Activity perked up in the eastern spruce lumber market yesterday. Soft prices along with another limit up day in the futures market motivated traders to cover their shorts, enabling the mills to garner some much-needed orders. Buyers stopped short of speculating with unsold lumber, pausing to see reaction from the retail community. The additional business prompted many of the mills to lengthen their delivery schedules from 2 to 3 weeks, even for lumber on the ground ready to ship. The lack of empty cars returning to the mills and not enough drivers to haul continue to limit shipment capacity.
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