Kevin Mason

As wildfires continue to rage, one expert said higher levels of smoke have piqued investor interest and Canadian producers could benefit from price increases. Kevin Mason, of ERA Forest Products Research, said that the presence of smoke in New York and other areas “prompted a lot of investor interest.” He also said that lumber prices have moved higher in relation to wildfires. “Definitely the Canadian producers will really benefit from the price rise,” Mason said. “There has been some downtime taken at a few of the mills and that …. started a little bit of the move up in prices.” He said that despite some mills pausing operations, the wildfires have not yet had a large impact on lumber supply. However, if the wildfires persist, “we could see mills actually running out of wood.”If that were to happen, a more drastic supply shortage could be accompanied by a “run in lumber prices.”