Lumber Briefs: Through the Rear View and the Telescope Matt Layman Through the Rear View Of all the lumber folk I know, I am the self-proclaimed King of checkers of rear view mirrors. I use the accuracy of frequency of past repeating patterns to give me confidence in making forecasts for the future. The FDP’s have been fine tuned year over year for 30... Read More July 2021 Issue #13264 Page 110
Lumber Briefs: Disruption, Distortion, and Decision Points Matt Layman Minor & Major FDPs Forecasted Decision Points, FDPs, will be my legacy. These markers of when the price of lumber will rise and fall are misunderstood by at least 90% of our lumber industry. The reason is the same as why I do not understand what holds the universe together. I am... Read More June 2021 Issue #13263 Page 108
Lumber Briefs: Build-to-Rent and Here Comes the Wood Matt Layman Build-To-Rent: Overlooked Obvious Not to be sacrilegious, but things in the lumber market are feeling apocalyptic. My primary concerns about the lumber and OSB market right now are two-fold. One, blatant disregard and unnatural comfort with prices. One of our members asked if he should... Read More May 2021 Issue #13262 Page 102
Lumber Briefs: The Mess Is Getting Messier As Is the Message Matt Layman Panels are the quandary, rather resins and glue. Widespread announcements of further supply disruptions and declarations of Force Majeure are crippling OSB flooring, siding, and roofing panels. I must step in right here to call B.S. Force majeure is a common clause in contracts which... Read More April 2021 Issue #13261 Page 112
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman Looking Around the Corner LEST WE NOT FORGET... the current lumber market condition is the by-product of a major disruption, not a lasting trend. The disruption consists of the following. Accelerated millennial transition from urban to suburban areas. This has created another... Read More March 2021 Issue #13260 Page 98
Lumber Briefs: Softwood Framing Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman COVID’s 2021 Reverse Impact Let’s see if we can get this one right. A member recently requested that I forecast when the misses were going to happen. Sounds difficult, but not impossible. COVID 2020 was a once in a lifetime paradigm shift in our learning curve. To date, I have... Read More February 2021 Issue #13259 Page 96
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman America’s Achilles Heel I want to drift off topic for a bit. Last week we were advised that the U.S. was under a massive cyber attack. As of today, Sunday December 20, the attack is on-going, there is no determination of who is responsible, how deep the attack has penetrated, how to... Read More January 2021 Issue #13258 Page 106
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman COVID Shipment Delays WILL RISE The global pandemic surge is further exacerbating shipment schedules, lengthening many commodity and specialty items that are weeks behind already. Some truckloads of basic commodity Canadian lumber are just now catching up on two-month delays despite prices... Read More December 2020 Issue #12257 Page 84
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman 2020 Hindsight 2020 hindsight. Deduce deeper. Look farther than the end of my nose and keep asking, “What’s next?” I didn’t do that at the beginning of the pandemic. I failed to consider how men specifically would respond to the lockdown. I saw hangout at home, catch... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 94
Lumber Briefs: Attitude Your Way Through Matt Layman When flipping around in trading ranges in the $300s, planning for the coming year had some sort of definable “worst case scenario” contingency plan. I’m just curious. How do you plan for next year, staring down the barrel of all-time high lumber prices and short supply? That... Read More October 2020 Issue #12255 Page 112