After a year shaped by shifting trade policy, uneven demand, and cautious buying behavior, the U.S. wood pallet market appears to be entering 2026 on firmer footing, according to the newly released 2025 Year-End Pallet Market Survey Report from PalletTrader.
The survey, conducted over three weeks concluding in November 2025, gathered responses from hundreds of pallet buyers and suppliers across North America. Participants included pallet manufacturers, recyclers, brokers, and end users in manufacturing, warehousing, freight forwarding, and distribution. Together, their responses paint a picture of a market that underperformed mid-year expectations but stabilized as tariff concerns eased toward year’s end.
“Our fourth semi-annual survey found that tariff uncertainty throughout the year led to increased market volatility, driving fluctuating pricing and demand,” said John Vaccaro, PalletTrader’s chief executive officer. “We did see some stabilization at year-end as the sentiment around tariffs tempered and demand began to firm.”
Mid-Year Expectations Did Not Fully Materialize
Earlier in 2025, both buyers and suppliers entered the year anticipating steady or improving pallet demand, in part due to concerns that new tariffs could tighten supply and push prices higher. Those expectations proved overly optimistic.
Data in the Q4 report shows that demand growth fell short of projections made in the second quarter. Rather than a broad-based increase in pallet volumes, suppliers reported a more fragmented landscape, with gains in some accounts offset by declines elsewhere. In several cases, survey results suggest pallet volumes shifted between suppliers rather than expanding across the market as a whole.
That dynamic is consistent with a year marked by competitive bidding and active request-for-proposal (RFP) activity, as buyers sought pricing certainty in an uncertain policy environment. Instead of chasing growth, many pallet suppliers spent much of 2025 defending share and managing margins.
Pricing Volatility Softened Late in the Year
Pricing trends followed a similar arc. Early expectations for firmer pallet pricing, driven by anticipated tariff impacts and input cost pressure, were not fully realized.
By year-end, more respondents reported flat or declining prices than had been expected six months earlier. According to the survey, pricing outcomes softened as tariff-related pressure failed to materialize at the scale many market participants had anticipated. Both buyers and suppliers now largely expect pricing to remain flat or trend modestly upward in the near term, a signal that the market may have moved past its pricing floor.
“Looking ahead, we’re cautiously optimistic as the consensus of both buyers and sellers is an expectation of pricing to remain flat or trend slightly upward, signaling reduced volatility,” Vaccaro said. “We did also see some core tightening in certain regions but the national impact, if any, is yet to be determined.”
Inventory Levels Continue to Normalize
One of the clearest signals of stabilization in the Q4 survey is the continued normalization of pallet inventories.
Compared to earlier surveys, a growing share of respondents reported holding two weeks or less of pallet inventory on hand, while very few indicated inventory positions exceeding 30 days. That shift suggests excess inventory accumulated earlier in the cycle has largely been absorbed, reducing the risk of price pressure from oversupply.
The report also shows that pallet availability remained largely stable through the second half of the year. Most suppliers indicated that supply conditions were unchanged compared to six months earlier, and expectations for near-term availability remained steady despite lingering economic uncertainty
Core Availability Tightens in Select Regions
While finished pallet supply remained broadly balanced, the survey highlights emerging pressure points in pallet core availability.
According to supplier responses, excess core inventories that built up during the COVID period have now been largely depleted. In certain regions, particularly in the western United States, a majority of suppliers reported a decline in core availability compared to six months earlier. This regional tightening introduces localized risk, even as national supply conditions remain stable.
Looking ahead, respondents expressed mixed expectations for core pricing. A plurality anticipate pricing to remain consistent in the coming months, while a meaningful share expects increases, reflecting the belief that depleted inventories could begin to exert upward pressure.
Tariff Anxiety Eases, but Has Not Disappeared
Trade policy remained a defining theme in the 2025 survey, though its influence appears to have moderated.
More than half of respondents still anticipate a negative impact from current or potential future tariffs, primarily due to concerns over price increases and sourcing challenges. However, the proportion of respondents expecting no impact has grown since earlier in the year, suggesting that uncertainty — rather than direct disruption — was the dominant factor shaping behavior in 2025.
The report characterizes tariff-related effects as increasingly indirect: influencing sentiment, pricing strategies, and inventory decisions, rather than driving immediate supply constraints.
Lumber Cost Expectations Moderate
Lumber pricing, another critical input for the pallet industry, also showed signs of stabilization.
Compared with mid-year survey results, a larger share of respondents now expect lumber prices to remain flat, while fewer anticipate sharp increases. At the same time, a notable portion of respondents remain uncertain about future lumber costs, underscoring the continued sensitivity of the market to broader economic and trade developments.
This moderation in lumber cost expectations aligns with the broader theme of reduced volatility emerging late in the year.
A Cautiously Optimistic Outlook for 2026
Taken together, the Q4 survey findings suggest that the pallet market is exiting a volatile period marked by uncertainty and uneven performance.
“After a year of notable ups and downs, the market appears to be transitioning from volatility to stability,” Vaccaro said. “We expect 2026 to reflect cautious optimism with suppliers anticipating modest growth and buying conditions normalizing. The overall sentiment suggests a more stable market with less downside risk, leveled-out supply and fewer sharp swings in demand.”
While risks remain, particularly around regional core availability and future trade policy, the consensus emerging from the survey points to a market that has recalibrated expectations and adjusted to a more measured growth environment.
The report can be accessed here.
PalletTrader operates as an independent, neutral online platform connecting pallet buyers and suppliers through both a self-service marketplace and fully managed enterprise solutions. The company was founded by Bettaway Supply Chain Services, which provides pallet management, transportation, warehousing, and logistics services across North America.
Note, an earlier version of this article mistakenly referenced content from the Q2 PalletTrader report.
Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
