Lofty Lumber Prices Could Rise Even More After Canada Mill Fire

By Jen Skerritt
Bloomberg Markets
November 7, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Lumber prices that have soared amid a Canada-U.S. trade dispute could rise even higher after a fire at a British Columbia sawmill cuts supplies. Futures are trading at a 23-year high amid rising demand for housing and after the U.S. imposed tariffs on softwood imports from Canada. The rally could extend after a major fire at Tolko Industries’ Lakeview mill, which accounts for about 2 percent of production in British Columbia’s interior, CIBC analyst Hamir Patel said Monday in a note. …Some Canadian sawmills are raising prices above $500 in an effort to offset countervailing duties of 14.25 percent and anti-dumping duties of 6.58 percent, according to Kevin Mason, managing director of Vancouver-based ERA Forest Products Research. They are “hoping to jack up prices at the Canadian mills to offset final duties,” Mason said in an email.

 

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