The American Thanksgiving holiday predictably dampened lumber market activity

As is historically usual for this season, demand — and therefore prices — of most softwood lumber items dropped during the US Thanksgiving holiday week. This time of year, is normally marked by slowing construction activity thus lower demand for dimension lumber.

Expectations are that supply and demand are in better balance now than they have been since early 2021, which gives both sellers and customers the ability to find where the new price level will be. In these new market conditions, “new normal”, the current price of benchmark item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr is hovering at just below cost-of-production for most of the large-volume operators in British Columbia.

In the week ending November 25, 2022, the price of benchmark softwood lumber item Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2×4 #2&Btr KD (RL) was US$475 mfbm, which is down by -$15 or -3%, said weekly forest products industry price guide newsletter Madison’s Lumber Reporter. This is up by +$13, or +3%, from one month ago when it was $463.