Latest news with #U.S.LumberCoalition
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Fight over lumber tariffs could reshape future of US home building
Lumber is in the spotlight as the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the U.S. Lumber Coalition disagree over what's behind the U.S. housing market slump. FOX Business correspondent Kelly Saberi reported Monday that the NAHB has pointed to tariff uncertainty and lumber prices as being partly responsible. The U.S.'s current anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duty on imported Canadian softwood lumber stands at 14.5%. It could potentially climb later in the year to nearly 35%. Canada's softwood lumber makes up roughly 85% of America's imports and almost a quarter of the U.S. supply, according to the NAHB. "I share President Trump's desire to create fair and balanced trade across our borders, certainly would bring back as much production as we can," NAHB CEO Jim Tobin said. "But until we do that, and it will take years and millions of dollars of investment, we need to make sure that we have a reliable, affordable source of lumber." Saberi reported that the U.S. Lumber Coalition "says that the price of lumber says something different about this story." Read On The Fox Business App Between May 2021 and April of this year, the random lengths framing composite price decreased 67%, she reported. It stood at $442 per 1,000 board feet as of May 23, per the NAHB. Meanwhile, the price of new homes has gone up 21%, Saberi reported. "Everything from regulatory costs to the cost of land and, quite frankly, also the cost of home builder profitability rates that have gone up, those are actually the driving forces of home affordability," U.S. Lumber Coalition executive director Zoltan van Heyningen told FOX Business. "Lumber just isn't one of them." Click Here To Read More On Fox Business The U.S. Lumber Coalition has also been critical of Canada, saying that "ongoing unfair trade practices" by its lumber industry have been "extremely harmful to U.S. lumber producers, workers, and their forest-dependent communities." John Kalabich, the owner of Acme Lumber in Chicago, told Saberi he was able to keep prices relatively flat over the past 12 months because of the duty on Canadian lumber. He has also heard from contractors that the demand for small repair work and big-ticket construction has gone down. Trump Issues Executive Orders Addressing Lumber Production, National Security Concerns Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau said single-family housing starts suffered a 2.1% decline from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 927,000 in April. Sales of new single-family homes in April came in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 743,000, while sales of existing ones were 3.63 article source: Fight over lumber tariffs could reshape future of US home building
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. set to significantly hike softwood lumber duties against Canada
The U.S. is set to more than double the duty it charges on softwood lumber imports from Canada, with the planned new rate set at 34.45 per cent, up from the previous 14.54 per cent. While the preliminary determination was not immediately posted to the U.S. Federal Register, it was confirmed in statements from the B.C. premier's office and the U.S. Lumber Coalition, a trade industry body. New softwood lumber duties were long-feared amid the growing trade war between Canada and the U.S., and would be the latest blow to B.C.'s beleaguered forestry industry, which has seen thousands of workers laid off over the last few years. B.C. Premier David Eby condemned the planned duty hike as an "attack on forest workers and British Columbians" in a statement on Saturday."In Canada, the continued unjustified softwood lumber duties, combined with additional U.S. tariffs and other trade actions, have united Canadians," he wrote. "We have friends and family in the United States who need Canadian lumber to build or rebuild their homes, and both Canadians and Americans need an end to this trade dispute." Under the U.S. Tariff Act, the Department of Commerce determines whether goods are being sold at less than fair value or if they're benefiting from subsidies provided by foreign governments. In Canada, lumber-producing provinces set so-called stumpage fees for timber harvested from Crown land, a system that U.S. producers — forced to pay market rates — consider an unfair subsidy. U.S. lumber producers consider Canadian stumpage fees, for harvesting on Crown land, an unfair government subsidy. (Michel Nogue/Radio-Canada) Indeed, the U.S. Lumber Coalition — which represents softwood lumber producers in that country — welcomed the planned spike in duties in a statement on Friday. "These unfair trade practices are designed by Canada to maintain an artificially inflated U.S. market share for Canadian products and force U.S. companies to curtail production, thereby killing U.S. jobs," said Andrew Miller, the chairman of the coalition, in the statement. Eby to meet with PM CBC News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada to find out if the federal government plans to take countermeasures against the planned hike in duties. In August 2024, when the duties were hiked from 8.05 per cent to 14.54 per cent, the federal government had indicated it would fight the tariffs at the U.S. Court of International Trade and at the World Trade said the B.C. government would work with the forest sector and the federal government to fight the duties "through all avenues available to us." "I am meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday ... and I plan on raising this issue with him directly," the premier said. "B.C. workers and their families depend on the jobs that these tariffs are targeting, and we hope to see the same Team Canada approach to protecting them, just like with the automotive and steel industry jobs in Ontario and Quebec." The United States has long been the single largest market for B.C. lumber exports, representing over half the market for the approximately $10-billion industry. But amid a series of challenges for the province's forestry industry — including a mountain pine beetle infestation that killed hundreds of thousands of trees — mills have been closing around the province in recent years, and major forestry companies are opening up new mills in the United States. In 2023, numbers from Statistics Canada showed B.C. had lost more than 40,000 forest-sector jobs since the early 1990s.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump's Additional Measures to Investigate Unfair Trade Practices
