Bill's Corner- An Eastern Spruce Perspective

Lumberyards covering quick fill-in needs highlighted yesterday’s heavy activity in the lumber market. Delays on eastern mill shipments caused many to pay higher prices to distributors to cover overdue commitments. A recent decision not to allow non vaccinated drivers to cross the borders has only amplified the situation, causing longer than expected delays. The lack of railcars on both coasts for the mills to ship by has only compounded the problem. A backlog of orders to ship has caused many problems for the mills also, expanding their on the ground inventories.

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Thank you @william_giguere very informative.
Regarding “decision not to allow non vaccinated drivers to cross the borders”, in which direction is the problem most pronounced, from US to Canada or from Canada to the US?
And then this lack of rail cars. What are the rail cars being used for if lumber is such a hot commodity these days? Consumer goods? Where did the rail cars go? Is everything “off the rails” now so to speak? :joy:

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@william_giguere thanks for posting.

Given railcar capacity has been a problem for so many years, have you heard of any new cars coming onto the railways?

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@Andrew_Gibson @william_giguere exactly – if there has been a shortage of rail cars for years, why are no new rail cars manufactured?

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