Southern Yellow Pine Composite Lumber Price - January 2013

In the third week of January 2013, Forest2Market’s framing composite weighted average price hit the highest level since we began reporting southern yellow pine lumber prices: $409/MBF. Due to an $12/MBF drop in the fourth week of the month, however, the composite gained just 7 percent ($27.34) in January to end at $397 per MBF.

The month of January started 5 percent higher than the last week of December, moving from $370 per MBF to $388/MBF. In Week 2, prices gained 2 percent to $397/MBF. In Week 3, prices increased 3 percent to $409/MBF before dropping by 3 percent in Week 4 to $397/MBF. Between Weeks 2 and 4, sales orders per mill dropped dramatically (46 percent).

Forest2Market began publishing southern yellow pine prices in October 2009. Between October 2009 and January 2013, the composite low was $224/MBF in September of 2011 (Week 37). The market high ($409/MBF in Week 3 2013) represents an 82 percent increase from that 2011 bottom.

If we look at Week 4 of 2012, when the composite price was $253, the market has gained 49 percent year over year.

The above figure summarizes pricing data gathered for Forest2Market’s weekly lumber market report, Mill2Market. For this market report, Forest2Market aggregates sales order data submitted directly by report subscribers. This figure charts weekly sales order prices from January 2011 through year to date 2013 and compares sales order data, FOB Mill on a volume weighted $/MBF basis. The prices in the figure are composite prices; they include dimension lumber, timbers and boards.