Construction started July 11 on a $110 million lumber production facility that will support the creation of nearly 500 new jobs in northwest Louisiana.

Lumber prices jumped more than 7% on June 30 to $638 per thousand board feet, according to Markets Insider.

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- After dropping in prices in recent weeks, many softwood lumber prices leveled off in mid-June as a supply-demand balance seemed to have been reached, according to Madison's Lumber Reporter. 

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- BID Group has agreed to acquire Smith Sawmill Service. The transaction brings together two customer-focused organizations and further expands BID’s industry-leading operational life cycle product and service offerings to include the essential recurring saw and tooling capabilities required to support modern wood processing operations.

Woodworkers Source, a hardwood distributor and a division of the MacBeath Hardwood Company, has expanded into a new warehouse facility located west of Phoenix’s downtown district.  

Lumber prices have declined in nine of the last 11 weeks comes as mortgage demand for homes falls to its lowest level in 22 years. That weakness has been driven by a swift rise in mortgage rates, which surged above 5% for earlier this year and haven't budged lower.

SPOKANE, Wash. – PotlatchDeltic Corp. is investing $131 million to expand and modernize its Waldo sawmill located in Columbia County, Arkansas. The project will increase the mill’s annual capacity from 190 million board feet of dimensional lumber to approximately 275 million board feet. The investment will also reduce the mill’s operating costs significantly.

Diboll, Texas — Georgia-Pacific’s Diboll Lumber Mill in Texas has undergone a $7-million upgrade that will modernize the mill and help increase its overall production. The mill has been a mainstay for the last 100-plus years in Diboll and the surrounding towns. Diboll Lumber not only produces quality building materials for its customers but also provides good solid jobs that date back to the late 1800s.

As the Federal Reserve contemplates additional interest rate hikes, pressure is expected to mount on the housing market and lumber prices are expected to fall.

Softwood lumber producers across North America are still operating at relatively high-capacity levels despite this being the time of year that production would slow because of normal seasonal closures, and softwood lumber prices would lower, according to the Madison Lumber Reporter.