News

October’s Safety Report is Now Available.

The CPA Board of Directors recently voted to approve the following Associate Member. Ness Wärmetechnik GmbH, Remshalden, Germany, is a thermal engineering equipment provider. The primary member representative is Philip Börgardts, Sales Engineer. See Ness Wärmetechnik More Info:  Jeannie Ervin

Tafisa Canada, Lac-Mégantic, QC, announced the promotion of Nicolas Blackburn to Vice President Operations effective December 4. Blackburn has been with the company since 2006 and is the current Raw Board Production Manager. Blackburn will succeed René Habel who is preparing for retirement in March 2024. Habel has been with the company since 2015. See

U.S. consumer confidence in November registered at 102.0, increasing 2.9 points from October, according to The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index. The index measuring current business and labor market conditions dipped 0.4 points to 138.2 in November. The short-term outlook index for the income, business and labor markets rose 5.1 points from October to 77.8. See The

U.S. sales of new single-family homes in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 679,000, decreasing 5.6% from September but 17.7% higher than the comparable month in 2022. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale through October was 439,000, representing a 7.8-month supply at the current sales rate. See U.S. Census

U.S. housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.37 million, strengthening 1.9% from September but 4.2% lower than the comparable month last year. Single-family starts increased 0.2% to 970,000 over September. U.S. building permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.49 million, rising 1.1% from September but declining

U.S. residential furniture factory orders in September were $2.6 billion, up 13.1% from the comparable month in 2022 and 0.7% higher than in August. Year-to-date orders increased 1.5% from the first nine months of 2022 to $20.5 billion. Furniture shipments dropped 20.5% from last September to $2.3 billion and decreased 6.2% from August. Year-to-date shipments

The world’s two largest home improvement retailers published second quarter 2023 financial results. ­­­­­The Home Depot, Atlanta, GA, reported Q3 2023 net quarterly sales of $37.7 billion, down 3.0% over the comparable period in 2022. Net earnings fell 12.2% from the same three months of 2022 to $3.8 billion. See The Home Depot The Lowe’s

The RV Industry Association’s monthly survey of U.S. manufacturers reported October shipments totaled 28,371 units, increasing 14.9% from September but declining 13.1% from October 2022. Year-to-date shipments dropped 40.6% to 266,492 compared to the same period last year. See RV Industry Association

Canadian seasonally adjusted retail furniture store sales in September decreased 1.0% from August to $1.16 billion (CAD) and were 7.4% lower than the same month in 2022. Sales for building material dealers were 0.5% higher than August at $3.91 billion but fell 5.7% from September 2022. Total Canadian retail sales rose 0.6% from August to $66.5