Supply Chain Insights

Lumber Supply Chain, Sourcing, and Logistics Intelligence

The lumber supply chain is one curtailment, one rail outage, or one mill fire away from a price spike that lands in a buyer's inbox before any benchmark reacts. This hub tracks mill capacity, restarts, closures, and the freight network connecting BC, the US South, and the eastern Canadian boreal to the buyers who turn cants into framing on a procurement desk.

We pay particular attention to events that change the supply curve, not just the headline. A 30-day Tolko or Canfor curtailment tightens Western SPF cash by a measurable amount within two to three weeks; a Stimson or Roseburg expansion does the opposite over a six-to-twelve-month window. New SYP capacity in Mississippi, Alabama, or Louisiana shifts the regional basis even when total volume looks stable. Articles in this category quantify those shifts where possible — MMBF added or removed, percent of regional capacity, days of forward cover affected — so buyers can update an RFQ strategy with real numbers.

Logistics matters as much as mills. Rail service quality, BC truckload availability, port congestion at Vancouver and Seattle, and the cost of an empty mile from the US South to the Northeast all show up in landed $/MBF before the cash market labels them. We cover these on the same cadence as mill events because the buyer's exposure is identical: a quote you accepted Monday can be uneconomic by Friday.

For the demand side of the same week (housing, builder sentiment), pair this hub with Market Analysis. For how a supply event reshapes the price benchmark, cross-reference Pricing Trends. For tariffs and duty changes that compound a supply shock, see Policy Updates.

What you'll find in Supply Chain

• Mill curtailments, restarts, expansions, and closures with capacity quantified in MMBF
• BC, Eastern Canadian, US South, and US West regional supply notes
• Rail and trucking disruption coverage with landed-cost implications
• M&A and consolidation tracking — Canfor, West Fraser, Interfor, Weyerhaeuser, Stimson, Roseburg, etc.

Signals we track in this category

Announced curtailment days × MMBF

Multiply duration by daily run rate to size the regional supply hit.

New mill capacity (Greenfield + expansions)

Tracks the supply-side reset over the next 6-12 months.

BC vs US South freight spread

When the spread widens, sourcing arithmetic flips for Northeast buyers.

Rail service indices (CN, CP, BNSF, CSX)

Service degradation precedes a measurable bump in landed $/MBF.