palletcentral.com PalletCentral • January-February 2016 31
Exchange Rates
Europe, South America and Canada are major markets for U.S.
manufactured goods, such as consumer products and business
equipment. A movement of 38% in the Brazilian Real makes U.S.
goods extremely expensive and will force potential purchasers in
Brazil to look at alternative suppliers, such as Europe (off only
20%).
Situation in Wood Products: Good for Pallet Producers
The modest improvement in domestic markets and large
declines in export sales pushed lumber (both softwood and
hardwood) prices lower in 2015.
The softwood lumber situation is pretty straight forward. First,
housing starts continued their painfully slow recovery in 2015.
Housing starts in November were running 15% above year ago
levels with a very strong showing in multi-family units.
Housing Starts
The higher starts, coupled with some gains in industrial
production and remodeling expenditure, boosted the demand for
lumber in the U.S. and grew by 5.3%. Demand for lumber in
Canada did not grow in 2015.
123rf.com
Since pallets are used to move manufactured goods, this is THE part of the economy the pallet producers
care about.
