The Softwood Forest Products Buyer - March/April 2023

Jay Bowling serves as Chief Executive Officer
of Blair Logistics, LLC in Birmingham, AL. He
graduated from Auburn University in 1979 with a
degree in logistics. Immediately following Auburn,
Jay started in the flatbed trucking industry and now
leads one of the fastest growing flatbed companies
in the industry. As CEO of Blair Logistics, it is his
passion to help contractors achieve their goal of
owning and operating their own business.
Jay Bowling
In 2009, Bowling started Blair Logistics with
Robbie Pike and Scott Smith under PS Logistics. With just 12 contractors,
Jeremy Pitts is the Southeastern regional sales
manager for Nyle Dry Kilns in Brewer, ME. He
worked in textiles for almost 18 years, which took
him all over the world, but eventually he was asked to
relocate outside of the country which he had no plans
of doing. It was at that point that he decided to join
an industry that was proud of their roots and where
they come from and one that he felt confident would
always be a global leader in the industry.
Jeremy Pitts
Pitts holds an Associate degree in Business Administration
from Colorado Technical University and also has experience in
Six Sigma protocols and Lean process improvement.
Who’s Who in Softwoods
Continued on page 28
Continued on page 30
Building Credibility With The
Fire Service
By: Jackson Morrill
President & CEO of the American Wood Council
The American Wood Council’s fire service engagement
efforts continue to bear fruit in a number of ways.
The program is just five years old this March and has
made significant strides in that time. Perhaps most
Jackson Morrill notable among recent achievements was our role in
shifting the National Association of State Fire Marshals’
(NASFM) position on tall mass timber.
Ray O’Brocki, AWC’s Fire Service Relations Manager, attended the National
Fire Protection Association’s Fire Marshal Forum in Dedham, Massachusetts. The
forum drew 30 of the 50 state fire marshals, but also provided an opportunity for
Ray to present to the NASFM executive board. This was a critical meeting because
NASFM issued a position statement opposing the tall mass timber proposals
when they were going through the code development process that ultimately
resulted in the allowance of tall mass timber buildings in the 2021 I-codes.
Using the opportunity to speak directly to the NASFM executive board, Ray
educated on tall mass timber codes and the testing done before their inclusion
Lee Greene is a product manager for C&D Lumber
Co., located in Riddle, OR, where he handles lumber
sales specializing in Cedar products.
C&D is a family-owned and operated forest products
company that has been in business for over 130 years,
producing 65 million board feet per year of Douglas
Fir, Incense Cedar and Port Orford Cedar, which are all
offered in a variety of grades, sizes and textures, with
most Cedar products offered kiln-dried. C&D specializes
in rough, sawn exposed timbers and appearance
surfaced decking.
In 1979, Greene graduated from Oakridge High School located in
Max Jones is a sales representative at Furtado
Forest Products (FFP), located in Coquitlam, BC,
FFP is a premium Western Red Cedar manufacturer in
BC. They deliver over 20 million board feet annually
to the market.
FFP carries Cedar in export clears, timbers, boards,
dimension, siding, decking, Grade A & Better finger
joint siding and trim; Alaskan Yellow Cedar in decking,
posts and timber; Paulownia in finger joint siding
and trim; and Cellular PVC in trim boards.
Max Jones
As a smaller family-owned business, FFP focuses on a customer first
approach--meaning they work with smaller custom runs, specified length
Hybrid Structures Provide More Opportunities For
Wood In An Urbanizing World
This photo of Ascent was created by Korb & Associates.
Continued on page 32
Lee Greene
Continued on page 30
Continued on page 30
APA Names New Chair and Vice Chair,
Trustees Join APA Board
A new chair, vice chair and two new members have been elected to
APA – The Engineered Wood Association’s Board of Trustees.
Ashlee Cribb, vice president of wood products for PotlatchDeltic Corporation,
has been elected to serve as chair on APA’s Board of Trustees, succeeding Roy O.
