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August 18th, 2010 
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Construction progress on the Mid South Laboratory Annex in Alexandria VA
Here is a progress photo of an entire FSC project we are currently building. Notice the FSC Roof Truss, FSC Plywood and FSC Studs. Soon siding, trim and interior finish carpentry will all be supplied by Sterritt Lumber Co to The US Coast Guard in Alexandria, VA.
June 2nd, 2010 Uncategorized Comments Off
As we predicted the lumber and plywood market have reached their peaks and have begun to fall…How far we fall is the next question. There is some pent up demand in the market and we hear from many contractors that they have bookings through the summer and into the fall. July 1st begin the 2 week industry shutdown as the mill retool their factories so do not expect much pull back until after the shutdown. Dealers will need to cover their needs through mid July at or near these price levels to have wood on the ground. There is also a lot going on in the business with large forest fires in Eastern Canada, historic preservation effort in the Canadian Boreal Forest, and shortage of log supply in the Pacific North West. Do not expect any significant reductions but a healthy 10% could be seen quite quickly. If you have any questions please call.
May 24th, 2010 Uncategorized Comments Off
The FSC-US and the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) have announced the certification of 178 million acres of the Boreal forests in northern Canada. This is a landmark agreement and have significantly raised the number of acres certified in North america, but has also placed Canada at the top of the list of countries that practice THE BEST practices in responsible forest management in the world. Click the following link for much more information. This truly transforms the FSC marketplace and will make FSC lumber and paper that much more accessible. The USGBC membership now must make a big decision. It is no longer an argument that FSC is too limited in supply.
FSC-US announcment http://www.fscus.org/news/?article=620
Official Announcement: http://www.canadianborealforestagreement.com/
May 7th, 2010 Uncategorized Comments Off
Lumber and plywood have leveled off after a historic run. In 9 weeks OSB pricing was up by over 80% and OSB drives most of the commodity market. We are at very high historic levels on plywood and above average on lumber. The is a lot of talk that this market will remain strong for another fe w months as mills have order files 4-5 weeks out. There is enough positive news in the housing market but it remains to be seen if we will even get to 900,000 housing starts. Most experts agree that we need more than 1.2 Million starts just to service those entering home ownership age. Thus, this market is setting to be strong moving forward. Pent up demand, lower numbers of predicted foreclosures, and employment finally getting some traction.
On another note, speciality products are begining to rise. Cedar, Fir, Pressure Treaded, Fire Treated, Engineered wood are all raising prices anywhere from 5% to 30%. Its a bull market in the Lumber Business!
April 30th, 2010 Uncategorized Comments Off
To put this in perspective OSB prices have risen 80% over the past 8 weeks! There are many reasons for this run up starting with the recently earth quake in Chile. North America imports a significant amount of Sanded (AC and finish) plywood form Chile and since the earthquake there little plywood has been able to leave the devastated country. This has allowed the Domestic plywood mills to change their production to higher valued AC and finish plywood panel production while making the Commodity CDX panels in short supply. Other factors that are contributing to this up swing in prices are: Prices before the run up were 30% or more below historical pricing levels, over the past 3 years Millions of Board feet of production have been taken off the market as the mills are downsizing to keep supply in line with the NEW demand levels, Dealers across the country have been keeping inventory levels at the lowest levels possible to meet the small demand they have been having, and a better then expected spring business demand.
There is almost universal consensus among industry experts that these prices will not hold and we could see prices drop as quickly as they ran up. When or if this might happen is still a mystery. Plywood mills have 5-6 week order files at this point and there have been few if any announcements of mills reopening and putting additional capacity online (still a 6 month prospect). Most experts believe that by Mid July prices will level off and then begin to fall, but what if housing starts continue to out preform everyone’s expectations?
Plywood has the biggest increase in pricing since the beginning of the year but we now are seeing “other” material go up as the raw fiber is getting more expensive. Engineered Lumber products have had 2 price increase announcement of 7% and 10%, the Cedar market is consolidating with NorthWest forest products exiting the premium cedar market.
If you are going to be in the market for wood this summer give us a call. We strive to keep our customers as informed as we are and can help to protect you from increases AND decreases in the market.