The U.S. government has recently increased tariffs on softwood lumber coming in from Canada, citing concerns that Canada’s heavy subsidies have flooded the U.S. lumber market with unsustainably cheap wood.  Wall Street Journal–Tariffs on Canadian Softwood

While these Canadian subsidies were a benefit to many of those in the construction industry, the U.S. Commerce Department feared that this put the U.S. lumber industry at an unfair disadvantage.

This, of course, poses a quandary with regards to Trump’s ‘America First’ plan. On one hand, cheap building materials are a huge boon to those in the construction industry. On the other hand, our industry relies on a robust overall economy; what helps one sector often helps us all.

Ultimately, time will tell what this means for the construction industry.  Lumber is a commodity that often sees wild fluctuations.  Most likely, we’ll see a short term spike in lumber prices, followed by a leveling out.

As always, though, this is a reminder to be cognizant of changing material prices when bidding on work.  Lumber in particular tends to be volatile, so when placing bids, remember that lumber prices can change drastically over a short span of time!