Surging lumber prices generate better prices for New Brunswick trees — in Maine

International lumber prices are surging again and private sellers of wood in New Brunswick say that's been helping them get better prices for their softwood logs. In Maine.

Linda Bell, the general manager of the Carleton-Victoria Forest Products Marketing Board in Florenceville, said prices being paid for saw logs at mills across the border are up to 70 per cent higher than in New Brunswick. That makes the longer hauling distances and increased paperwork required to serve U.S. mills worthwhile, she said.

"What we're seeing in Maine is is an increased demand and increased pricing," said Bell, who estimated a quarter of softwood cut by private sellers in her area is now leaving the province.

"The price of lumber is up and their markets are really good."  

Prices for lumber in North America have almost tripled since August and are nearing record levels set last spring.

A series of shocks to lumber supplies, including historic flooding in British Columbia in November and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have taken turns roiling markets.

Russia is a significant global exporter of softwood lumber.

Much of its trade is with China, but tightening sanctions on Russia have "goosed" nervous lumber markets that were already elevated, according to wood product analyst Dustin Jalbert, who is with the online commodity price reporting service fastmarkets.com.

"Russia is probably the largest softwood timber resource on the planet and there's a lot of lumber production," Jalbert said in an interview.

"This Russia Ukraine situation is only adding to the fear out in the marketplace that there's not going to be enough building material supply as we head into the prime home-building season."

In New Brunswick, forestry companies have been setting revenue records during the pricing bumps, but those who cut and sell trees have complained for more than a year that little of that bounty has been making its way back to them or flowing to the province.

New Brunswick mills are supplied mostly from timber cut on publicly owned Crown land. 

Private sellers contend that because the New Brunswick government does not raise the price it charges for trees to match rising lumber prices as most provinces do, prices they can charge mills as a result are kept artificially low.

"When they're getting subsidized rates from Crown and a lot of their supply comes from Crown they don't need our wood," said Bell.