down is apparent in both construction and home buying activity, it is important to note that new building activity […]