The Upward Trend in Softwood Lumber Prices Has Remained Unabated Over The Last Four Weeks

After a short break at the end of January/beginning of February, the upward trend in softwood lumber prices on the US market has remained unabated over the last four weeks. According to Random Lengths, the price for the benchmark grade of KD western S-P-F #2&Btr 2x4 R/L rose by $10 at the end of last week to $400/1000 bdft ex mill. The Framing Lumber Composite Price rose by another $7 the week before, reaching a level of $423/1000 bdft that had last been established at the beginning of 2005. The expectations voiced by market players in January have thus been fulfilled. They had considered it to be by all means possible for the price for 2x4 to rise to $400 and more if the brisk pace of business activity on the domestic market continued. In anticipation of a considerably higher softwood-lumber requirement in the US building industry than last year, merchants were doing their utmost last week to conclude longer-term contracts with their suppliers with terms until the end of March/beginning of April.