February 2008

Huttig Building Products, Inc., St. Louis, MO, distributor of millwork, building materials and wood products, reported a net loss for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007, of $8 million, compared with a net loss of $7.7 million in the prior year. Sales fell 21% to $874.8 million.
 
Sales to national accounts, representing 36% of 2007 sales, declined by 18% from 2006.
 
Looking ahead, most current forecasts do not expect a bottom in new housing construction until late in 2008," CEO Jon Vrabely said. "Our continued challenge is to balance our cost reduction efforts with the need to maintain our strategic infrastructure and high service levels so that Huttig is well positioned when the market rebounds. We remain focused on doing everything we can to reduce costs, increase ...

Source: Statistics Canada
 
The value of building permits hit another record high in 2007, thanks to widespread strong gains across Canada and in both the residential and non-residential sectors.

Municipalities issued $74.3 billion worth of building permits in 2007, up 12.1% from the previous record of $66.3 billion in 2006.

While the gain in 2006 was largely fuelled by the tremendous demand in Western Canada, the increase in 2007 was more widespread across the country. Every province posted gains with the exception of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

In Quebec, the rate of growth accelerated from 5.2% in 2006 to 9.2% in 2007. In Ontario, the value ...

Construction spending during December 2007 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,140.2 billion, 1.1 percent below the revised November estimate. The December figure is 2.3 percent below December 2006.
 
The value of construction spending in 2007 was $1,161.3 billion, 2.6 percent below the $1,192.2 billion spent in 2006.
 
More details here. ...