Homebuyers and renovators hoping for a mid-winter worth stoop are as an alternative being greeted with new all-time document excessive costs for lumber and oriented strandboard (OSB) constructing panels.
CIBC analyst Hamir Patel says Western SPF (spruce, pine, fir) lumber costs rose to a four-digit shut for the primary time on Tuesday, reaching US$1,000 per thousand board toes, in line with market watcher Random Lengths.
In a report, he says the North American composite lumber worth rose about one per cent to an all-time excessive of US$979, regardless of decrease gross sales as a result of seasonal development slowdown and the have an effect on of maximum chilly climate in Canada and the U.S. on sawmills and delivery.
In the meantime, he says, the worth of benchmark North Central area OSB panels elevated by 1.2 per cent from Friday to a document US$845 per thousand sq. toes, whereas OSB pricing in Western Canada improved by the identical quantity to an all-time excessive of US$870.
In a report on Tuesday, RBC analyst Paul Quinn stated North American softwood lumber manufacturing elevated by 7.2 per cent in November versus the identical month in 2019 however consumption rose by 14.8 per cent.
Citing Western Wooden Merchandise Affiliation statistics, he stated manufacturing jumped by 8.2 per cent to about 2.9 billion board toes within the U.S. whereas Canadian manufacturing elevated 5.9 per cent to about two billion.
“We count on that producers have been working their mills close to capability as they tried to benefit from extraordinarily sturdy pricing ranges,” he stated, including demand has not fallen off in early 2021.
“We are actually re-entering the spring constructing season the place demand tends to peak. Consumers are masking their instant wants whereas build up their inventories; nonetheless, producers are going through tight circumstances with order recordsdata booked via March.”
© 2021 The Canadian Press
