Demand for wood and wood products is unrelenting. Resulting in lumber prices reaching historic high levels and daily climbing ever higher. The shares of publicly traded lumber manufacturers, distributors and retailers wood suppliers continue to soar. While oddly enough, trees themselves remain dirt cheap in places like Louisiana, where timber supplies are plentiful.
Wood Markets News
Stora Enso Announces Pending Q3 Closure of Paper Mills – Veitsiluoto in Finland and Kvarnsveden in Sweden
For over a decade paper demand in Europe has been on the decline. The COVID-19 pandemic further changed consumers behavior patterns and led to a significant overcapacity in the European paper market, which has resulted in historically low-price levels and challenged the cost-competitiveness of many paper mills. As a result, Stora Enso has announced that they intend to permanently close the Veitsiluoto mill in Finland and Kvarnsveden mill in Sweden sometime in Q3 of 2021.
Canadian Consumer Price Index Increased 2.2% Year-Over-Year in March 2021
Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for March rose 2.2% on a year-over-year basis, up from a 1.1% gain in February. As Canada marked the end of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, price growth in March 2021 was accentuated by what is known as base-year effects, originating in March 2020.
Mortgage Applications Increase 8.6% in the Week Ending April 16, 2021
According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey for the week ending April 16, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — increased 8.6% percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 9% compared with the previous week.
Tight Supplies and Higher Prices for Softwood Lumber Has China Looking at Alternative Solutions
The latest statistics released by China Customs reveal that China’s import volume of softwood lumber decreased by approximately 10% in 2020. In the first two month of 2021, when compared to the same period of time in 2020, the decline has been 23%. China’s softwood lumber inventory was low at the end of 2020 and at the end of March 2021, it was at 700,000 m3, which is well below the normal average inventory of 800,000 – 1 million m3 in previous years.
The Canadian National Railway Submits a $30 billion Offer to Purchase the Kansas City Southern, Setting Off a Bidding War with the Canadian Pacific Railroad
The Canadian National Railway (CN) has just submitted an offer to purchase the Kansas City Southern Railroad (KCS) for $30 billion, starting what could possibly be a bidding war with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) which previously offered $25 billion last month. Canada’s two biggest railroads are vying for a rail network that links their country with the U.S. and Mexico as a reworked trade alliance gets underway and the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic gathers steam.
Canadian Housing Starts Set New Record in March
According to data released by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on Monday (4-19-21), Canadian housing starts increased month-over-month by 21.6% in March. Setting a new all-time record high for housing starts at 335,200 units in March, well above industry expectations of 250,000 units.
Shares of Mortgages in Forbearance Decline for Seventh Straight Week in Week Ending April 11, 2021
The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 16 basis points from 4.66% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 4.50% as of April 11, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.3 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.
Canadian Dollar Retreats from its 3-week High
On Thursday (4-15-21), the Canadian Dollar (aka Loonie) edged lower against its U.S. counterpart (USD), pulling back from an earlier 3-week high set on March 22 as domestic data showed a bigger than anticipated drop in Canadian factory sales. while Canadian investors weighted in on newly added restriction on the economy to battle the ongoing third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kandola Forest Products Purchases Assets of Closed C&C Wood Products Mill in Quesnel
The Quesnel Investment Corporation (QIC) has announced that it has sold the mill operation assets of the bankrupt C&C Wood Products Company, which they bought in 2020, to Kandola Forest Products (KFP) a Williams Lake forestry company. QCI says it intends to continue to operate the logging portion (Westside Logging) of the business separately.