United States softwood lumber industry project

REQUIREMENT By means of the RFP, NRCan is seeking the services of a firm to provide an in-depth analysis to project the amount that the U.S. will increase SWL production under three projected SWL duty rates. This will require a deep understanding of SWL supply, trade, and market demand of both the U.S., Canadian, and overseas markets. Key determinants (at a minimum) will be: market and price forecast, current capital allocations at the mills, ability and desire to invest in new capital, and availability of fibre supply, mill labour force, logistics capacity (e.g. hauling) and logging capacity. NRCan is not seeking the results of a modelling exercise based on assumptions about supply elasticities. CONDITIONS OF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) There shall be no direct payment by NRCan for costs incurred for the presentation and submission of proposals in response to this RFP. ESTIMATED CONTRACT PERIOD The estimated period of the contract will be from contract award to 31 March 2018. SOLICITATION/BID CLOSING DATE AND SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS The deadline for submissions of bids in response to this RFP is 06 February 2017 @ 01:00 p.m. (E.S.T.). It is the Bidders responsibility to ensure that proposals are sent to the following e-mail address, by the time and date indicated on page 1 of this RFP document: serge.tshimanga@canada.ca. ENQUIRIES All enquiries concerning this RFP must be submitted in writing to the Contracting Authority (Serge.Tshimanga@canada.ca) as early as possible within the bidding period. Enquiries must be received no less than five (5) calendar days prior to the bid closing date to allow sufficient time to provide a response. Enquiries received after that time may not be able to be answered prior to the bid closing date. RIGHTS OF NRCAN NRCan reserves the right to: - Seek clarification or obtain verification of statements made in a proposal; - Reject any or all proposals received in response to this RFP;  - Enter into negotiations with one or more Bidders on any or all aspects of its proposal; - Accept any proposal in whole or in part without prior negotiation; - Cancel and/or re-issue this RFP at any time; - Verify any or all information provided by the Bidder with respect to this RFP including references; - Retain all proposals submitted in response to this RFP; - Declare a proposal non-compliant if NRCan determines during the evaluation phase, that the Bidder does not have the legal status, facilities and technical, financial and managerial capabilities to fulfill the requirements stated herein; - Discontinue the evaluation of any proposals which are determined, at any stage of the evaluation process, to be non-compliant.