Transportation Issues Abounded as the Lumber Industry Awaited Spring
frustrated and confused players.
Due to ongoing harsh winter weather, February drew to a close with logistics issues still a top priority. North American softwood lumber buyers and sellers alike spent time chasing down wood on the way somewhere throughout the supply chain.
While rail cars and trucks became more available, orders continued to take longer to arrive than usual. Overall, lumber supply was weak as customers still were reluctant to increase inventories, not wanting to get caught if prices fell.
Overall, for the first two months of this year, the price trend line for most items was quite even compared to the past two years. This offers good stability for both sawmills and builders to make their plans once the spring building season actually arrives.
Mills protected their existing order files of barely two weeks by agreeing to strategic sales only. Ongoing curtailments and reduced production volumes bore out this effort, as the actual field inventories continued to be quite depleted.
KEY COMMENT:
Most commodity prices were largely flat as sawmills hoped to lean on order files until the weather breaks and demand presumably improves.
Graph: Western-SPF & SYP 2x4 prices comparison
12 WESTERN PALLET