Lumber
CME
Softwood two-by-fours, the most volatile building material, whose 2020-2021 moonshot added tens of thousands of dollars to the price of a house.
Top Producers
approximate share of US framing-lumber supply (indicative)
Main Uses
indicative split of framing-lumber demand
Product
softwood framing two-by-fours
structural
Contract
CME Lumber (LBR), 27,500 board feet
as of 2026
2021 peak
over $1,500 per 1,000 board feet
April 2021
Price
roughly $300 to $620 per 1,000 board feet
2024-2025
Lumber is the one building material with a futures market, and it is among the most volatile of all commodities. The product is softwood framing lumber, the spruce-pine-fir and southern yellow pine two-by-fours that frame houses, so demand is tied almost entirely to US homebuilding and renovation. Because a house needs a lot of it and supply is slow to adjust, the price can swing violently when housing turns.
Canada and the US South are the major sources, and the long-running US-Canada softwood lumber dispute, with duties on Canadian imports, is a permanent feature of the market. The defining episode was the pandemic: prices ran from about 300 dollars per thousand board feet to over 1,500 by April 2021 as mills that had cut output met a renovation boom, then fell back toward 300 to 600 over 2024 and 2025.
CME redesigned the contract in 2023, replacing the old random-length lumber future with a smaller physically-delivered Lumber contract (ticker LBR) of 27,500 board feet, roughly one truckload, quoted in dollars per thousand board feet. The redesign was a direct response to the thin liquidity and limit-up, limit-down chaos of the 2020 to 2022 years.
How It Trades
| Venue | CME Group |
| Benchmark contract | CME Lumber future (ticker LBR), redesigned 2023 |
| Contract size | 27,500 board feet (about one truckload) |
| Price terms | US dollars per 1,000 board feet |
| Settlement | Physical delivery in the Chicago switching district |
| Typical curve | Strongly seasonal around the spring building season; prone to limit moves |
| Liquidity | Thin and volatile; the 2023 redesign shrank the contract to rebuild participation |
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- Canada: the dominant softwood lumber exporter to the US
- United States (the South and Pacific Northwest)
- Europe (Germany, Sweden) and Russia for the wider market
The CME contract is North American softwood framing lumber; the US-Canada trade dispute shapes flows.
Top consumers
- US residential construction (new homes)
- Repair and remodeling
- Non-residential and industrial uses (smaller)
Major uses
- Framing new single-family and multifamily housing
- Repair, remodeling, and renovation
- Decking, fencing, and industrial uses
What Moves the Price
- US housing starts and mortgage rates
- Repair and remodeling activity
- Sawmill capacity and operating rates
- US-Canada softwood lumber duties and trade policy
- Transport and the wood-products supply chain
Moments That Made the Market
1969
CME launches random-length lumber futures, a rare exchange-traded building material.
2020-2021
Pandemic demand and supply cuts send lumber from about $300 to over $1,500 per 1,000 board feet.
2023
CME delists the random-length contract and launches the smaller physically-delivered Lumber (LBR) future.
What Changed Since the 2010 Handbook Era
- The pandemic produced the most extreme price spike in the contract's history.
- CME redesigned the contract in 2023 to a quarter of its old size.
- Mortgage rates became the dominant swing factor for demand.