Lumber Supply and Housing Affordability

Since the U.S. industry filed the trade cases in 2016, and with the more recent Section 232 tariff measures, domestic sawmill investment and capacity expansion has been robust. The U.S. industry has produced over 36 billion additional board feet of softwood lumber during this period. That amounts to an average of 4 billion board feet a year of added production by U.S. producers. These increases have more than offset any decline in unfairly traded Canadian import volumes and represent enough lumber to build 2.4 million single-family homes. Continued enforcement of U.S. trade laws will maximize long-term domestic production and lumber availability produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes.