Lumber Cools, Freight Doesn’t: What Sauna Wood, Kits and Heaters Cost This Fall

Framing lumber has spent the fall getting cheaper. Lumber futures settled at $525 per thousand board feet on October 20, 20% below their 2026 closing high of $659 on July 22 (CME lumber futures history). Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2x4 #2&Btr traded at $454 in the week ending October 9, down $18 from a month earlier (Madison’s Lumber Reporter).

Most of the other costs in a sauna went the other way, and so did the cost of delivering one. Old Dominion’s LTL fuel surcharge for the week starting October 28 is 53.32% of the linehaul charge, against 27.07% a year ago (Old Dominion). Mills charged 36.9% more for cold-rolled steel sheet in September than a year earlier (Bureau of Labor Statistics). And from October 30, end-matched Canadian cedar paneling pays the 50% Section 338 tariff, as plain tongue-and-groove already does.

Prices for finished goods moved far less. The BLS index for prefabricated wood buildings, the closest it publishes to US-built sauna kits, rose 4.4% over the same year. Heating equipment other than furnaces, the closest index to sauna heaters, rose 4.3%. Softwood lumber, despite its fall slide, was still 14.2% above September 2025 at the mill. On those figures, makers have passed little of the increase on so far.

Sauna makers have said little publicly about prices this year. Almost Heaven’s site advertises “New Everyday Low Pricing.” We found no 2026 price-increase or tariff-surcharge notice from the other sauna, heater and sauna-wood brands we checked.

Fuel surcharges now add more than half to an LTL bill

US on-highway diesel averaged $6.276 a gallon in the week of October 19, against $3.620 a year earlier (EIA). West Coast diesel cost $7.394, and California’s $8.242. The national average peaked at $6.529 on September 21, the highest in EIA’s weekly series, which starts in 1994. Fuel has run high since the Strait of Hormuz crisis began in late February, which our July cost report covered at the time.

LTL carriers pass that on through a fuel surcharge that resets every week. Estes Express has charged 56.8% since October 21, against 29.0% a year ago (Estes). On a crated kit with a $1,000 linehaul charge, Old Dominion’s surcharge comes to $533, against $271 a year ago. When delivery is built into a sauna’s price, the seller carries that increase; when freight is quoted separately, the buyer does. Base rates went up as well: Old Dominion raised them 4.9% on October 5 (FreightWaves).

Across carriers, the BLS index for long-distance LTL freight, which counts fuel surcharges as part of the price, was 19.8% higher in September than a year earlier. Truckload was up 17.9%, and courier and express delivery, the parcel services that carry heaters and accessories, 11.4%. EIA’s October outlook has diesel averaging $5.81 in the fourth quarter and $4.49 in 2027 (Short-Term Energy Outlook).

Ocean freight from Europe costs more too. Xeneta put the spot rate from North Europe to the US East Coast at $2,893 per 40-foot container in early October, 96% above its February 28 level (FreightWaves).

End-matched cedar joins the 50% list October 30

A proclamation signed October 23 rewrites the list of Canadian goods that pay the 50% Section 338 tariff, for goods entered from 12:01 a.m. Eastern on October 30 (White House). Its product list adds HTS 4409.10.05, softwood “continuously shaped along any of its ends” (Annex I). That’s end-matched paneling, tongued and grooved on the ends as well as the edges.

Until now, end-matched boards stayed off the list. From October 30, end-matched cedar from a producer at the 24.75% lumber-duty rate pays 74.75% in total, the same as plain tongue-and-groove (our breakdown of the October 19 cedar rates). Siding, HTS 4409.10.10, stays off the list at 24.75%. Sawn and planed boards pay 34.75%, which includes the 10% Section 232 lumber tariff.

The same list adds thin MDF, engineered flooring and some fiberboard, and drops seven lines of thin hardwood plywood, birch and walnut among them. It adds no molding lines. Pine standard moldings (4409.10.40) and other softwood moldings (4409.10.50) have been on the list since August 22. Finished sauna buildings, HTS 9406.10, aren’t on it at all. Our August walk through the Section 338 list covers when CBP treats a Canadian sauna as a building and when as boards.

The tariff is in court. Gellert Global Group, a New Jersey cheese importer, asked the Court of International Trade on October 23 to halt Section 338 collections or decide the case now. The government’s response is due November 13 (court docket). One of Gellert’s arguments is that the statute bars collecting the duties until 30 days after a product is added. The new wood lines take effect after seven.

Customs says cedar planed in New Zealand is still Canadian

Kiln-drying and planing Canadian cedar in New Zealand didn’t take it out of the lumber duties, CBP has ruled. In May, it found that western red cedar siding, trim boards and patterns imported by Coastal Specialty Forest Products of Bow, New Hampshire, for its ELITE brand were Canadian (EAPA case 8199). Herman Pacific of New Zealand had kiln-dried, planed and sanded the raw Canadian cedar, and edge-glued some of it, before shipping it on. CBP upheld the finding on review on September 11.

Coastal sued on October 9, and the government’s record is due November 18 (Coastal Specialty Forest Products v. United States). No amount has been published, but Coastal will owe the unpaid duties and post cash deposits on future entries, according to the US Lumber Coalition.

Imported sauna heaters pay 15%, wood stoves 25%

Steel moved the most. Steel mill products cost 27.6% more in September than a year earlier, and cold-rolled sheet more still. Heater and stove bodies are formed from sheet and plate steel.

Imported heaters and stoves pay the Section 232 steel tariff wherever they’re made. Electric sauna heaters are classified with electric space heaters under HTS 8516.29, which Commerce added to the list of steel derivatives in August 2025 (Federal Register). Since June 8, that line has sat on a temporary reduced list, so the base duty and the Section 232 tariff come to 15% in total through December 31, 2027 (Proclamation 11021; Proclamation 11032). On January 1, 2028, the Section 232 rate on them goes to 25%, on top of the base duty. Wood-burning stoves, heading 7321, already pay a 25% Section 232 tariff on their full value.

Harvia, which owns Almost Heaven Saunas in West Virginia, says about 70% of the end products it sells in the US are made there, which limits its tariff exposure (half-year report). Its North American sales rose 23.5% in the first half, to €47.4 million. It said in November 2025 that it was raising prices in the region to offset higher costs there, and it reports nine-month results on October 29.

European sauna rooms and wood pay 10%

The 10% Section 122 surcharge that replaced the IEEPA tariffs expired July 24 (our coverage of the IEEPA ruling). Since late July, Section 301 tariffs from the US Trade Representative’s forced-labor investigations have applied to goods from 60 economies, the European Union among them (USTR notice). For EU goods with a base duty under 10%, the total is 10%.

That covers a prefabricated sauna room from Estonia or Finland (HTS 9406.10, base duty 2.6%) and thermally modified paneling (heading 4409). Goods that pay Section 232, heaters among them, are exempt from the Section 301 tariff. More than 20 states and several importers are challenging it at the Court of International Trade, with no ruling yet (court docket). Importers of record claim IEEPA refunds through CBP’s refund process.

Builders are cutting prices, and mills are cutting output

The housing market that sets framing lumber prices is weak. Builder confidence fell to 29 in October, the lowest since June 2012, and 43% of builders cut prices (NAHB). Single-family starts ran at an 859,000 annual rate in September, the lowest in a year (Census data via NAHB). Freddie Mac’s 30-year mortgage rate was 7.32% on October 22 (Freddie Mac).

Mills are pulling back. Western Forest Products’ Cowichan Bay sawmill stays curtailed for the rest of 2026 (Western Forest Products). Louisiana-Pacific began an indefinite curtailment of OSB production at Jasper, Texas, in October (LP). Panels held up better than lumber: Madison’s called OSB “strong” in mid-October, and 7/16-inch OSB delivered in British Columbia was C$390 per thousand square feet in the week ending October 16, against C$315 a year earlier (BC weekly prices).

Before you price winter orders

• Quote freight with its fuel week. LTL surcharges reset weekly off EIA’s diesel average, and Old Dominion’s runs Wednesday to Tuesday. Ask which week’s rate applies at pickup.
• Re-check Canadian cedar entered from October 30. End-matched paneling no longer avoids Section 338. Get the 10-digit HTS number and the producer’s name. Of the usual cedar paneling lines, only siding (4409.10.10) is still off the list.
• Price imported electric heaters at 15% through 2027. Wood-burning stoves pay 25% now. On January 1, 2028, electric heaters move to a 25% Section 232 rate plus the base duty, unless the rule changes.
• Buy framing lumber as you need it. On October 20, March futures settled at $544.50, 3.7% above November. That’s a small premium, and not a forecast.
• Keep the entry paperwork. Section 338 and the Section 301 tariffs are both before the Court of International Trade, and any refund goes to the importer of record.