Australia’s unemployment rate dropped to just 4.2% in December as the retail and hospitality sectors sucked up labour in the year-end frenzy that included recovery from lockdowns. The numb…

Australia’s exports of softwood chips lifted 84.7% over the year-ended November 2021, totalling 1.011 million bone dried metric tonnes (bdmt), while the mainstay hardwood chips saw annua…

As expected in a housing boom, imports of mouldings, decking and related products have surged across several grades in the last two years. Coniferous moulding imports are up a solid but unrem…

As demand runs rife and the pipeline of building work seems endless, imports of sawn softwood lifted 36.6% to reach 630,278 m3 over the year-ended November 2021. All the major grades saw the ma…

The price of locally produced sawn softwood products continued to rise in the December quarter, reflecting the ongoing tight market conditions. The key structural product, MGP10…

Sales of locally produced sawn softwood products declined 6.5% in 2021, compared with 2020, slipping back to 2.916 million m3 as the processing of fire-damaged salvage logs comes to an end. U…

In November, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) introduced a series of new macro-prudential rules for lending. Intended to constrain loans by increasing the servicea…

In November 2021, dwelling approvals totalled 16,448 separate approvals, up 3.6% on the prior month. Houses accounted for 11,040 separate approvals, up 1.7% on October. Though still stron…