National Hardwood Magazine - November 2023

NORTHEAST Continued from page 6
Soft Maple, Yellow Birch and Ash in grades Select and
Better, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Common in thicknesses of 4/4
and 5/4. He noted that they also handle cants. “Red Oak
is moving the best for us right now, even though we aren’t
able to make much money off it,” he said.
His company primarily sells to end use manufacturers
and distribution yards. He said that while his customers
haven’t directly said how their business is doing, they
seem to be doing well based on his lumber sales.
“I think that we still have some headwinds in front of
us,” he said. “I think that we are going to see impacts
from the rising energy prices over the last quarter of this
year and into the first quarter of next.”
A lumber representative in Massachusetts said that
their market couldn’t be any better. “We are doing just
as well as we were six months ago,” he commented.
“We aren’t having any problems what so ever.”
His company handles all New England Hardwoods in
all grades and mostly in 4/4 thickness. “We cut our own
timber and sell the grade lumber piece by piece to retail
lumber yards,” he added. “We take the lower grades and
turn them into pallets, selling them to different factories.”
In Pennsylvania, a lumber saleswoman said that while
their main species are still moving fairly well, they all
differ. “White Oak is our best seller right now and it is
hot. Red Oak has really started to improve and Poplar
is moving, however the prices for it are stagnant,” she
remarked.
She noted that pricing has gone up as volume has decreased.
“Volume is down. We’ve had issues with labor
and with the heat this summer we weren’t pushing hard
to get more volume. So, our air-dried inventory is low
and while we have logs coming in we are choosing to
keep a low inventory out of necessity,” she said.
She continued to say that they are having issues moving
their lower grades which has posed a problem as
they aren’t able to produce higher grades without moving
the lower.
She said that her company sells to end users such as
stair and flooring manufacturers, as well as distribution
yards and some exporters. “Sixty percent of our sales
used to be exports but that has flipped and we now do
more domestic sales than anything,” she added.
When asked how her customers were doing she said
that while they seem to be very busy at times, they will
suddenly find themselves extremely slow on occasion. n
SOUTHEAST Continued from page 7
also mentioned that White Oak is his best selling species
with plenty of demand.
When asked what types of customers that he sells
to, he said secondary manufacturers, such as flooring,
cabinets and moulding, as well as distribution yards.
“Some of my clients are doing worse than others. It
seems that the Hardwood flooring sector is suffering
worse than any other sector that I sell to.”
Another Mississippi lumberman said, “Our market
seems to be going the wrong way. Over the past few
weeks, I’ve been thinking that everything is terrible, but
once I looked at the financial statements everything was
where it needed to be and we are actually doing okay.”
His company offers all species that are indigenous to
the Southeastern United States, with Oak and Poplar
being his best sellers. He noted that they handle pallet
grade through Face with a primary thickness of 4/4.
He sells to end users and pallet manufacturers. “We
are often able to tell how the economy is doing based
on how the pallet manufacturers are doing, and I just
recently had a pallet customer tell me that their business
has slowed down and that they were not going to need
as much product as usual,” he said.
“We have had such an amazing last three years and
we are at a point where we think we could be doing better
than we are, but we have become accustomed to a
different marketplace since the pandemic,” he continued.
A lumber salesman from North Carolina said that his
sales have started to quiet down. “We are still shipping
and I am optimistic about this fall, however the winter
may be a different story,” he added.
Please turn to page 47
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NOVEMBER 2023 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 45