my ol dad said when prices get to high stop buying......
if we all stopped buying ply etc for 6 months the prices would come down.....??
slightlydif.....
our last summer in France we noted that small toms were almost €12 per kilo and not even vine grown ones....
Most didn't buy and they got binned.....
luckily for us home grown toms are avail from April....now we actually bin toms as wqe have to many and can't give em away as EVERYBODY has too many....what a mad world.....
Last time I checked here, 1/2 ply no better than shuttering was over €65 per sheet + Tax....
This is a case where ceasing buying would cause them to come down very quickly as the futures for supply here are way down, but the spot market isn't following them yet (spot wholesale is, i'm sure, but retailers are harvesting the margin for now while they can get away with it).
Businesses here will generally increase the spot goods to match futures prices, but they will cling to the spot market any time it's higher even if they have no need to, and then hold on yet a bit longer when spot and futures are both down on the claim that they have to recover inventory cost. They'll say this about goods that they have that are low turnover that weren't changed or refreshed during an entire cycle, too, which is interesting (e.g., a bin of specialty or millwork wood parts that turns over once a year or two but is high margin).
The trip back down leads to interesting things - especially if the timing of the price declines isn't matched. For example, rough construction lumber here is more expensive than some finished or treated products of the same type. I suspect the retailers choose which items they think they can snag you on (OSB/plywood/2x4s here) vs. others that don't sell well when bought for cash projects (outdoor wood bits). Or to be more clear, the interior supplies are more often being used on something where someone is taking a loan - renovations, etc, contractor work.