by Web Editor | Jan 25, 2016 | News
Demand For Engineered Wood Products To Grow Through 2020
Engineered wood product output will grow between 25% and 33% by 2020, according to the Fall 2015 Forecast by APA – The Engineered Wood Association. That should bode well for LBM dealers as the housing market continues its gradual recovery.
APA’s 2015-2020 Market Outlook for structural panels and engineered wood products forecasts that demand for North American-made structural panels will increase 21% by 2020, from 31.5 billion square feet to 38 billion, largely in response the increase in housing starts to 1.5 million units by the end of the decade.
APA’s forecast for an uptick in demand for structural panels and engineered wood doesn’t surprise J.D. Saunders, the 2014-2015 chairman of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) and vice president of Economy Lumber in Campbell, Calif. “We’ve already experienced an increase in demand, and part of that is attributable to the recovery of the housing market,” he says.
In fact, APA’s Market Outlook notes that although the U.S. homeownership rate is expected to trend lower through 2020 as interest rates rise, the improving economy could push household growth as high as 1.3 million per year over the next three to five years.
Several factors are dampening the potential for stronger growth in homebuilding. Young would-be homeowners are delaying marriage as they pay off historically high levels of student debt and their projected incomes are unlikely to keep pace with the rise in mortgage payments as home prices and interest rates rise. In addition, first-time home-buyers continue to struggle to meet strict mortgage lending standards to qualify for home loans. Many of the households they form in the near future are likely to be living in rented apartments, as described in the APA report.
From LBM Journal: lbmjournal.com.
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by Web Editor | Jan 22, 2016 | News
The U.S. Census Bureau & the Department of Housing & Urban Development released its December and total 2015 statistics on new residential starts in the U.S. There were no real surprises with the data, but predicting U.S. housing starts has been virtually impossible for analysts and economists.
WOOD MARKETS has conducted its own U.S. housing forecasts since 2007 when about that time, consensus forecasts became wildly inaccurate. Since then, WOOD MARKETS has repeatedly highlighted that a structural change has been occurring in the U.S. housing market and the use of traditional economic models will not work until much later in the cycle. As a result, WOOD MARKETS own housing forecasts have been decidedly more conservative as compared to all other economists’ forecasts. Since 2007, our housing and supply/demand forecasts have been much closer to the actual results as compared to the many dozens of professional economists and modelers.
The key take-away message is this: The Consensus forecasts continue to be too high – with some being way off the charts. For those that use housing forecasts in their business plans, using the consensus forecasts in 2014 of 770,000 single family housing starts would have resulted in forecasts of almost 2 billion board feet of extra lumber demand. This type of forecasted demand increase would have suggested a much tighter supply and demand balance, where higher lumber price forecasts could be another one of the wrong predictions.
And WOOD MARKETS’ U.S. housing forecast for 2016 (in WOOD MARKETS 2016) is once again lower than the Consensus forecast – no surprise here. And our consultants have a decidedly conservative tone to North America and Chinese demand as well as prices for 2016 – all predicted before any signs of the current global economic volatility started.
From International Wood Markets: https://www.woodmarkets.com/forecasters-struggle-for-accuracy-as-u-s-housing-starts-grew-steadily-in-2015/
by Web Editor | Jan 20, 2016 | News
Norbord Inc. recently announced that the Quebec Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks has terminated the wood license associated with its curtailed Val-d’Or, Quebec OSB mill. Production at the Val-d’Or mill was indefinitely suspended in 2012 following persistently weak North American housing market conditions and lower demand for OSB. This development is not expected to have any impact on the company’s financial results.
“This is disappointing news, but in the bigger picture, we firmly believe that our Val-d’Or mill is the best alternative for the aspen pulpwood in that region,” said Peter Wijnbergen, Norbord’s President and CEO. “Unfortunately, market conditions do not yet justify a restart at Val-d’Or, but we are exploring options for the mill and are committed to a restart once market conditions are supportive. The Ministry has confirmed we can reapply for a wood license when we are ready to restart the mill.”
Norbord is the world’s largest OSB producer and continues to operate in the Abitibi region at its La Sarre, Quebec OSB mill. Since 2012, the company has invested and committed capital in excess of US$35 million to optimize that mill’s capacity and ensure its long-term competitiveness.
From Canadian Newswire: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/norbord-provides-update-on-val-dor-quebec-osb-mill-565685951.html
by Web Editor | Jan 18, 2016 | News
Wood is a go-to material for floors, doors, furniture, and now, a skyscraper—the very first of its kind in the U.S. Construction on Portland, Oregon’s wood high-rise, Framework, is slated to begin this October. The 12-story mixed-use building—a collaboration between local firm Lever Architecture and real-estate developer Project—will be made primarily from timber. Thomas Robinson, Lever Architecture’s founder, says his company is interested in “exploring the relationship between materials, experience, and the environment—how the way we build impacts the way we live and the environment as a whole.”
To highlight the innovative design, the structure will be centered around a visible vertical core and capped with a roof deck framed by wood columns. Flexible, sturdy, and lighter than materials like concrete or steel, timber has a high strength-to-weight ratio. Framework’s design includes cross-laminated wood panels, engineered of stacked lumber, for floors and ceilings, and glue-laminated timber for beams and columns.
Inside, a double-height community space will feature a public exhibition documenting the building’s creation and impact, plus a second-floor garden terrace. Visitors will be able to roam retail spaces on the ground floor, while above there will be five floors of offices and five floors of affordable housing.
The “forest to frame” philosophy behind the building reflects its relationship between urban construction and rural lumber manufacturing. This project creates more opportunities in both industries, which were gravely affected in the recession. “Framework stands as a model for sustainable urban ecology,” says Robinson. And there are copious environmental benefits: Buildings made primarily of wood have significantly lower carbon emissions and use less energy than those made from traditional materials. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture took notice. It solicited designs for a tall wood building competition, and the Framework team won an impressive $1.5 million grant to fund further research and development—the structure is expected to be finished by December 2017.
From Architectural Digest: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/first-wood-highrise-building-portland
by Web Editor | Jan 15, 2016 | News
Louisiana-Pacific Corp. recently broke ground on a project that will add a FlameBlock Fire-Rated OSB Sheathing line at its Clarke County oriented strand board (OSB) mill. A new facility will be constructed to house the production line for the company’s fire-rated sheathing product.
Louisiana-Pacific CEO Curt Stevens said the new line in Clarke County will meet the growing demand in the single-family, multi-family and light commercial construction markets.
The company selected the Clarke County mill for the new line because of its strong workforce and proven performance in manufacturing commodity OSB from a safety, quality and environmental perspective, Louisiana-Pacific said in a release.
Plans call for the multi-million dollar project to be completed in the third quarter of 2016, with production scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The Clarke County mill opened in 2007, and is one of the company’s 10 OSB manufacturing facilities in North America – employing 161 workers.
From the Birmingham Business Journal: https://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/morning_call/2016/01/louisiana-pacific-adds-production-line-at-clarke.html
