Sawn softwood imports lifted 15.3% over the year-ended March 2021, lifting to a total 524,002 m3, as the sawnwood supply chain struggles to meet explosive demand. Imports have been increasi…

In late July 2020 I wrote an article in the WOOD MARKETS Monthly Report (my last-ever editorial) where I posed the question if W-SPF 2×4 #2&Better Random Lengths (FOB BC Mill) lumbe…

Old fashioned economists when talking about market dynamics are really talking about the interplay between supply and demand with price being the allocative mechanism. In simple terms hig…

The latest forecasts of sawn softwood sales, prepared by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARES) demonstrate how difficult the forecaster’s task can be.…

Australia’s sales of sawn softwood were up 8% year-ended March 2021. At a total 3.112 Mm3, sales are closing in on the all-time record. Battling to meet runaway demand, local producers have be…

The national unemployment rate fell to 5.5% in April, even as JobKeeper ended and the Participation Rate slipped back to 66%, from its all-time peak of 66.3%, just one month earlier. The net re…

When approvals of new dwellings are at record levels, you can be assured that home lending is also booming. Latest data shows that for the year-ended April, total housing finance increased an…

Australia’s approvals of free-standing dwellings hit record levels over the year-ended March 2021, as a massive 137,991 separate approvals saw a year-on-year lift of 31.4%. The emphasis o…