NEWS

A French energy company, TotalEnergies, will invest $100 million in what will be the largest-ever purchase of carbon offsets tied to U.S. timberlands. The company states that this will enhance sustainable forest management practices across 740,000 acres in 10 states. TotalEnergies signed with Anew Climate and Aurora Sustainable Lands. The latter is a U.S. carbon-stewardship company that has already cut timber harvests on its properties by more than 50%.

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The now-bankrupt LL Flooring has agreed to sell its assets to F9 Investments, a company run by Thomas Sullivan, who founded LL Flooring as Lumber Liquidators 30 years ago. F9 will acquire 219 of LL Flooring’s 430 stores, the stores' inventory, and the inventory in the company's massive distribution center in Virginia.

Container freight rates swung wildly between January 2023 and August 2024. Rates fell to a low of $1,340 per 40-foot container in October 2023. That rate has since soared, reaching a record high of $5,900 in July.

Total EU plywood production fell by 2.5% from 3.2 million cubic meters in 2021 to 3.1 million cubic meters in 2022, then dropped by 15% to just 2.6 million cubic meters in 2023. This is unprecedented. It's the lowest level ever recorded, and only about half of the nearly 5 million cubic meters per year the EU had produced before the COVID pandemic. Imports are also down.

This year, Vietnam's wood and wood products exports reached $9.5 billion by mid-August, up by 24% year-over-year. Wood products comprised $6.5 billion or 68% of that total. The U.S. continues to be Vietnam's largest export market, buying $4.9 billion from January to mid-August, an increase of 26% vs. last year.