Over the year-ended April 2023, sawn softwood imports totalled 775,449 m3, down 9.0% on the year prior. Imports are falling rapidly and now appear locked into a cycle within a range of 550-600…

Australia relies on pallets – both hardwood and softwood – to move goods around the nation and to the rest of the world. The pallet pool systems (Chep is mainly hardwood and Loscam is mainly soft…

Sales of locally produced sawn softwood declined 5.4% over the year-ended April 2023, slipping back to 2.930 million m3. The latest data shows sales of the Export grade were up 17% over the yea…

The value of loans for housing fell for the twelfth consecutive month in April, exactly consistent with the period over which interest rates have been increasing. The sole group continuing t…

The housing industry has become ground zero for the current policy debate over what demand and supply in a market economy really means. This has been the subject of further analysis given the i…

Australia’s dwelling approvals continue to decline, in line with expectations and consistent with their trend. Year-ended April, approvals were down 14.8% to 176,676, compared with the 2…

The monthly annual inflation measure for April brings back memories of the old Renee Geyer song “Am I heading in the right direction”. Unfortunately, based on the current data, the answer is n…

The release of the March quarter GDP data showed growth in the economy of 0.2% for the quarter, and 2.3% for the year-ended March 2023. Though the aggregate number was still positive – pretty mu…