Fort St. John, AK, August 3--When Slocan-LP OSB Corp. announced in January that it was building the long anticipated OSB plant in Fort St. John, prices were at $360 US per thousand square feet.
Roughly a week later, OSB prices had jumped to $425 US per thousand square feet, according to the Alaska Highway News.
Prices soared to $518 per thousand square feet as of April 16, already eclipsing highs from 2003, and were expected to remain strong throughout the construction season.
“It still is a growing market”, said Kevin Mason, a paper and forest products analyst with Equity Research Associates. The tough part is no buyer wants to load up on OSB at $520 and then have the market fall apart and they’re left with this inventory.
Prices began to fall over the spring, and had dipped to $275 by July 16, but climbed to $305 as of July 23 before closing at $340 on July 30.
Mason noted that although winter tends to be slower for the construction season in North America, it’s a time buyers tend to build inventories, precipitating the higher prices. “In anticipation of the stronger spring building season,” he said.
And with higher prices, Mason pointed out that buyers start buying "hand to mouth" and as prices fall they’ll start dipping into the market again, prompting an upward spike in prices.
“It drops to a point, buyers come in, load up, take a lot of orders,” Mason said. “Not many people are building inventory and nor does anyone want to at (high) prices.”
OSB is used in construction mainly as roof, wall and floor sheathing. The Fort St. John mill will rely on an annual 1.1 million cubic metre wood supply of aspen and cottonwood.
