Business
Those rebuilding after L.A. fires will likely face higher lumber prices as Trump tariffs loom
Devastating, often tragic as the Los Angeles-area fires have been, rebuilding could bring nightmares all its own, including murky insurance rules, material shortages and potentially higher costs for such items as lumber and bathtubs.
In terms of economic upheaval, it could be the construction industry equivalent of what the COVID-19 pandemic did to the economy just a few years ago.
The Trump administration’s plans to slap new tariffs on imports from many countries including Canada — by far the biggest foreign supplier of lumber for the U.S. market — could set off a new wave of inflation in home building.
Lumber is the single biggest component of home-building materials, accounting for about 15% of overall home construction costs. Southern California builders use wood for framing homes that’s sourced mostly from Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
And the last couple of years have left the lumber industry ill-prepared for a big surge in demand. More than a dozen sawmills have closed in Canada and Oregon, Washington and Northern California as logging operations have struggled with a shortage of skilled labor and higher costs for energy, freight and other inputs.
Additionally, prices of lumber and other building materials slumped after a renovation project surge and the pandemic eased; the lower prices left many suppliers in shaky financial condition.
The L.A.-area fires have destroyed or damaged more than 14,000 structures. Many of the properties affected are single-family homes, causing severe problems for displaced people in a region that was already struggling with a shortage of houses and apartments — and the labor to build them.
Based on a rough estimate of 10,000 homes that may need to be rebuilt, that would be about double the number of new homes built annually in L.A. County in recent years.
“Adding a bunch of demand that’s unexpected and very pressing is very challenging for this market,” said Scott Wild, senior vice president at John Burns Research & Consulting in Irvine.
Just how soon large-scale rebuilding begins will depend heavily on insurance settlements — though some homeowners aren’t covered or are underinsured — and how long it will take to clear debris, restore utilities and get permits. State and local leaders have ordered a streamlining of environmental reviews, permitting processes and other efforts to speed up the cleanup and other tasks to begin rebuilding.
In addition, coordinated efforts may be needed to help free up supplies and keep a lid on prices, some industry executives say.
“People whose homes burnt down — they’re rebuilding their lives,” said Scott Laurie, chief executive at Olson Co., which builds homes in L.A. and Orange counties. “I would hope there’s a mechanism to control the costs. It absolutely needs to be done.”
Because most of the people affected are individual homeowners, the demand for construction may not pile up all at once, but instead be staggered over multiple months.
That will help ease the pressures.
Still, rebuilding 10,000 homes in the region would require, at minimum, an additional 5,000-plus truckloads of lumber, according to estimates by Kyle Little, chief operating officer at Sherwood Lumber, a national supplier that has significant business in California. Little said he sees a “tremendous increase” in demand for the varieties of Douglas fir wood that are typically used for home building in California.
“I do believe the volatility could be reminiscent of what we experienced in COVID,” said Little, who’s chair of the North American Wholesale Lumber Assn.
More domestic lumber has been produced in recent years in the Carolinas and the South, but Southern yellow pine is not considered as structurally sound for framing as Douglas and varieties of spruce and other pine trees logged in Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
Little and other experts estimate that lumber prices could jump 25% to 40%. And that’s even before any additional tariff increases. In the last six months, average lumber prices have ranged from $475 to $625 per thousand board feet, about one-third of the peak in 2021.
Donald Trump has threatened to add 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. Duties on lumber from Canada had risen to 14.4% in the summer last year after the expiration of a U.S.-Canada agreement on softwood lumber.
And a review of anti-dumping could further double the duties this year. If Trump tacks on 25% tariffs on top of that, import levies on Canadian lumber overall could top 50%.
The U.S. consumes roughly 50 billion board feet of wood a year, most of that for new residential construction. About 30% of that is imported, the vast majority from Canada, said Jesse Wade, an economist at the National Assn. of Home Builders.
Europe’s share of lumber imports has increased in recent years, but Trump has talked about applying 10% to 20% tariffs on goods from all countries. The construction industry also imports cement from Canada and Mexico for concrete used in homebuilding.
