Market Recap: RISI Crow's Construction Materials Cost Index
A price index of lumber and panels used in actual construction for Feb. 2, 2018.
Western: regional species perimeter foundation
Southern: regional species slab construction
Crow's Market Recap: A condensed recap of the market conditions for the major North American softwood lumber and panel products as reported in Crow's Weekly Market Report.
Lumber
SPF sales activity at mills slowed, particularly demand for the key narrow width items, but prices remained solid or edged higher. While buyers looked to wholesalers to cover needs, wholesalers also reported a slower pace to their sales. Down moves in lumber futures early in the week garnered some of the blame for the pullback.
Southern Pine pricing continued to move strongly upward. Mills sold steady volumes, maintaining solid order files extending two weeks, and in a few instances, longer. Tight availability often made it difficult for buyers to locate specific needs.
Limited supplies and enough demand to absorb them kept strong upward pressure on many Coastal species prices. Doug Fir producers raised narrow-width prices aggressively and sold at sharply higher levels. Buyers wasted little time purchasing sporadic mill offerings at elevated price levels.
The speed with which Inland pricing has moved accelerated further, pushing lumber prices beyond or very near record levels. The nexus of price gains was Std&Btr/#2&Btr lumber, which moved swiftly enough to drag Select Structural/#1&Btr upward and lift both Utility/#3 and Economy lumber into some movement.
Stud pricing maintained upward momentum. Prices remained particularly strong in 9-foot, with both 2x4 and 2x6 showing double digit gains. Increases in 10-foot also occurred. Supplies across a number of species remained tight.
The trend of upward Ponderosa Pine prices continued, with both 5/4 and 6/4 Shop adding $10 to previous levels. Remanufacturers voiced pain at the new levels, but they generally hesitated only briefly before putting in new orders. Ponderosa Pine Selects have remained unchanged for a couple of weeks; not so the Commons, which were driven higher in prices by producers who fear running out of inventory before new logs come in.
Western Red Cedar producers reported good sales activity. Getting the wood to market was not as fluid. Truck and railcar availability remained tight, creating a bottleneck at the mill level.
Panels
OSB availability was squeezed by producers off the market and transportation issues putting shipments late. However, activity was widely noted slower as the system digested volumes purchased in recent weeks. Order files are into mid- to late February, and some early March.
Southern Pine plywood flowed from mills at a steady rate, propelling prices again higher. Mill offerings across many items were sporadic as producers pulled volumes from the market at varying intervals. Mill order files ranged from the week of Feb. 19 out to March 5.
After a relatively slow start to the week, Western Fir plywood buyers reentered the market at midweek and began to purchase significant volumes. The quicker pace extended order files and placed continued upward pressure on prices.
Canadian plywood entered a digestive mode this week after several weeks of almost frenzied buying. Markets remained very solid with everyone bullish, but order files out 10 weeks cooled things down a little. Order files moved solidly into the first week of April, with some wood remaining for March 26.
Eastern particleboard and MDF producers noted an increase in sales. However, some of the additional buying activity came on the heels of weeks in which weather inhibited sales.
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