More Record-Level Lumber Prices Expected In 2018 From U.S. Import Duties

by | Dec 18, 2017 | News

In WOOD MARKETS’ new five-year softwood lumber forecast, the continuation of U.S. duties on Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. are expected to cause more short-term market and price volatility. The preliminary duties launched earlier in 2017 rocked the U.S. market and more of the same is expected in 2018. As we predicted one year ago, the headline for last year’s WOOD MARKETS 2017 news release was bang on: “U.S. Import Duties on Canadian Lumber to Cause Market Chaos and Soaring Prices.” Indeed, they did. The WOOD MARKETS 2018 Outlook Report predicts more chaos and the chance of further record-breaking prices.

These details and further analysis of commodity lumber and structural panels was released earlier this week in the report, WOOD MARKETS 2018 – The Solid Wood Products Outlook: 2018 to 2022 by WOOD MARKETS/FEA Canada, Vancouver BC.

The recent announcement of final countervailing (CVD) and anti-dumping (ADD) duties on Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. will cause lumber prices to remain near record levels in 2018 and even higher at various points over the next five years. This is because Canadian exports to the U.S. are forecast to ease in 2018.

“Simply put,” indicated Russ Taylor, Managing Director, WOOD MARKETS/FEA Canada, “by restricting incremental Canadian lumber exports via import duties, there may not appear to be enough lumber supplies to adequately balance with projected U.S. demand. There will need to major increases in U.S. lumber capacity (which is starting to build), more offshore imports, and/or record-level prices to stimulate more supply. The question that we have seen coming for a number of years is: Where will the U.S. get all of the lumber it needs, and at what price?”

The impact of U.S. import duties on Canadian lumber production and exports has been developed from building a cost curve of Canadian producing regions from WOOD MARKETS’ Global Timber/Sawmill/Lumber Cost Benchmarking Report. From this, WOOD MARKETS has overlaid a cross-Canada timber supply availability map with delivered log and sawmill costs to determine which producing regions (and mills) are most impacted by 20.23% (“all-others”) import duties.

Read more on this from International Wood Markets at https://www.woodmarkets.com/news-release-record-level-lumber-prices-expected-2018-u-s-import-duties/.

Timber Construction Has Mill Machinery Rolling

by | Jun 13, 2017 | News

Timber construction is opening a new market that has been keeping lumber and milling machinery busy at a growing number of wood products companies, including Montreal’s Nordic Structures, Sauter Timber in Rockwood, Tennessee, SmartLam, in Columbia Falls, Montana, and D.R. Johnson, in Portland, Oregon.

Oregon-based D.R. Johnson Wood Innovations, a subsidiary of D.R. Johnson, specializes in the manufacture of cross-laminated timber, or CLT, and glue-laminated beams from Douglas fir and Alaskan yellow cedar. D.R. Johnson Wood was the first U.S. company to receive APA/ANSI certification to manufacture structural CLT panels – and CEO Valerie Johnson plans to help grow the U.S. market.

D.R. Johnson has received the first U.S. certification to manufacture cross-laminated timbers (CLT) under a new standard approved last year by the American National Standards Institute. D.R. Johnson is one of only three North American companies certified by the Engineered Wood Association to construct CLT for use in buildings.

Johnson’s company employs 125 at a traditional sawmill and laminating plant, which was recently expanded by 13,000 square feet for increased CLT production. They’re currently fielding calls from hopeful builders, and manufacturing samples to be tested for fire safety and structural quality. One recent new wood construction project is a 14-story wooden apartment tower being built in Portland, Oregon.

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/pricing-supply/timber-construction-has-lumber-milling-machinery-rolling

Mass Timber: The Next Great Disruption Of Construction, Wood Products Industries

by | May 15, 2017 | News

Mass Timber: The Next Great Disruption Of Construction, Wood Products Industries

The seeds of Andrew Waugh’s great disruption were planted in 2003. “Back then, people were saying we could ‘fix’ climate change by putting a solar panel on top of everything we built,” he remembered. “But we knew that wasn’t even close to enough.”