Frank Addiego, president of All Bay Mill & Lumber Co. in Napa County, says it’s anybody’s guess just what Trump will do on tariffs: whether it’s a tactic to win trade and other concessions or a long-term move to boost domestic production. But if Trump goes through with tariff increases on lumber, he said, it will “absolutely add” to the supply crunch.
Addiego recalled that lumber prices jumped about 50% over a few quarters following the 2017 Tubbs fire, which destroyed more than 5,600 structures in Napa and Sonoma counties.
At the same time, he noted that it’s also possible that lumber prices won’t go up much at all if Trump’s tariffs cause a slowdown in the economy and end up depressing homebuilding.
“The tariffs are a serious illness,” Addiego said, adding that he expects some builders to try to offset potential price spikes by locking in purchase contracts earlier.
Steve Kalmbach, president and chief operating officer at Thomas James Homes, a single-lot homebuilder based in Aliso Viejo, said he’s starting to get calls from owners of fire-damaged homes, with some saying they want to rebuild ASAP and others saying they aren’t sure what to do.
“We’re just at an information gathering stage at this point,” said Kalmbach, whose firm has built more than 50 homes in Pacific Palisades over the last decade. He said it was too early to say what the rebuilding would mean for supply and prices, but said the fires certainly aren’t what the market needed.
“Housing is challenged right now, whatever the issue. Everyone is trying to source the materials and labor,” he said.
Early in April, Ruben Hallali got an unusual alert on his phone: The evening temperature at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport had jumped about 6 degrees Fahrenheit in seconds.
Mr. Hallali, the chief executive of the weather risk company Sereno, had set up notifications for extreme weather swings. Then, nine days later, it happened again.
“It was an isolated jump, at one single station, early in the evening,” said Mr. Hallali, who added that he noticed another strange coincidence about the spikes: The timing was just right for somebody to reap a windfall on the betting site Polymarket.
He wasn’t the only one who sensed a problem. Météo-France, the country’s national meteorological service, filed a complaint last week with the police and local prosecutors, saying it had evidence that a weather sensor at Charles de Gaulle, the country’s largest airport, may have been tampered with.
The temperature swings, experts said, coincided with a period of unusual activity on Polymarket, one of the leading online prediction markets, which allow users to wager on the outcome of virtually anything.
One increasingly popular area is weather betting, where speculators can make real-time wagers on temperature readings, rainfall totals, the number of Atlantic hurricanes in a year and much more — with payouts in the thousands of dollars and higher.
As the stakes rise, so has the temptation to tamper with the instruments used to generate weather readings in hopes of engineering a lucrative outcome. Experts warn that this could have dangerous ripple effects, like degrading the information that underpins safe air travel.
Temperature data is used in a host of calculations at airports, helping determine correct takeoff distance, climb rate and whether crews need to apply frost treatment to planes. It’s crucial to airport safety, Mr. Hallali said.
“The Charles de Gaulle incident is not an isolated curiosity,” Mr. Hallali said. “It is what happens when financial incentives meet fragile data infrastructure.”
On April 6, the temperature reading at Charles de Gaulle jumped from 64 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees at 7 p.m., before slowly falling over the next hour, according to data from Météo-France.
On April 15, the recorded temperature climbed even more sharply, from 61 degrees at 9 p.m. to 72 at 9:30 p.m., then dropping back to 61 a half-hour later.
In both instances, the spikes set the high temperature for the day, the metric on which some Polymarket wagers rest.
Laurent Becler, a spokesman for Météo-France, said the service contacted the police after noticing the discrepancies in temperature data. He declined to comment further on the case, saying it was under investigation.
Mr. Hallali said that after the first instance, experts and commenters on the French weather forum Infoclimat began to search answers. Theories were floated, including user error. But after the second spike, commenters zeroed in on the unusual Polymarket wagers, which totaled nearly $1.4 million over the two days, according to the company’s data.
The sums bet on April 6 and 15 were hundreds of thousands of dollars higher than on typical days this month.
It is not the first time that strange bets on prediction markets have raised accusations of insider trading.
