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The Latest Key Prices from Madison's Canadian Lumber ReporterNEWS THIS WEEKPine Beetle Utilization ; Madison’s Timber Preview ; Wildfire Activity Moves Into US ; Forest Industry Recovery Forecast ; Another Labour Contract ; AbitibiBowater- Newfoundland Spat ;
Link to Lumber Price GraphsLink to News ArchivesUpdated on August 29, 2010 QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "No one knows which direction this market is going. Delivery costs have been pushing the market around. The Texas and Atlanta markets have been substituting KD hem/fir Std&Btr (or #2&Btr) for WSPF Utility / #3 thanks to the cheaper delivered price to those locations. Given this boost, KD narrows sold better overall than wides this week. In the south, SYP wides beat fir out of sales. Chicago buyers could take their pick of either KD or green Douglas fir that landed in the windy city at the same price. Demand for coastal hem fir was confused. KD Douglas fir 2x6 prices were pushed around by that same dimension in green. Sources figures 2x4 prices had topped out and 2x8 was pushing the envelope at current numbers. Chinese buyers pulled back as the numbers began to rise again. A key to the Asian market is that they basically don’t have to buy at any given time. The Chinese are building infrastructure and only buy when the numbers are low. That said, the pipeline to China is usually full because they order massive quantities when they do commit. "
All prices are in U.S. dollars per 1000 board feet unless otherwise noted. |
This week’s issue of Madison’s Timber Preview examines AbitibiBowater’s exit from bankruptcy protection, slated for October 2010, and court actions between the company and the province of Newfoundland-Labrador, and in US bankruptcy court.
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On Friday, the Bitterroot National Forest fire west of Hamilton, MI, had grown to approximately 300 acres. 50 lightning-caused blazes that erupted Thursday afternoon in southern Idaho and the Boise, ID, area came after an estimated 250 to 300 residents were evacuated from the Tamarack Resort area Thursday. The Hurd Fire there more than doubled in size from 550 acres late Thursday to nearly 1,300 acres, or two square miles, early Friday, said US Forest Service spokeswoman Laura Pramuk.
Tuesday night 650 firefighters had joined the battle to fight fires burning near Lebec in Kern County, CA. The fire had consumed 1,300 acres officials reported, but no homes or lives had been lost. By Wednesday night, revised GPS readings reduced the acres burned to 1,000. There were 33 hand crews, 87 engines, 10 bulldozers, 9 water tenders and 8 helicopters on the job with 1,029 firefighters. The fire was 60 per cent contained as of Friday morning.
Wildfires Burning
The Downing Mountain fire near Helena, MT, was reported at 8 pm Thursday and grew to 300 acres by Friday morning. Ravalli County authorities began knocking on doors at 3 a.m. Friday, warning residents about three miles west of Hamilton that a fire in the Bitterroot National Forest was threatening their homes. Meanwhile, Helena National Forest officials hope cooler weather and higher humidity Friday will help slow the 2,800-acre Davis Gulch fire burning on Stemple Pass northwest of Helena.
A strong wind in the gorge fueled a fire on the Washington State side of the Columbia River Gorge and it quickly grew to more than 1,200 acres by early Friday morning.
While the fire ban has been lifted in some areas of northwest British Columbia and cooler temperatures and some rain are forecast for this weekend, the end to forest fire season in the province is still some weeks away. Fires have already charred more than 300,000 hectares of BC forests in 2010, an area larger than Metro Vancouver. Losses from Russian wildfires may top US$300 billion, Biodiversity Conservation Centre Director Alexei Zimenko said at a Thursday press conference.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week sacked Russia’s top forest official over criticism that he did little to combat deadly forest fires that were unleashed by a record heat wave and blanketed Moscow in smoke.
Three consecutive years of major losses for wood producers will come to an end in 2010, and profitability is forecast to reach $1 billion as early as 2012, according to the Canadian Industrial Profile-Summer 2010, published by The Conference Board of Canada in collaboration with Business Development Bank of Canada.The gradual recovery in the US housing market and increased exports to China will both contribute to growth in the industry.
Forestry Recovyer
Paper producers lost $3 billion in the past two years, but more modest losses of $139 million are expected in 2010. After reaching a nadir last summer, sales and production are trending upward, and profits of $366 million are forecast in 2011. Within the industry, the recovery will be uneven – some segments of the industry are expanding, while others continue to shrink in size.
Fast on the heels of the 4-year agreement between the USW and CONIFER, the Steelworkers Wood Council membership ratified a deal this week with Western Forest Products.
The collective agreement covers wages, benefits, union security and severance pay for permanent partial closures in both logging and manufacturing. The union said it had not expected to make major wage gains in the present climate, but believed it had achieved the objectives of opposing concessions and securing important improvements to the wording of contracts, according to the Comox Valley Echo.
AbitibiBowater’s moves to take Newfoundland-Labrador to a NAFTA court over the provinces’ 2009 expropriation of the company’s hydro and timberland assets could impact Canadian government involvement in British Columbia’s upcoming legal tangle with the US Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports over the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement. “I have indicated that in future, should provincial actions cause significant legal actions for the government of Canada, that the government of Canada will create a mechanism so that it can reclaim moneys lost,” repeated Prime Minister Stephen Harper Thursday on several occasions.
