Lifting Lumber Sales—and Your Business with 2.59 Billion Board Feet of New Demand

Lumber is an integral part of both your business and how America builds housing. The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) works tirelessly to make it more than that. The SLB is working to make wood not only the dominant structural material for single-family housing and the preferred material for outdoor applications like decking, but also an increasingly important component in market segments like low- and mid-rise non-residential, multifamily and, of course, taller wood buildings using mass timber products. These segments will significantly increase demand for lumber and create new opportunities for you to increase sales and revenue.

The softwood lumber industry, through its investment in the SLB, is focused on programs that grow market opportunities for lumber producers and manufacturers and for dealers and distributors like you.

No amount of market development will be effective without addressing regulatory barriers, which is why the SLB is the largest, single investor in the American Wood Council (AWC). The SLB’s investment supports AWC efforts to protect existing markets and create a regulatory environment that puts wood on equal footing with other materials, ensuring that wood is not discriminated against in the building code.  For designers, builders, and other end-users considering wood, the SLB’s reThink Wood program provides the information and resources they need to make informed decisions, while our WoodWorks program provides direct person-to-person support for those who need it.

The time is ripe for dealers and distributors to post major expansions in sales and revenue this year. The AIA’s June Architecture Billings Index recorded increasing demand for design services for the fifth consecutive month, a leading economic indicator of new commercial construction activity. The SLB’s targeted education and project support is leading to greater demand for wood across more types of new commercial buildings.

Of course, the SLB also recognizes that some of our established markets, particularly for wood used on, in, and around the home, are under threat from competing materials. To provide a swift and broad industry response, the SLB’s Wood, Naturally program targets the DIY and Do It For Me markets with messaging and resources that counter myths about wood and promote the value proposition of softwood lumber products.

Housing data firm Metrostudy predicts the number of housing starts nationally will rise 7.3 percent this year to 1.26 million homes. Their Residential Remodeling Index has posted annual gains above 4 percent since the second quarter of 2015, and projects that deck projects, a key driver of lumber demand, will grow 4.6 percent to 3.45 million projects in 2017, plus another 2.8 percent in 2018.

Housing data firm Metrostudy predicts the number of housing starts nationally will rise 7.3 percent this year to 1.26 million homes. Their Residential Remodeling Index has posted annual gains above 4 percent since the second quarter of 2015, and projects that deck projects, a key driver of lumber demand, will grow 4.6 percent to 3.45 million projects in 2017, plus another 2.8 percent in 2018.

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