WASHINGTON, March 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- President Trump has ordered an investigation under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to determine the "impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices." "We know that foreign governments such as Canadian federal and provincial governments subsidize the Canadian lumber industry to promote employment and disruptive excess Canadian lumber production that is then dumped into the U.S. market to the detriment of U.S. companies and workers," stated Andrew Miller, Chair/Owner of Stimson Lumber Company. "President Trump is absolutely correct in saying that we do not need any unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports," stated Miller, adding that "the combination of fully enforcing our antidumping and countervailing duty trade laws and this additional enforcement step against unfair trade taken by President Trump will accelerate addressing the harmful effects of foreign unfair trade practices in lumber. Thank you President Trump!" concluded Miller. U.S. lumber community voices on President Trump's trade law enforcement and the positive impacts on U.S. manufacturing: About the U.S. Lumber CoalitionThe U.S. Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers from around the country, joined by their employees and woodland owners, working to address Canada's unfair lumber trade practices. Our goal is to serve as the voice of the American lumber community and effectively address Canada's unfair softwood lumber trade practices. The Coalition supports the full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws to allow the U.S. industry to invest and grow to its natural size without being impaired by unfairly traded imports. Continued full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws will strengthen domestic supply lines by maximizing long-term domestic production and lumber availability produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes. For more information, please visit the Coalition's website at CONTACT: Zoltan van Heyningenzoltan@ | 202-805-9133 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE The U.S. Lumber Coalition Sign in to access your portfolio
Associated Press
02-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump's Additional Measures to Investigate Unfair Trade Practices
WASHINGTON, March 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- President Trump has ordered an investigation under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to determine the 'impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices.' 'We know that foreign governments such as Canadian federal and provincial governments subsidize the Canadian lumber industry to promote employment and disruptive excess Canadian lumber production that is then dumped into the U.S. market to the detriment of U.S. companies and workers,' stated Andrew Miller, Chair/Owner of Stimson Lumber Company. 'President Trump is absolutely correct in saying that we do not need any unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports,' stated Miller, adding that 'the combination of fully enforcing our antidumping and countervailing duty trade laws and this additional enforcement step against unfair trade taken by President Trump will accelerate addressing the harmful effects of foreign unfair trade practices in lumber. Thank you President Trump!' concluded Miller. U.S. lumber community voices on President Trump's trade law enforcement and the positive impacts on U.S. manufacturing: About the U.S. Lumber Coalition The U.S. Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers from around the country, joined by their employees and woodland owners, working to address Canada's unfair lumber trade practices. Our goal is to serve as the voice of the American lumber community and effectively address Canada's unfair softwood lumber trade practices. The Coalition supports the full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws to allow the U.S. industry to invest and grow to its natural size without being impaired by unfairly traded imports. Continued full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws will strengthen domestic supply lines by maximizing long-term domestic production and lumber availability produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes. For more information, please visit the Coalition's website at
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump's Strong Stance on U.S. Trade Law Enforcement
-- Will Maximize Lumber Output by U.S. Workers in U.S. Mills to Build U.S. Homes WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2025 /CNW/ -- "President Trump is right, the United States does not need unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports," said Andrew Miller, Chairman of the U.S. Lumber Coalition and CEO of Stimson Lumber. "U.S. sawmill investment and capacity expansion to supply our own market has been robust in no small part thanks to the duties first imposed in 2017 by President Trump against Canadian lumber. The domestic industry has retaken share of the U.S. market to reach levels not seen since the mid-1970s," added Miller. U.S. mills have added eight billion board feet of capacity since 2016 in the form of new mills and expansions of existing mills. The U.S. industry has produced 30 billion additional board feet of softwood lumber during this period. That amounts to an average of 3.7 billion board feet a year of added production by U.S. mills. These increases have more than offset any decline in unfairly traded Canadian imports and are enough lumber to build two million single-family homes. "The trade cases must remain in place as long as Canada keeps subsidizing and dumping," continued Miller. "The enforcement of the U.S. trade laws is paramount to maximize long-term lumber output by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes. We reject any efforts to promote a Canada First trade agenda prioritizing unfairly traded lumber imports over the interests of our domestic industry and workforce," concluded Miller. "The trade measures are working," said U.S. Lumber Coalition Executive Director Zoltan van Heyningen. "The duties on unfairly traded lumber imports have strengthened domestic supply lines by forcing Canadian companies to curtail production during declining markets, dampening the harmful effects of their all-too familiar pattern of maintaining exports at the direct expense of U.S. mills and workers." "Full enforcement of the U.S. trade laws is exactly what must happen to keep expanding U.S. lumber manufacturing and availability to build more American homes," concluded van Heyningen. About the U.S. Lumber CoalitionThe U.S. Lumber Coalition is an alliance of large and small softwood lumber producers from around the country, joined by their employees and woodland owners, working to address Canada's unfair lumber trade practices. Our goal is to serve as the voice of the American lumber community and effectively address Canada's unfair softwood lumber trade practices. For more information, please visit the Coalition's website at CONTACT: Zoltan van Heyningenzoltan@ | 202-805-9133 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE The U.S. Lumber Coalition View original content to download multimedia: Sign in to access your portfolio