Martin III. Cribb steps into this position after being elected vice chair earlier this
year. Her areas of expertise include sales, marketing, strategic planning and opera-
Continued on page 32
In a new continuing education course on the Wood Institute—the Softwood
Lumber Board’s continuing education platform—Antony Wood, CEO of the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), quotes a United Nations
statistic that around the world, more than 1 million people are urbanizing every
week. To accommodate them, we will need to build the equivalent of a New York
City every month for the next 40 years. Will those people live in horizontal exurban
areas, or in ever-denser, ever-taller urban centers? “We at the Council, and I
think generally around the world, accept that this massive population growth and
urbanization needs to be accommodated in denser and more vertical cities. … The
land consumption and the energy needed to create and then operate that horizontal
city with people commuting an hour or two in and an hour or two out is just unsustainable
in the face of those 1 million new urban dwellers per week,” he says.
With only 160 mass timber structures in the world over 8 stories (either com-
Continued on page 36
Table of Contents
FEATURES
NAHB IBS................................. 1
SFPA EXPO.............................. 1
Gates Milling............................ 4
Continental Underwriters........ 6
NAWLA Regional Meeting....... 7
Lumber Shippers Survey........ 8
M&M Lumber............................ 9
DEPARTMENTS
Who's Who in Softwoods....... 2
AWC News................................ 2
APA News................................. 2
SLB News................................. 2
SEC News................................. 3
Retail Review......................... 16
Northeast Bus. Trends.......... 18
Inland West Bus. Trends....... 18
Midwest Bus. Trends............... 20
West Coast Bus. Trends......... 20
Southeast Bus.Trends.............22
Ont./Quebec Bus. Trends..... 22
In Memoriam.......................... 55
Stock Exchange................56-59
Trade Talk............................... 60
Calendar................................. 66
Classified Opportunities....... 66
Index of Advertisers.............. 66
A Bi-Monthly newspaper serving
North America’s Softwood Forest Products Buyers
Published by
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Canadian Correspondents: Toronto, Ontario, Vancouver,
B.C.
The Softwood Forest Products Buyer is the product
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Other publications edited for specialized markets and
distributed worldwide include:
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Handbook • Import/Export Wood Purchasing News
• North American Forest Products Export Directory
• Imported Wood Purchasing Guide • Green Book’s
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The Importance Of Market Diversification
For U.S. Forest Products Suppliers
By Rose Braden
President, Softwood Export Council
(www.softwood.org)
In December 2019, I presented an update on the U.S. lumber
market at a Japan Lumber Importers Association meeting as part
of an SEC’s annual exchange to connect U.S. Softwood lumber
suppliers and Japanese importers. The changes in the U.S. market
in just three years are striking and they underscore the importance
of international market diversity for U.S. Softwood lumber suppliers.
In 2019, U.S. housing starts were still recovering from the 2009 global recession, repair
and remodeling expenditures were down, and the Western SPF 2x4 composite price was $379 per thousand--far below a
May 2019 peak of $582. At the mill level, U.S. production was flat and mills in BC were curtailing production. The positive
news at the time was that the Western SPF 2x4 composite price was projected to reach $407 per thousand during first quarter
2020. Due to a housing shortage, home equity levels were high, and unemployment was low, which bode well for projected
growth in spending on repair and remodel projects.
Who could have imagined that six months later, lumber prices would surpass $1,400 per thousand and homeowners, armed
with time on their hands and equity in their homes would cause a repair and remodeling surge of a level never seen before?
Take Comfort In
Our Reputation
Our wood helps build some of the most comfortable
furniture available, but our reliability has
helped build something even more enduring…
our reputation. For over 70 years, we’ve been
providing wholesalers with one of the country’s
largest, most consistent supply of quality White
Pine and northeastern hardwoods from extensive
forests in northern New England. No
hassles. No misrepresentations. Just
a level of integrity
that’s as solid as
our products.
And that’s
something you
can feel very
comfortable with.
www.cersosimolumber.com
With 95% of the world’s consumers
located outside of the
US, exporting provides a way to
lessen the impacts of US market
downturns, and increase sales.
According to EXIM bank, companies
who export are 17% more
profitable than those who don’t
export.
Continued on page 39
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