Forest2Market's composite price for SYP lumber rose 7% during August to hit US$320/mbf at month's end; prices expected to fall once building season ends

Allison Oesterle

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina , September 5, 2012 (press release) – The figure below summarizes pricing data gathered for Forest2Market’s weekly lumber market report, Mill2Market. For this market report, Forest2Market aggregates sales order data submitted directly by report subscribers. This figure charts weekly sales order prices from January 2010 through year to date 2012 and compares sales order data, FOB Mill on a volume weighted $/MBF basis. The prices in the figure are composite prices; they include dimension lumber, timbers and boards.




Forest2Market’s composite lumber price increased by 7 percent during the month of August. Composite price at the beginning of month (Week 31) was $309/MBF, a 4 percent increase from the previous week and the largest price change during the month. Lumber price increased to $315/MBF in Week 32 and remained there in Week 33 before gaining ground to $317 in Week 34. Lumber composite price ended the month at $320/MBF in Week 35.

Sales order volume per mill decreased throughout the month of August ending the month 4 percent below the end of July. Sales order volume declined in the first two weeks of the month (Weeks 31 and 32) before the spike in per mill order volume in Week 33. Sales order volume tapered off and declined each of the remaining weeks of the month.

A historical look at the month of August shows that we are experiencing an unprecedented price trend not seen in the last two years. Historically, lumber prices are near an annual low in the month of August. Currently, prices are nearly $75/MBF higher than they have been in each of the last two years. It is unclear how long composite lumber price will remain at this current plateau, but one expects that prices will dip as the building season comes to an end for the year.

About Mill2Market

Mill2Market provides an analysis of the southern yellow pine market in two ways:

1. A weekly market report that provides a real-time description of how the market is operating in the current week. This report uses sales order information in order to capture the current market.
2. A quarterly market report that provides a comparison of an individual subscriber’s performance against the market. This report reflects invoice data in order to accurately capture final price.

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