In his blog post last December, Forest2Market president and CEO, Pete Stewart made ten predictions for wood-consuming industries in 2015. The piece garnered lots of positive attention when it was written and while Pete may not have a personal crystal ball, his industry predictions were pretty spot on. So, how did Pete do?

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"If I hire you to sell my timber, will I get my money's worth?" It is a question that every consulting forester has been asked. As an advocate for consulting foresters, I would like to say that yes, foresters are indeed worth the money. But can we prove that with hard analytical data?

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Any manufacturing facility that uses wood as a raw material-sawmills, pulp & paper mills, panel mills, pellet mills, as well as biofuels and biochemicals producers-relies in large part on the availability of affordable and sustainable feedstock for its long-term success. Prior to siting a new facility, or even deciding whether to purchase a closed or operating facility, due diligence requires that the project developer seek verification that adequate feedstock can be procured from the supply region for the life of a project. This verification is a complicated process, however. For project developers, there are five steps that, if followed, will determine whether a particular location will support the project and improve the chances of project success.

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Just as quickly as housing starts took a nose dive in October, they reversed course in November to post respectable gains as we approach the end of 2015 and what has been a tumultuous housing ride. We'll have to wait on December data (published next month) to see how the yearly performance looks, but the metric is on course to hit its 1.1 million unit forecast despite some slip-ups during Q2 and Q3. This number would be the highest level of starts posted since 2007, and up from 1 million units overall in 2014.

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Total industrial production (IP) declined 0.2% for a second month in October (+0.3% YoY); meanwhile, the index for manufacturing moved up 0.4% (+1.9% YoY). Total IP for 3Q was upwardly revised to an annual rate of 2.6% instead of the previously reported +1.8%. Other October details were also positive: Wood Products output jumped 1.9% (-0.4% YoY) while Paper edged up 0.1% (-0.9% YoY).

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The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently released its Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) for 2015, which is a comprehensive report produced every five years that provides a consistent overview of the world's forests and how they are changing. FAO has been monitoring the world's forests at five- to ten-year intervals since 1946, and the current Assessment is derived from two primary sources of data: Country Reports prepared by National Correspondents and remote sensing that is conducted by FAO together with national focal points and regional partners.

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