“The lumber shortage spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t letting up. It’s quite the opposite: It’s getting worse.”
Dustin Jalbert, senior economist at Fastmarkets RISI, specialist in wood prices said
“For some mills, this latest wave of COVID-19 from November to January restrained production at a time when mills would have liked to add or overtime or shifts to meet unseasonably strong demand,” Jalbert said. “As COVID-19 cases continue to plummet, vaccination roll out over the coming weeks and we achieve some level of herd immunity, I expect mill production to ramp up and distribution delays to start dissipating. Supply should increase in the coming months.”