The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

More good news for PCL—demand is rising and mountain pine beetles are killing Canadian trees:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-17/lumber-mills-trail-rebound-in-u-s-as-beetles-bite-commodities.html

North American lumber mills are operating at the fastest pace in four years as U.S. home building rebounds, just as the worst beetle infestation on record curbs supply.

About 52.5 billion board feet, the standard industry measure, will be sawed this year, 5.4 percent more than in 2011 and the most since 2008, CIBC World Markets estimates.

…Housing is gaining traction amid an infestation of mountain-pine beetles that the Canadian officials said was the worst ever. Government data show about 51 percent of marketable pine forests in British Columbia, the largest timber-producing province in Canada, were killed as of the summer of 2011…

The bullish impact of the mountain pine beetles is old news that is only now becoming widely recognized; I first mentioned it 2.5 years ago in #msg-47898395.