Lumber is finally showing signs that prices may have topped out but late shipments and inconsistent supply is slowing the progress of the market correction. The industry barometer for overall lumber and panel market activity is Random Lengths, a weekly publication that reports unbiased activity, trends and analyses.  In the past couple of weeks, RL’s has reported prices dropping in SPF and SYP dimension while plywood and OSB prices have stalled at their peak and not yet begun to retreat. There continues to be a healthy amount of high priced product in the pipeline as many mills are weeks behind in shipping. Big C is still waiting for shipments of OSB trucks that were scheduled to ship in early September. With reloads and distribution yards still lacking any considerable inventory levels, mills are doing their best to drag their feet in selling at lower levels. High quality SPF dimension and studs continue to be hard to buy. SYP on the other hand has become more readily available as treaters have drastically slowed their purchasing. This is going to speed up the price relief at a considerably higher rate than we’ll see in SPF. The same can be said for SYP sheathing items while fir ply-woods are slowly beginning to show price concessions. OSB remains extremely hard to purchase on the open market and the mills are sparingly selling excess wood as this would lead to lower prices. The pandemic is still affecting production at many mills and manufacturing plants while trucking and rail service continues to be strained. The highest priced lumber and panels have yet to arrive. Indications point to lower prices but they are not going to get here as quickly as we’d all like to see. 

Roofing supply continues to be an issue and most manufacturers are on allocation or have extended lead times. The same can be said for both gypsum and insulation. The announced 15% increase on gypsum ended up being less than 10% if anyone was looking for a shred of good news. Vinyl siding producers are all reporting very extended lead times. Fasteners and any products coming from China are experiencing across the board shortages. Cedar and pine boards continue to remain extremely hard to find.