So Waugh’s East London architectural firm started studying mass timber, knowing it was the truly renewable building material – albeit largely unknown and untested in large-scale developments. “We were entranced by the opportunities this new material could provide,” he said.

It took five years for Waugh Thistleton Architects to hone their ideas – “so we could talk about the economic benefits of this kind of building” – and to bring that vision to reality in the world’s first mass timber tower, Murray Grove. The nine-story apartment complex in London’s Hackney borough was made from cross-laminated timber manufactured by KLH, an Austrian company.

Spruce strips were stacked crosswise three layers thick and glued together, producing horizontal beams and vertical structural wall boards that were harder than steel or concrete, with none of the associated carbon loss. The economic savings came at the construction site. Murray Grove was built in 27 days by four men, without a tower crane.

Using wood saved 1,150 tons of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent of running a wind turbine on top of the building for 210 years. And 29 families moved into new homes in a country with an overwhelming housing shortage.

From Treesource: treesource.org.

 

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Innovation Abounds Among OSB, Plywood And Lumber

by | Mar 8, 2017 | News

Innovation Abounds Among OSB, Plywood And Lumber

 

Though often seen as commodity products, the categories of wood structural panels (OSB and plywood) and lumber are not short on innovation—and they’re categories where educated dealers can truly serve their customers.

Manufacturers continue to unveil improvements on these wood staples, along with offering fresh ways to keep pros informed on best practices, design, and application. Though trade articles often wage an either/or scenario with plywood and OSB, both can be used in similar residential applications.

OSB holds the majority share of the structural panels market for residential construction, in part due to its lower price point. But plywood’s premium finish and advantage on the moisture front give it a stronghold in markets that have always used it and always will.

Plywood manufacturers are increasingly supplying panels for industrial applications such as concrete forming, for doors and windows, furniture manufacturing, and more.

“What we would recommend is that dealers talk with their customers,” says Judy Haney, plywood sales manager for Boise. “Find out what their customers want, what they need, and why. They may be surprised that builder preference changes over time, partly related to what they’re building, where they’re building, where they have to transport it, market pricing, and other factors. There are many considerations, and the more a dealer understands what a customer wants and needs in a structural panel the better prepared they’ll be to fill those needs.”

From LBM Journal: lbmjournal.com.

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APA Releases 2016 Structural Panel & Engineered Wood Yearbook

by | Aug 17, 2016 | News

The 2016 Structural Panel & Engineered Wood Yearbook has been released by APA – The Engineered Wood Association. The yearbook includes an analysis of the U.S., Canadian, and global economies, focusing on factors that impact demand for engineered wood products across several market segments as a basis for forecasting expected production of engineered wood products over the next five years. Besides the analysis and forecast, the yearbook also includes historical data on engineered wood production. Topics examined in the yearbook include:

• U.S., Canada, and World economies
• Residential construction in the U.S. and Canada, new and repair/remodel
• Nonresidential and industrial markets
• North American imports and exports
• Outlook and production statistics for structural panels (OSB and plywood), including historical data
• Engineered wood product demand and production (glulam, I-joists, and LVL)

Driven by healthy employment gains over the last three years, annual household growth in the U.S. is back to the 1.2 million level, with demand for new housing units also back to the 1.5–1.6 million unit level. Buoyed by low interest rates, which are expected to remain below 4 percent for most of 2016, construction of new single-family homes in the first quarter of 2016 was up almost 5 percent from the pace of the fourth quarter of 2015, the highest quarterly starts rate since the fourth quarter of 2007. While demand is high in the U.S., the primary concern for the rest of 2016 and for the next several years is the ability of the supply-side forces to respond to this improvement. Home builders report that factors including a lack of developed lots and the shortage of skilled construction labor have combined to constrain their ability to respond to the increased demand for housing. Eventually these constraints will lessen; housing starts are projected to return to approximately 1.5 million units by decade’s end, with a concurrent growth in engineered wood products output ranging from 19–28 percent during this period.

From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/almanac-market-data/apa-releases-2016-structural-panel-engineered-wood-yearbook?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news