On Thursday, a U.S. Army special forces soldier who helped capture President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in January was charged with using classified information to bet on outcomes related to Venezuela, making more than $400,000 on Polymarket. Late last year, another trader on the site made roughly $300,000 betting on last-minute pardons from President Joseph R. Biden Jr. before he left office.
Polymarket did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While the site used to tie some bets to temperature readings at Charles de Gaulle, this week, after Météo-France filed its complaint, the platform began using temperatures taken at another airport near the city, Paris-Le Bourget, according to recent bets on the site.
Representatives for Charles de Gaulle airport declined to comment beyond saying that the case was under investigation. The airport police also declined to comment. The Bobigny Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is handling the case, declined to answer questions about the investigation but said that no complaint had been filed against Polymarket.
As to how the instruments could have been tampered with, a number of theories have been offered online, including by use of a hair dryer or a lighter. Mr. Hallali said that the precision of the spike on April 15 suggested the use of a calibrated portable heating device, although he declined to speculate about what kind.
“Markets are expanding into every domain where an outcome can be observed, measured, and settled,” he said. “As these markets multiply, so does the surface area for manipulation.”
As the war in Iran strangles the flow of oil around the globe, California’s jet fuel reservoirs are running low.
The state — which refines much of its own fuel in El Segundo and elsewhere but still relies on crude oil imports — has seen its jet fuel stock decline by more than 25% from last year’s peak to a level not seen since 2023, according to data from the California Energy Commission.
The supply is shrinking as a global shortage is already affecting travelers’ summer plans with canceled flights and higher fares. It could even affect plans for people coming to Los Angeles for the 2026 World Cup, which starts in June, said Mike Duignan, a hospitality expert and professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
“People don’t know exactly how this is going to escalate,” he said. “There’s a huge black cloud over the sea for the World Cup and the travel slump that we’re seeing is all linked to this oil shortage.”
As fuel supplies shrink, flight prices are rising. Airlines are adding baggage surcharges to cover fuel costs. Several routes leaving from smaller California hubs, including Sacramento and Burbank, have already been canceled.
Air Canada has suspended flights for this summer, cutting routes from JFK to Toronto and Montreal.
“Jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict, affecting some lower profitability routes and flights which now are no longer economically feasible,” the airline said in a statement last week.
Europe had just more than a month’s supply of jet fuel left last week, the International Energy Agency said. In an effort to cut costs, the German airline Lufthansa slashed 20,000 flights from its summer schedule this week.
Without a fresh oil supply flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, the situation is unlikely to improve, experts said. The oil reserves countries and companies have in storage are helping fill shortfalls, but the squeezed supply chain could still wreak economic havoc.
“When there’s a shortage somewhere, everything is affected,” said Alan Fyall, an associate dean of the University of Central Florida Rosen College of Hospitality Management. “Airlines are being cautious, and I would say that is a very wise strategy at the moment.”
California’s jet fuel stock reached its lowest levels in two and a half years at 2.6 million barrels last week, down from a peak of more than 3.5 million barrels last year.
The California Energy Commission, which tracks fuel inventory, said the state’s current jet fuel stock is sill sufficient.
“Current production and inventory levels of jet fuel are within historical ranges,” a spokesperson said. “Although supply is tight, no structural deficit has emerged yet. The present tightness reflects short‑term global market stress. As long as refinery operations remain stable, California is positioned to meet regional jet fuel needs.”
Europe has been affected more directly because it relies on the Middle East for the vast majority of its crude oil and many refined products, experts said. California gets crude oil from the Middle East but also from Canada, Argentina and Guyana.
The state has the capacity to refine around 200,000 barrels of jet fuel per day, most of it from refineries in El Segundo and Richmond.
The amount of crude oil originating in the state has been declining since the early 2000s, as state regulations and drilling costs have led to more imports.
California has become particularly vulnerable to supply-chain shocks like the war in Iran, says Chevron, one of the companies that provides jet fuel in the state.
“The conflict in the Mideast Gulf has exposed the danger of California’s decision to offshore energy production,” said Ross Allen, a Chevron spokesperson. “Taxes, red tape and burdensome regulations cost the state nearly 18% of its refinery capacity in just the past year, and we urge policymakers to protect the remaining manufacturing capacity.”
