Sundher Timber Products is a British Columbia specialty wood products manufacturer and marketing company located in Surrey, B.C. They buy B.C. Coastal logs and manufacture them into lumber for sales in North America, Europe, Japan, China and India… They have recently acquired Great Western Lumber in Everson, Washington. This acquisition will enable Sundher Timber Products to expand its U.S. market share for Coastal Douglas Fir, West Coast Hemlock and Western Red Cedar, ranging from the highest clear grades to structural and utility grades. They will be offering custom processing services, including kiln drying and planning, to other companies.
SPOKANE, Washington — Brazil’s Suzano is exploring an offer for Clearwater Paper, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company is working with an adviser as it seeks to reach an agreement, said the people. A deal hasn’t been finalized and it’s possible one won’t be reached. Representatives for Suzano and Clearwater declined to comment. Spokane, Washington-based Clearwater, which manufactures pulp and paperboard products, had a market capitalization of $409 million as of Thursday’s close and its shares have fallen 31.6% this year. Clearwater’s shares jumped as much as 19% after the close of regular trading Thursday. Suzano, which is the largest supplier of hardwood market pulp in North America, has been pushing further into the US, most recently buying two paperboard mills in Arkansas and North Carolina in a deal valued at $110 million. [END]
Lumber prices have rebounded to around $560 per thousand board feet, up from a seven-week low of $531 on December 16th, driven by strong demand and supply constraints. U.S. existing home sales rose by 4.8% in November, the highest in eight months, reflecting growing momentum in the housing market, with more buyers entering as job growth continues, housing inventory rises, and consumers adjust to mortgage rates between 6% and 7%. Additionally, building permits surged by 6.1% in November, the highest level since February 2024, signaling strong future construction activity. On the supply side, production cuts and mill closures are restricting lumber availability as Western Forest Products reduced output by 30 million board feet, and Canfor Corp. shut two mills, cutting annual production by 670 million board feet. These supply limitations, coupled with U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber and rising import tariffs amid the China trade dispute, are pushing prices higher. [END]
The Forest Service sells timber that can be used to build homes and make paper products, among other things… Goals for timber sales are set yearly but the Forest Service has missed those goals by about 10% in recent years. According to the agency, factors such as staffing and buyer interest affected timber sales… The Forest Service’s average timber target was about 6,281,000 hundred cubic feet (CCF) per year, and its average amount of timber sold was about 5,590,000 CCF per year, from fiscal years 2014 through 2023. The Forest Service did not meet its targets for the amount of timber sold for any of the years from fiscal years 2014–2023. Full report available 
WASHINGTON — U.S. single-family homebuilding rebounded in November as the drag from hurricanes faded, but the threat of tariffs on imported goods and potential labor shortages from mass deportations could hamper new construction next year. Single-family housing starts, which account for the bulk of homebuilding, jumped 6.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.011 million units last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said. Data for October was revised to show homebuilding declining to a rate of 950,000 units from the previously reported pace of 970,000 units. …A National Association of Home Builders survey on Tuesday showed a measure of sales expectations in the next six months surging in December to the highest level since April 2022. …But economists were less enthusiastic, warning of even higher lumber prices and severe worker shortages if Trump followed through with tariffs and expulsions of undocumented immigrants, which would undermine the housing market.
Building Permits – Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,505,000. This is 6.1% above the revised October rate of 1,419,000. Single-family authorizations in November were at a rate of 972,000; this is 0.1% above the revised October figure of 971,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 481,000 in November. ..Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,289,000. This is 1.8% below the revised October estimate of 1,312,000. Single-family housing starts in November were at a rate of 1,011,000; this is 6.4% above the revised October figure of 950,000. The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 264,000. …Privately-owned housing completions in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,601,000. This is 1.9% below the revised October estimate of 1,632,000. 
Reaching the lumber industry’s vast market share potential will require growth of a variety of lumber-based and hybrid building systems, but steel-timber hybrid construction represents one of the greatest areas of opportunity. According to an analysis for the SLB by Forest Economic Advisors, steel and mass timber warehouses represent a potential annual volume of 2.4 BBF, while steel and mass timber multifamily projects represent 3.6 BBF of annual opportunity. The SLB has been working with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and constructsteel to unlock this opportunity, beginning by launching the Steel-Timber Hybrid Buildings Conference in 2022. The partnership continued this year with the launch of “Steel-Timber Hybrid Buildings: Case Studies,” a CTBUH research report funded by the SLB and constructsteel. The organizations celebrated the launch in September at the CTBUH 2024 International Conference
LEESBURG, VA. – The American Wood Council (AWC), International Code Council and WoodWorks have joined together to release an updated version of the free app to calculate maximum allowable heights and areas for buildings of various occupancy classifications and types of construction. The 
Silver Maple Aviation is a new entrant to the aviation infrastructure sector but has already left an indelible mark on the industry. “Silver Maple Construction’s roots are in very high-end, tricky residential and subcommercial projects, and is new to the aviation space,” said Sean Flynn, company president. …Silver Maple Aviation is known for its ingenuity and fortitude. A project that embodies the company’s tenacity is a 210-foot-long-by-170-foot-wide hangar that was built for a private flight department in New Hampshire. “The Concord hangar project is what I believe to be the largest wooden structure, period, on the east coast,” he said. “We were asked not necessarily to build a green hangar but to build a massive hangar very quickly. …we went down the mass timber hangar route, which at the time was about how quick we could get the materials, although I had already been studying up on mass timber in general.”
BOSTON — Procter & Gamble has agreed to provide additional information regarding its practices related to sourcing wood pulp from the boreal forests of Canada. The updates will reiterate the company’s aim to eliminate sourcing from intact forest landscapes and to protect primary forests. …The agreement came after discussions earlier this year with investment firms Green Century Capital Management, AXA Investment Managers, BNP Paribas Asset Management, and Robeco. In exchange, these investors agreed to withdraw a shareholder proposal asking the company to enhance its disclosures in relation to its existing efforts to mitigate risks to biodiversity and forest resilience. “These disclosures will help investors better understand how P&G is managing the risks associated with sourcing from such an ecologically important area,” said Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Funds. …In addition, P&G will renew its investment in the development of alternative fibers.
People around the world are adorning homes and businesses with festive holiday decor, which typically means an abundance of Christmas trees are on display. In the U.S., they pop up everywhere from the average living room to the Rockefeller Center plaza in Manhattan and the White House in Washington, D.C. But climate change threatens to complicate the tradition. Christmas trees, like any other crop, are affected by the general rise in temperature associated with global warming and the extreme weather events that result from it… 
Businesses serving the global voluntary carbon market are reducing head counts, revising services and following buyer demand as they fight for survival in a market that has yet to rebound from a steep contraction that took hold in 2023. …Criticism of carbon projects like Kariba REDD+ and others have tanked most credit prices. The average value for newly issued credits from REDD+ projects—which conserve standing forests—fell from a high of $16.27/metric ton in early 2022 to a low of $8.06/mt in June. …A survey in May found the voluntary carbon market (VCM) contracted from $1.9 billion in 2022 to $723 million in 2023. …Buyer interest has shifted. The first is a move away from projects that reduce emissions to those that actively remove them from the atmosphere, such as projects that regrow forests on degraded land. …Buyers have also turned their attention to carbon reduction efforts supported by national or international frameworks. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]
