Wood Markets News


More Homes Available For Sale in August

Realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Report for August 2021 reveals that inventory and new listings improved during the month. There were 432,000 newly listed homes hitting the market during the month of August, an increase of 4.3% in inventory year-over-year. U.S. housing inventory has declined 25.8% year-over-year in August to close out Q3 of 2021, an improvement over last month’s decline of 33.5%.

UK Continues to Struggle with Higher Prices and Shortages of Lumber, Panels, and Building Materials

According to the latest data provided by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the price of imported sawn or planed wood jumped more than 20% between June and July. The price of some imported timber has jumped 23% in just one month’s time. According to the BEIS, building materials are currently 64% higher than they were in July 2020.

Declining Lumber Prices Cause Canada’s Trade Surplus to Shrink in July

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that in July, Canada’s merchandise imports rose 4.2% and exports increased 0.6%. As a result, Canada’s merchandise trade surplus narrowed from $2.6 billion in June to $778 million (CAD) in July. In real (or volume) terms, total imports rose 1.9% in July, while exports edged down 0.3%.

Nonfarm Payroll Employment Up — Unemployment Declines to 5.2% in August 2021

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is reporting today (9-3-21) that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 235,000 in August, following a revised 1.1 million in July, and a revised 962,000 increase in June. Nonfarm payroll employment has increased by 17.0 million since April 2020 but is down by -5.3 million, or -3.5%, from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.

Stora Enos Joins Build-in-Wood Consortium

The Build-in-Wood project Consortium, which consists of 21 partners from 11 different countries, covering the entire wood value chain from factory to final construction, announced on Tuesday (8-31-21) that Stora Enso, a leading provider of sustainable wood-based solutions for the construction industry, was joining the Build-in-Wood Consortium.

Canadian Total Value of Building Permits Drop -3.9% in July

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that the total value of building permits in Canada decreased 3.9% to $9.9 billion (CAD) in July. All provinces except British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador posted lower values, with the majority of the national decline reported in Alberta (-23.4%). Building permits fell -3.1% in the residential sector and -5.6% in the non-residential sector.

Members of the European Parliament View New Green Forest Strategy as Vague and an Overstep of EU Remits

During the European Parliament’s agriculture meeting held on Wednesday (9-1-21), EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski presented one of the main initiatives of the Commission’s Green Deal. However, EU lawmakers from across all of the political spectrums have united in their criticism against the EU’s new flagship Forestry Strategy.