The price of lumber is up 193%—and about to spike even higher – By Lance Lambert (Fortune) / April 13 2021
Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.
Lumber yards and home builders alike have delayed buying lumber from sawmills in hopes the price of the sky-high commodity would finally come back down to earth. It hasn’t budged, and now the buying rush is on ahead of spring and summer projects.
“Clearly mills won the standoff,” Stinson Dean, CEO of Deacon Lumber, told Fortune.
This influx of buyers is only further driving up the price. On Friday, the price of lumber per thousand board feet jumped to $1,048, according to Random Lengths. That’s an all-time high, and up 193% from a year ago.
That price jump is unlikely to be the last. On Monday, the May futures contract price per thousand board feet of 2x4s jumped $32 to $1,158. That uptick would’ve been higher had circuit breakers not been halted 20 minutes into trading—something that occurs when the commodity is up more than $32 during a single trading day.
