National Hardwood Magazine - July 2011

ALC MEETING PHOTOS - Continued
Steve, Leah and Claire Leonard, Lawrence Lumber Co., Maiden, N.C.; and
Libby and Larry Walker, Forest Products Inc., Conover, N.C.
Larry Cockram, Griffith Lumber Co. Inc., Woolwine, Va.; Gale Keener, Mullican
Flooring, Ronceverte, W.Va.; and Anne Vogler and Joe Lyle, WNC Dry Kiln Inc.,
Marion, N.C.
Chris Buck, Forest Products Inc., Conover, N.C.;
Ray Hunt, Austin Hunt Lumber Co., Statesville,
N.C.; and Jimmy Lee, Tides & Times Group USA,
Winston Salem, N.C.
ALC MEETING - Continued from page 22
Scott of Conover Lumber Co., Conover,
N.C.; Roy Turner and Linwood Truitt of
Beasley Forest Products/Thompson
Hardwoods, Hazlehurst, Ga.; and Rodney
Lawing, Conover Lumber Co.
The second place team with a two under
par was Cliff McKittrick, of J.W.
McKittrick Lumber Co., Camden, S.C.;
Mark Church, of Church & Church
Lumber LLC, Millers Creek, N.C.; and
Gary Miller, of National Hardwood
Magazine, Memphis, Tenn.
Gary Miller reported for National
Hardwood Magazine that, “On my way
from Memphis, Tenn., to Myrtle Beach,
S.C., I stopped and visited several
Hardwood sawmillers and owners of
Hardwood distribution/concentration
yards in the Appalachian region, and I
asked them about current business conditions.
Some of their comments follow:
“On a scale of one to 10, I think business
conditions are a six or a seven,” said the
sales manager of a large sawmill operation.
“We have plenty of logs in our log
yard but we are concerned about how
we’ve lost many logging companies in our
Marsha and Linwood Truitt, Beasley Forest
Products/Thompson Hardwoods, Hazlehurst, Ga.
area. With the low prices we’ve been getting
for our lumber the last several
months, we’ve had to get our loggers to
take less money for their logs. They didn’t
like it but they accepted it.”
An owner of a Hardwood concentration
yard with dry kilns told me he thought
business conditions were a five on a scale
of one to 10. He explained, “The only saving
grace for the Hardwood lumber industry
is the fact that many parts of the eastern
seaboard of the United States have had
a lot of rain, therefore, many Hardwood
sawmill operations are very low on logs
and they are not running their mills at full
capacity. So there is not a lot of green or
kiln dried lumber available presently. But I
think the Hardwood lumber supply is balanced
with what the demand for lumber is
right now.”
One of the owners of a sawmill operation
that exports both Hardwood logs and lumber
said, “We’ve had the best several
months of sales and profits from October
2010 through May 2011, and most of it is
due to our strong export markets. I like the
idea that we see Red Oak lumber prices
increasing, and our White Oak lumber
sales have been strong. But, of course,
Anna Getzinger and Brad and Martha Merry,
Merry Lumber Co., Augusta, Ga.
we’d like to see Poplar lumber prices
come up.”
A buyer for a Hardwood flooring manufacturer
told me that, in his opinion, the
flooring market for his company was a
seven. He explained, “Lumber prices seem
like they stabilized last month. We’re selling
a lot of Hardwood flooring, however,
we’re not making any money.”
Some interesting comments were made
from an individual who worked for a
Hardwood lumber company that has several
sawmills in the Appalachian region.
He mentioned that some of his firm’s mills
were operating 50 hours a week a few
weeks ago, but several are now operating
only 30 hours a week because they are low
on logs due to all the rain we’ve had in the
Appalachian region recently. He said,
“Overall, prices on Appalachian
Hardwood lumber are stable, however, I
do see an increase on prices for Northern
Hardwood lumber because of the wet
weather that has occurred up there.
Furthermore, there’s a shortage of lumber
in that area of the country; so I see lumber
prices increasing in the northern region. In
Please turn the page
JULY/2011 33