Lumber Falls to 5-Week Low

2026-02-19 15:00 By Felipe Alarcon 1 min. read

Lumber futures fell toward $580 per thousand board feet, their lowest level in five weeks, as weakening residential construction demand met heavy seasonal inventories and aggressive dealer discounting.

US housing starts for December printed at a 1.404 million SAAR, while full-year 2025 activity was essentially flat versus 2024.

At the same time, single-family starts are down roughly 7% year on year and single-family units under construction have dropped 8.4%, reducing near-term framing lumber consumption.

In Canada, January home sales declined 5.8%, reinforcing softer North American demand conditions.

On the supply side, winter storms slowed jobsite activity more than mill production, leaving distributors and secondary sellers with elevated yard inventories that have been cleared at discounted prices, in some cases below replacement cost.

The combination of slower construction drawdowns and persistent supply has widened basis levels, accelerated destocking across key hubs.



News Stream
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