Demand From These Sales Segments Are Going to Continue to Gradually Decline

The pace of business activity on German and foreign softwood lumber markets is being shaped to an increasing extent by seasonal factors and has correspondingly continued to slow slightly in the last few days. Although the outflow of contractual volumes to the building and building-related sectors remains prompt, receipts of orders from these two areas have been heading downhill recently as expected. Suppliers are working from the assumption that demand from these sales segments are going to continue to gradually decline until mid-/late November. Sales to value-adding businesses, on the other hand, are still being described as comparatively stable. A significant need for supplementary deliveries of the larger cross-sections, at steady prices, thus still exists in the finger-jointed carcassing (KVH) segment in particular. In contrast, the pressure on prices for narrower standard cross-sections has sooner risen lately. The situation is similar for gluelam lamellas as well, though customers' supplies appear to be more on a more even keel here. Prices in the packaging sector began to stabilise at the end of October after having previously been under quite substantial pressure at times for a period of several weeks. Source: euwid-wood-products.com