U.S. Housing Starts Continue Upward Trek

The outpouring of support for Vaagen Fibre Canada’s Midway, BC sawmill, upon the early January Vaagen family announcement of the mill’s impending closure, was substantial, but apparently hasn’t changed the disappointing outcome, at least for now. The Vaagen family, whose Vaagen Brothers Lumber headquarters and sawmill is in Colville, Wash., announced on…

Mercer International Inc. reported it has signed its first major mass timber project contract with a large consumer products retailer. The project, which is composed of cross-laminated timber panels, glue-laminated beams and connector elements, is expected to utilize four months of capacity at Mercer’s Spokane, Wash. facility on a one-shift basis over the course of 2023…

U.S. housing starts brushed off a sluggish January and reached a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.45 million in February, up 9.8% over January. Single-family starts were 830,000, a percent above January, while multi-family (five units or more) were at 608,000, up a whopping 24% over January. The uptick in February broke a four-consecutive monthly decline for the combined starts…

Some Georgia sawmills will have a new market for their byproducts as Spectrum Energy Georgia LLC plans to begin construction this summer of the largest industrial wood pellet facility in the world at Adel, Ga. and expects to commission the plant 12 months later, or summer of 2024. The plant will operate at the site of an idled particleboard facility. The plant will have the ability to receive and process all forms of biomass, including sawmill residues (chips, sawdust and shavings), pulpwood, top wood, and in-woods chips…