In 2025, 61% of crude oil supply to California’s refineries came from foreign sources, according to the California Energy Commission. Around 23% came from inside the state, down from 35% five years ago.
The state’s refining capacity has also been declining, said Jesus David, senior vice president of Energy at IIR Energy. The West Coast region’s refining capacity has decreased from 2.9 million to 2.3 million barrels a day since 2019, he said.
“California’s had issues prior to the war,” David said. “Nothing new has been built over the past 30 years, and California has closed a lot of capacity.”
The result is higher prices for both gasoline and jet fuel in the state. Jet fuel at LAX costs close to $15 per gallon this week, compared with almost $10 at Denver International Airport and $11 at Newark International Airport.
Gasoline prices have also been hit hard by the global conflict. Average gas prices in California are close to $6 a gallon, around $2 higher than the national average.
The West Coast is a “fuel island” because it’s not connected by pipelines to the rest of the country, United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby said in an interview last month. That means oil and refined products have to be brought in by ships.
“Fuel price is more susceptible to supply weakness on the West Coast than anywhere else in the country,” Kirby said.
Some airlines might not survive the turmoil if oil prices don’t level out soon, he said. Spirit Airlines, a budget carrier based in Florida, is reportedly facing imminent liquidation if it isn’t bailed out by the Trump administration.
Nike is cutting about 1,400 jobs in its operations division, mostly from its technology department, the company said Thursday.
In a note to employees, Venkatesh Alagirisamy, the chief operating officer of Nike, said that management was nearly done reorganizing the business for its turnaround plan, and that the goal was to operate with “more speed, simplicity and precision.”
“This is not a new direction,” Mr. Alagirisamy told employees. “It is the next phase of the work already underway.”
Nike, the world’s largest sportswear company, is trying to recover after missteps led to a prolonged sales slump, in which the brand leaned into lifestyle products and away from performance shoes and apparel. Elliott Hill, the chief executive, has worked to realign the company around sports and speed up product development to create more breakthrough innovations.
In March, Nike told investors that it expected sales to fall this year, with growth in North America offset by poor performance in Asia, where the brand is struggling to rejuvenate sales in China. Executives said at the time that more volatility brought on by the war in the Middle East and rising oil prices might continue to affect its business.
The reorganization has involved cuts across many parts of the organization, including at its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. Nike slashed some corporate staff last year and eliminated nearly 800 jobs at distribution centers in January.
“You never want to have to go through any sort of layoffs, but to re-center the company, we’re doing some of that,” Mr. Hill said in an interview earlier this year.
Mr. Alagirisamy told employees that Nike was reshaping its technology team and centering employees at its headquarters and a tech center in Bengaluru, India. The layoffs will affect workers across North America, Europe and Asia.
The cuts will also affect staffing in Nike’s factories for Air, the company’s proprietary cushioning system. Employees who work on the supply chain for raw materials will also experience changes as staff is integrated into footwear and apparel teams.
Nike’s Converse brand, which has struggled for years to revive sales, will move some of its engineering resources closer to the factories they support, the company said.
Mr. Alagirisamy said the moves were necessary to optimize Nike’s supply chain, deploy technology faster and bolster relationships with suppliers.
-
Missouri2 minutes agoKansas City, Missouri, police launch homicide investigation, after shooting at 55th and Prospect
-
Montana8 minutes agoEmergency declared as supply chain disruptions hit farms
-
Nebraska14 minutes agoToday in History – April 24: Statue added to top of Nebraska Capitol
-
Nevada20 minutes agoHenderson mental health professionals to be dispatched through 988
-
New Hampshire26 minutes agoNH News Recap: Local police and ICE funds; more YDC scrutiny; good news in Franklin
-
New Jersey32 minutes ago
How are public libraries funded in New Jersey? ⋆ Princeton, NJ local news %
-
New Mexico38 minutes agoHere’s how to get extra SNAP dollars in New Mexico this year
-
North Carolina44 minutes agoNorth Carolina Center Henri Veesaar Entering NBA Draft