exchange operator CME Group Introducing a new timber futures contract with the aim of promoting trading in two-by-four derivatives decreased in recent years and extended wild swing In the US benchmark price for lumber.
The new contract will be completed with a truckload of boards instead of a railcar, which is about one-quarter of the amount of lumber, which is delivered to Chicago rather than to a remote Canadian Railroad junction. The specifications would only allow eastern species of spruce, pine and fir, rather than varieties growing in the west.