The launch of the Softwood Weighted Average Price Data series on the FWPA data dashboard provides a valuable insight into historic price trends for a range of softwood products. The data series has been established under the FWPA industry data aggregation program with the aim of continuing to improve the information which is available to the market.
The data is reported quarterly in arrears with data being collected from March 2014 onwards. The system is designed to ensure at least 3 data input references are available for any published data. In addition the prices are weighted by sales volume for each particular product by region. These measures collectively mean no individual transactions can be discerned from the published data.
This data series complements the well established monthly softwood volume data series by tracking weighted average price movements for a subset of the major products covered in that data series. These 10 products are as follows:
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G1 Structural Untreated <120mm MGP10, MGP12, 70&90 x 35, 45 |
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G2 Structural untreated other <120mm F4, F5, F7, 70&90 x 35, 45 |
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G3 Structural untreated MGP >120mm Large end section incl: 120, 140, 190 x 35, 45 |
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G4 Structural Treated <120mm MGP10, MGP12, 70&90 x 35, 45 |
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G5 Structural Treated other <120mm F4, F5, F7, 70&90 x 35, 45 |
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G6 Structural Treated MGP >120mm Large end section incl: 120, 140, 190 x 35, 45 |
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G7 External Treated H3 MGP grades, Rough header, Decking |
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G8 Treated Landscape Sleepers & other landscape |
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G9. Packaging Green Industrial Sawn Wet/Green/Tile Battens |
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G10. Packaging Dry Industrial Sawn Dry ROS/Cut of Log |
So what does the data tell us? All products have seen a strong run up in weighted average prices from earlier 2017 peaking late in 2018 and early 2019. The easing over the latter part of 2019 is consistent with the declines in housing activity (approvals, starts, under construction, completions) which began some 12 months before.
The housing market is a critical driver for demand for structural framing products and as demand has eased this has impacted prices and volumes. Structural untreated <120mm declined -3.7% in the Dec qtr compared to the previous quarter. While the annual quarter percentage change was -6.1%
Fig 1
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With similar outcomes for Structural Treated <120mm which declined -3.1% on a quarter by quarter comparison.
Fig 2
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More specialised treated products such as H3 for external use in products like decking were more stable with a decline of -1.8% in the December quarter when compared with the previous quarter.
Fig 3
To go straight to the dashboard and take a closer look at the data, click here.
Again reflecting the decline through the four quarters, the annual quarterly percentage change was 2.8%.
Data on other products covered in the weighted average price data series is available through the industry log in to the FWPA data dashboard.
