Could Kimberly-Clark’s Discovery Be a Windfall for Woodworkers?
The giant paper company’s development of an alternative to wood for its products may mean lower prices for building materials.
In Canada, Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire
Wildfires are once again raging in Canada, impacting air quality but also lumber supplies for the North American market. The most immediate sign of the fires has been the effect on the atmosphere, creating smoke conditions in the northern United States. However, this year’s wildfires are once again destroying millions of acres of forest, a […]
Construction Material Prices Up Almost 10 Percent
A new ABC report says that everything it takes to build has increased over the past year.
Lumber Demand Remains Soft in May
New reports suggest the current conditions of limited inventories and last-minute ordering is continuing between the US and Canada. Madison’s Lumber Reporter wrote that Southern Yellow Pine East Side 2×4 prices were back down to where they had been in January and February. It added that Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2×4 prices, often considered a benchmark, steadily […]
Lumber and Building Supplies Hit By Another Wave of Pricing Pressure
First it was inflation, then supply chain issues and then tariffs. Now the war in Iran is the latest external factor to hit material costs.
Canadian Lumber Market Finishes Up Year in Turmoil
Ever-changing trade policies with the U.S., a dismal housing market and subsequent mill closings continue to plague conditions. North American lumber production is reportedly at its lowest level in more than a decade, particularly in Canada, which supplies a large percentage of the wood the U.S. imports. After a year in which the Trump administration […]
New Study Shows Devastating Impact of Canadian Lumber Tariffs on Home Building
Two University of Tennessee professors report how higher duties on imported wood directly impact housing prices. Contradicting the Trump administration that American lumber can replace imported wood from Canada, Andrew Muhammed, a professor of agriculture and resource economics, and Adam Taylor, professor of natural resources, wrote in their new study that this is not necessarily […]
Rayonier-PotlatchDeltic Merger to Create Second-Largest U.S. Timber Company
The deal would result in a timber and wood products giant controlling 4.2 million acres across the country. Much of the combined company’s holdings, spread across 11 states and including seven wood manufacturing plants, would be located in the American South with its large softwood capacity. It would have an enterprise value of about $8.2 billion – including […]
NAHB Pushes Back Against New Lumber Tariffs
The latest round of duties on imported wood is creating a new level of uncertainty about the home building business going forward. When President Trump announced a new 10 percent tariff on imported lumber along with additional duties on some furniture, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, the reaction from the industry was as expected. “These […]
Supply and Demand Issues Continue to Trip Up Lumber Sector
Even as prices keep falling for lumber and lumber futures, some sawyers are countering with reduced production. Not in recent memory have prices for wood been as volatile as they are now, with political relations between the U.S. and Canada, tariffs, lower demand in the home building sector and producers reacting to all of this […]