World Timber Prices Rebounding
Question remains how soon U.S. prices will respond.
John Vogel
Published: Jan 24, 2011
As reported in December, third-quarter timber prices in Pennsylvania showed no sign of rebounding. But Penn State's fourth-quarter survey wasn't yet completed.
A recent report on global sawlog prices spurs hope that 2011 stumpage prices will begin climbing. A survey by Wood Resources International found that global sawlog prices were almost back to pre-crisis levels of late 2008.
WRI's global sawlog price index reached the highest level in over two years in third-quarter 2010. The biggest wood price increases occurred in Western U.S., Germany, Sweden and Northwest Russia.
The index, based on prices for logs being processed into construction and better-grade lumber, is a weighted average of sawlogs traded in the open market in 19 key regions worldwide.
The third-quarter index was up 4.8% from the previous quarter – one of the largest quarter-to-quarter increases in 15 years. Compared to a year earlier, it was 12.8% higher.
The price increases are partly the result of a weakening U.S. dollar. But log prices have also gone up in the local currencies in most regions.
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