While lumber prices in North America tanked recently, a well known B.C. lumber adviser says don’t be fooled by the temporary lull.
Russ Taylor says after sky-high lumber prices came down to earth in the fall with prices dropping by half this new year will see another spike.
“We think prices are going to average around $400 dollars US, and that will be the second-highest annual average price ever. So we did a forecast back in 2010 about the mountain pine beetle, and we said 16 mills would close by 2018 and we’re at number 14. So we’re about two mills away from hitting that forecast.”
Strong lumber prices are required to maintain thousands of jobs in the Kamloops forest industry.
It also buffers Canadian softwood producers from punishing US softwood lumber tariffs with more than half of lumber produced flowing south.
Editors Note: Angelo Iacobucci passed away December 14th. While we work through our tremendous loss he continues to be a big part of Radio NL as he always will be. We have found a folder of almost 30 stories he had prepared for the holiday season. This is one of them.