Olympic Industries
Timeline Team Business FCTG
Career Opportunities Working at Olympic
Sustainability Corporate Responsibility Innovation
Questions? Get in touch
Understanding softwood lumber markets through data analysis
  • Trading

With over 117 daily transactions, the Olympic trading floor is in constant motion. Our multilingual lumber traders, serving both domestic and international markets, offer our wood suppliers and customers profound knowledge of wood products and lumber market trends. Our team maintains supply agreements with primary producers across the globe to maximize market demands, allowing our wood suppliers to stay on the leading edge of global market intelligence.

We sell to all parts of the customer chain: distribution, retail, multi-family, independent contractor yards, industrial, national pro-dealer and the manufacturing sector. Our sourcing encompasses all lumber species and grades from all regions, including Spruce-Pine-Fir (SPF), Hem Fir/White Fir, Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Yellow Pine and Western Red Cedar. Our Panel department also trades plywood for all species and OSB.

Our traders have a rare talent for matching production with customer needs and vice versa, with an experienced support staff aiding the process and ensuring a seamless transaction. All of our talent and expertise in commodity trading are bolstered with the trademark values of all Olympic employees: integrity, accountability, and efficiency.

Lumber yard delivering a wood shipment from a lumber distributor
  • Distribution

The structure of our lumber distribution division is such that Olympic Industries can offer, by far, the most efficient cost and the greatest amount of flexibility for our North American customers. Through a network of 117 lumber warehouse locations, our team can offer just-in-time delivery of a wide range of globally sourced wood products directly to our end users.

A key component of our competitive advantage as a wood supplier is how we connect our global price discovery and market intelligence to the wood products that we can offer through our lumber distribution network. Since we are sourcing and purchasing lumber from all geographic regions, we’re able to provide a significant strategic advantage over providers who focus on wood products from a single region.

Through our relationships in the trucking industry, our inventory of wood products on the ground, leveraging third-party warehouse solutions, and our advanced approach to management, we’re able to provide lumber distribution services at a significantly lower cost structure than our competitors. This combination of efficiency, our vast network of relationships, and our global perspective make Olympic Industries a leader in the North American distribution space.

  • Import/Export

At Olympic Industries, we employ a truly global perspective in our lumber distribution business. Through our roots in North America and strong connections to lumber markets throughout the world, we have unparalleled access to information. Our team obsessively monitors market activity across the globe to identify specific demand regions and capitalize on global pricing trends.

This strategic, data-driven approach gives Olympic Industries the opportunity to provide much more than just wood products to our customers, it provides us unprecedented access to forward predictions on lumber pricing, the ability to effectively manage risk, and the insight to add significant value to each domestic, import, and export transaction.

  • Manufacturing

Turning lumber into the specific components that our customers need is a central part of our lumber distribution business. We’ve never been content to simply attach the Olympic Industries name to pre-fabricated products. Instead, we work directly with lumber mills - some of whom we’ve partnered with for over three decades - to have our wood products designed to our more stringent standards. We specialize in sourcing and distributing popular lumber species such as western red cedar, douglas fir, SYP, and SPF to meet the diverse needs of our customers.

Unlike large, primary lumber sawmills, which are concerned with selling numerous lengths and formats, we can work in the specific orders our clients request. That means that in addition to our selection of standard lumber yard stock, we’re fully capable of handling custom orders to be built precisely to a customer’s specifications, so they get the exact product they need in the exact quantity they need it. In addition, our nimble and precise operation also allows us to turn that order around quickly - it’s always our goal to ship within two weeks.

We’ve been manufacturing building material products since 1985. In the decades we’ve worked with our lumber mills we’ve honed our process and standards together. So whenever you buy an Olympic Industries product, you know that you’re getting the absolute highest possible quality, time-tested and customer-approved.

Lumber remanufacturing at a lumber mill

CEDAR

The vast majority of our raw building material is sourced from North Coast BC, unlike many producers that draw from many regions. From our selected and specific raw building materials, we manufacture a consistent quality and appearance. The 2x6 cedar decking you buy today will look the same as the 2x6 cedar decking you buy in two years. When we manufacture our wide variety of quality knotty wood cedar products we also produce a number of fall-down and clear building material products. If you have a customer that requires a price point product we can help with our Utility and Economy lumber grades. Or if you have a demanding high-end client we can assist you with our clear cedar products. Aside from manufacturing our finished products we also custom-cut BC coastal cedar logs to generate a full spectrum of appearance-grade timbers. As we cut for timbers we also generate export-grade clears and more raw material for our finished cedar product production.

  • Derivatives

At Olympic Industries, we have revolutionized the building material industry by incorporating trading derivatives into our innovative service model. As a leading provider, we actively engage in trading futures and options on the renowned Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). By leveraging this expertise, we offer our customers a competitive edge in forecasting their requirements for upcoming projects.

Our dedicated team of experts excels in providing lumber market intelligence and forward pricing information. This valuable insight empowers our customers to develop more accurate quotations, mitigating potential financial risks and enabling effective long-term planning.

With our strategic approach to trading derivatives, we help our building material customers optimize their procurement strategies. By staying informed about the latest market trends and lumber pricing fluctuations, we assist them in making informed decisions about building materials. Our ability to provide real-time data and analysis equips their teams with the necessary information to negotiate better deals, secure competitive pricing, and maximize profitability.

Partnering with Olympic ensures that your building material projects are backed by market intelligence and expertise. Our commitment to leveraging trading derivatives enables us to offer unparalleled insights into the lumber industry landscape. Whether it's optimizing quotations, mitigating risk, or planning for the future, our innovative approach sets us apart as a trusted partner in the building material market.

Incorporate Olympic Industries’ unique service model today to harness the power of trading derivatives and revolutionize your building material procurement strategies.