by Web Editor | Jan 19, 2018 | News
Canada is in the appeals stage of its softwood lumber dispute after the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed final duties earlier this month.
“The Government of Canada will continue to vigorously defend our industry and its workers against protectionist trade practices,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. “U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber are unfair, unwarranted and troubling.”
“They are harmful to Canada’s lumber producers, workers, and communities, and they add to the cost of home building, renovations and other projects for American middle-class families,” Freeland said.
But despite duties, with record-high lumber prices and urgent demand from U.S. builders, Canadian lumber firms haven’t had to lay off staff or cut production at all. Canada’s softwood lumber exports to the U.S. have declined 8 percent since the duties were imposed, but because the wood itself is worth more, the industry hasn’t suffered.
VP of international trade and transportation for the Forest Products Association of Canada Joel Neuheimer said the higher price of wood and the insatiable demand from U.S. builders is helping keep the duties from pushing companies to lay off staff, cut production or even close down.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/canadian-news/canada-wont-back-down-vows-resist-softwood-duties?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news
by Web Editor | Mar 13, 2017 | News
Building a house, garage or even a shed today isn’t as easy as going to the local lumberyard and buying whatever dimension of wood you need. A lot of emphasis goes into the grade of the wood and its stress and load ratings, according to Everett Brands, manager of Arrow Building Center in Glencoe. Arrow took over the former Fullerton Lumber Center on Desoto Avenue this past October.
Today, main structural pieces, such as headers, consist of LVL, or laminated veneer lumber, an engineered product typically of poplar, fir or pine. It is laminated under heat and pressure with a moisture-resistant resin and it’s stronger than typical native wood. Building codes call for the use of specific lumber grades for specific applications.
“Anything longer than six feet as a header has to be LVL,” Brands said. The LVL products range up to 36 or 48 feet long. While regular lumber could sag or bow under extreme weight, the LVL won’t. Thus LVL is typically used over windows and entries, especially with tall entries.
“We use a lot of engineered products — beams, headers and I-joists,” added Matt Smieja, manager of Simonson Lumber, just outside Hutchinson along State Highway 7 East.
Years ago, when forests were being cut for the first time, the wood tended to be of higher quality as far as grain and knots. But new stands of trees generated are of a lower grade.
From the Hutchinson Leader: https://www.crowrivermedia.com/hutchinsonleader/news/business/engineered-lumber-has-replaced-natural-lumber-in-most-key-building/article_67ee0dc7-e4d8-56c8-932e-9ca668bb40bc.html
by Web Editor | Jul 20, 2016 | News
For years, it was known as the ugly duckling, cheaper alternative to plywood. One design maven described it as “like the turkey loaf of building materials.” But oriented strand board – OSB for short – has come into its own over the past 3 1/2 decades as a major player in North American wood-frame housing construction and is increasingly used for industrial and other applications.
Structural OSB panels – made of wood strands that are resin-bonded under high pressure and heat – are mostly used as floor, roofing or wall substrate in home building. They’re also getting play these days on fashionable interior-decoration websites as a “shabby-chic” finishing material.
Capitalizing on OSB’s rise like no other forest-products company is Toronto-based Norbord Inc. Norbord, once a diversified forestry company, has shed assets over the years and focused on OSB. Now boasting annual sales in the $1.5-billion (U.S.) range and a market capitalization of about $2.4-billion (Canadian), it bills itself as the world’s largest producer of OSB.
The $763-million acquisition in 2014 of Vancouver-based Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. gave Norbord – whose operations were concentrated in the U.S. southeast – a strong presence in Western Canada as well as a foothold in the promising Japanese market.
Right now, the steadily growing number of housing starts in the United States is giving Norbord a big boost, and low-key, media-shy chief executive officer Peter Wijnbergen says there are major growth opportunities in Europe and Asia.
From The Globe And Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/forest-products-firm-norbord-riding-the-rising-wave-of-osb-sales/article30985989/
by Web Editor | Jul 6, 2015 | News
APA – The Engineered Wood Association has released its 2015 Market Outlook report.
Similar to 2014, extremely harsh weather caused home building to stall in the eastern half of the U.S. during the first quarter of 2015. However, with mortgage rates below 4 percent, new home sales rose 9 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2014, an indication that new home demand is improving. Brighter employment prospects for young adults is leading them to head out on their own, adding to the strength in the demand for new apartment buildings. These forces point to the recovery in residential construction getting back on track in the second half of this year.
“The biggest changes in the economic environment since a year ago are the strength of the U.S. dollar, the drop in oil and gasoline prices, and efforts by central bankers to stimulate their economies by driving down long-term interest rates,” said Joe Elling, market research director for APA. “This mix of events is likely to support lower interest rates in the U.S. than what was expected a year ago at this time. We are still in an unprecedented situation with respect to Federal Reserve policy though, and I remain concerned about the ability of the Fed to return its balance sheet to a more normal state without a major disruption in financial markets here and abroad.”
Critical to the strength in the demand for new housing is the ability of young adults to have the economic wherewithal to be on their own and, ultimately, to be able to own a home. Despite very favorable affordability conditions from a monthly standpoint, tight lending standards and heavy student debt burdens are constricting that group’s home-buying power. These conditions are expected to persist through the rest of the decade; thus, as housing starts return to their anticipated 1.5 million level by 2018-2019, multifamily starts are expected to account for roughly 36 percent of the total.
Housing starts in Canada totaled just over 198,000 units in 2014. Canada did not experience a housing bubble like the U.S did, but, similar to the States, multifamily unit structures are accounting for a greater share of new residential construction compared to 10 years ago. The forecast calls for starts in Canada to run in the 180,000-190,000 unit range, with multifamily units accounting for around 40 percent of the starts.
From APA – The Engineered Wood Association: https://www.apawood.org/market-outlook-2015
