American Softwood Council Releases 2024 Annual Report: Revealing Timber Demand Growth and Strategic Investment Directions

The 2024 annual report of the American Softwood Council shows that 1.6 billion board feet of demand will be created throughout the year, affecting 1,498 construction projects. Experts point out that this will aggravate the tight supply of North American wood to China and suggest paying attention to alternatives to engineered wood products.
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American Cork Council Releases 2024 Annual Report

Timber Market News – The American Softwood Lumber Board (SLB)Recently released its 2024 annual report. The industry funding program aims to promote the benefits and applications of cork products in outdoor, residential and non-residential buildings.

SLB supports programs and initiatives focused on increasing demand for decking and cork products in the U.S. "Through programs like AWC, Think Wood, WoodWorks and SLB Education, we are putting the wood industry in a stronger position than ever before," said Cees de Jager, SLB Chairman and CEO.

Key Stats:

  • 1.6 billion board feet of incremental demand will be created in 2024
  • Impacting 1,498 projects totaling 66 million square feet
  • 15.3 billion board feet of demand created since 2012
  • Average return of 86 board feet per dollar invested

LumberFlow Expert Interpretation

Key impacts on Chinese importers:

  1. Demand side pressure:The 1.6 billion board feet of incremental demand in the U.S. market could divert Canadian export resources to China, especially SPF (spruce-pine-fir) timber.
  2. Product structure changes:As demand for engineered wood products, such as CLT, grows, SLB recommends that Chinese prefabricated building importers look to new Douglas fir laminate capacity in British Columbia.
  3. Trade Flow Alerts:As the absorption capacity of the U.S. and Canadian markets increases, we need to be alert to fluctuations in container log freight rates from the west coast of North America (Vancouver/Prince Rupert) to China.

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