Friday 23 September 2022. – The US housing starts jumped unexpectedly by 12.2% in August 2022 compared to July. However, the starts had dropped in July which partly explains the August recovery. The longer-term indicator, housing permits, lowered by 10% in August according to the…

Friday 9 September 2022. – Inflation means that things get more expensive, right? And high inflation means that things get quickly more expensive? The consumer price inflation in the USA and in the Eurozone has exceeded 8% in recent months (year-on-year). That is high compared…

Friday 26 August 2022. – Plywood selling in an overdemand situation is not really selling if selling is understood as finding new customers. In strong demand, there is more use for hiding skills than selling skills. Salespersons spend their time by arranging and splitting volumes…

August 12, 2022. – Traditionally plywood mills have been built on domestic log supply. There has been plenty of forest around, and the procurement area has been defined as a distance radius around the mill. Some mills still enjoy this luxury, but for some things…

July 05, 2022. – Plywood buyers and sellers have been busy this year, once again. The global plywood market is inter-connected, and the supply/demand changes somewhere impact all continents. We look at things from a company perspective, but we are all part of a bigger…

June 17, 2022. – I guess all of us have noticed how gasoline, electricity, and food prices have increased lately. At the same time, our eyes have opened to see how massive the Russian oil exports are. And even more dramatically, how big wheat exporters…

June 3, 2022. – There are different routes between plywood producers and end-users. With some industries and customers, the route is direct from the mill to mill. In some industries, the chain may consist of importers, wholesalers, specialized dealers, and subcontractors. Typically, all the players…