Import:Export Wood Purchasing News - August/September 2017

Business Trends U.S.A. - Continued from page 24
the Northeast region, especially for Maryland and Vermont contacts.
“Right now the biggest threat we have is the weather. It has been raining
non-stop for the last two months. The market right now for lumber is
doing well, it’s pretty steady even with the impeding weather,” stated a
lumber representative from Maryland. “We’ve been active and we haven’t
put out a stop list in nearly a month, we’re pretty much sold out in about
all of our strong items,” he commented.
“The market has certainly picked up and has come a long way since a
year ago,” he continued. “One issue is that we’re getting a lot of pressure
from exporting logs to China. They’re going to these landings and going
straight to the loggers trying to buy Ash and Red Oak right from them,
which is a big factor playing in Ash and Red Oak pricing.”
This contact primarily handles No. 2 Common and Better in Hard Maple
with thicknesses ranging between 4/4 to 8/4. His customers are primarily
brokers and manufacturers. “Manufacturers are buying a lot of No. 1
Common in Red Oak, Ash and Hard Maple. Maple is our number one
mover and the hottest item,” he mentioned.
Inventory is sporadic for the Northeast region as Maryland and Vermont
both have very tight log supplies.
“Our supply for both logs and lumber is very low. If we have lumber, we
can fi ll the orders,” stated a hardwood sales manager in Vermont. “The
market overall is better now than it was six months ago, despite the fact
that logs are pretty low in this area because of how much wetness there
is on the ground. With the amount of rain that we’ve had, it’s made production
slower, but the positive of it all is that we have lumber to sell and
we’re selling it and seeing a demand for it,” he added.
This contact handles mostly Hard and Soft Maple, Red Oak, Cherry with
some Ash in all grades of lumber with an extensive variety of thicknesses.
Customers for this hardwood sales manager is split between distributors
and end users. Expectations for this contact remains high coming into the
summer months, with hopes that rain will decrease, and demand along
with production will remain steady.
“Steady is good for us; steady still gives us work to complete and produce,”
he expressed.
Not all of the Northeast region faced terrible weather, or experienced low
levels of inventory.
“Weather has been very good to us,” stated a hardwood distributor in
Pennsylvania. “If anything, the weather has helped with our inventory
levels, which are adequate to full right now.”
This Pennsylvania contact primarily handles Soft Maple in No. 2 Common
and Better with thicknesses of 6/4, 8/4 and 10/4. Customers for this
contact are solely manufacturers.
“What’s selling the best for us right now is No. 1 Common in Maple,” he
commented. “With the summer heat, this is a slow time for Maple, but it’s
very steady and still doing extremely well. Low grade lumber on the other
hand, seems to be moving very slow.”
Southeast Region
Contacts reached in the Southeast region agree that the market is satisfactory.
With the summer months in full swing, the Southeast is seeing
above average rain fall, making sawing much more diffi cult. Transportation
remains an issue for parts of this region. For some, the cost for trucks
is absurdly high.
A hardwood sawmill source in North Carolina comments that the market
as of now is overall stable. He states that it may not be the best, but it
certainly isn’t the worst. He also notes that demand shows a split, some
items have gone up while the demand on others has gone down over a
six-month period, but production has always remained steady.
“There are those items that are harder to move than others, you always
see that trend. The market has changed a little bit from where it was a few
months back. Low grade lumber has gotten really hard to move, whereas
high grade lumber has gotten really hot and now it’s down a little,” he
said. “Weather has played a major role in our market and in our local
area. In the winter, it was too dry and there was oversupply. In the spring
here, it’s been really wet which has helped with the markets some. A lot of
the sawmills did run low on logs, but that never was an issue for us.”
This sawmill source handles everything that comes from the woods; Yellow
Poplar graded in No. 2 Common and Better with a thickness of 4/4 to
6/4, Red and White Oak in high grades, along with pallet cants, frame and
fl ooring grades, with Uppers in thicknesses ranging between 4/4 to 6/4.
Local Yellow Pine and Southern Yellow Pine ranges from 4x4, 4x6 and
6x6, with decking boards and mixed hardwoods usually in 4/4 thickness.
“What’s selling the best species wise is White Oak, behind it would be
Red Oak and Yellow Poplar,” he commented. “60 percent of our customers
are wholesalers and the remaining 40 percent are domestic manufacturers.”
Inventory levels for this contact is right where they need them to be.
Continued on page 26
Import/Export Wood Purchasing News August/September 2017 Page 25