FMC Photos - Continued
FMC Photos - Continued from page 1 Adam Moran, Hermitage Hardwood Lumber Sales Inc., Cookeville, TN; and Paul Noel and Fredrik Eriksson, TYR Wood Products, Portland, OR Scott Wesberry, Hardwoods of America, Fayette, MS; Tripp Pryor, AHEC, Sterling, VA; and Troy Jamieson, Somerset Wood Products, Burnside, KY Dave Bramlage, Cole Hardwood Inc., Logansport, IN; Keith Buckel, Verde-Wood International, Durham, NC; Adam Moran, Hermitage Hardwood Lumber Sales Inc., Cookeville, TN; and Brett Cant, MacDonald & Owen, Sparta, WI Ray White, Harold White Lumber Inc., Morehead, KY; John Chan, AHEC, Hong Kong, China; and Tracy Yang, Harold White Lumber Inc., Guangzhou, China Paul Vance, Northland Corp., LaGrange, KY; and Bill Long, Midwest Hardwood Corp., Maple Grove, MN Alan Wang, Max Luo and Ian Zhou, Northwest Hardwoods Inc., Shanghai, China; and Brian Chu, Northwest Hardwoods Inc., Hong Kong, China GBM Photos - Continued from page 6 Scott and Jody Boates, Logan Jones, Dick Jones and Joseph Belknap, The Teal-Jones Group, Surrey, BC; William Strange, Tekton Construction, Coeur d’Alene, ID; and Kiel Miller, The Teal-Jones Group, Vancouver, BC Benjamin Yang and Lyu Nu, Western Coast Enterprise Ltd., Richmond, BC; Jin Qian, C&C Wood Products Ltd., Richmond, BC; Michael McInnes, C&C Wood Products Ltd., Calgary, AB; David Jeffers, PPG TRUEFINISH, Raleigh, NC; Patrick Power, PPG TRUEFINISH Building Products, Vancouver, BC; and Ram Barn, PPG TRUEFINISH, Burnaby, BC Brooke Zeng, David Chu and Gigi Zhou, Western Forest Products, Vancouver, BC Helena Jehnichen, Tara Milosavljevic, Randi Walker, JC Lee, (Korea), Bonnie Tobin and Brenda Lee, BC Wood Specialties Group, Langley, BC Alex McCarter, Triad Forest Products Ltd., Vancouver, BC; Works Ltd., Delta, BC; and John McCarter, Triad Forest Products Ltd Carl Christoferson, Laurence Taylor and Cody Kwak, Wood Tone, Chilliwack, BC; and Kanaqaraj (Raj) Coimbatore Selvraj, Keerthi International, Chinnavedampatti Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, South India Sarah Quigley, Global Affairs Canada, Vancouver, BC; Brent Brownmiller, Gorman Brothers Lumber Ltd., West Kelowna, BC; Brent Callaghan and Brett Johnson, Interpro Forest Products Export Group/Dakeryn Industries Ltd., North Vancouver, BC Works Ltd., Delta, BC; and Gary Reid, Delta Cedar Specialties, Delta, BC John Langstroth, San Group Inc., Langley, BC; Rachel Ni, Export Development Canada, Vancouver, BC; Paul Deol, San Group Inc.; Vaughn Wright, Export Development Canada; and Suki Sanghera and Adam Hazelwood, San Group Inc Brett Johnson, Interpro Forest Products Export Group/Dakeryn Industries Ltd., North Vancouver, BC; Steve Winstone, Rick Palmiter and Philipp Klevers, BP Wood, Penticton, BC; and Eugen Dickerhoff, Klopferholz Gmbh & Co. Kg, Munich, Germany Page 10 Import/Export Wood Purchasing News October/November 2019
IMPORTS & TRADE - Continued from page 1 Stewart Sexton AHC Import Lumber Huntersville, North Carolina during the summer. I do expect the pace to pick up a bit into the fourth quarter. Sapele, African Mahogany and Red Grandis are our most steady movers. Prices have stayed steady, with a Stewart Sexton the end of the year. In the last year, we have encountered some of port congestion, but that problem has improved. Housing still remains good and possible further drops in interest rates should help keep business moving.” Jesper Bach Baillie Lumber Co. Wilmington, North Carolina “The market has been decent in 2019, but lack of consistency month-to-month has made it a little bit of a roller coaster experience. Heading into the fall it is still looking good, but with the trade war and wild swings in Jesper Bach the stock market it’s hard to know if it will hold up. Business has been quite heavy to Sapele in 2019, similar to the previous years. If prices remain somewhat level, that probably will not change much. There is some cheaper African Mahogany in the market, but for now most are sticking with the Sapele. Prices have been very level – we did have some concern that the Chinese slowdown would have an effect on the Sapele pricing, but the Chinese have been quite active and prices are holding steady. Some of the secondary species have seen large price drops, but hardly any of those species are imported for the U.S. market. Transportation has been ‘easy’ in 2019; Douala, Cameroon has been the main issue for a few years, but so far in 2019 cargo has been moving right along. From other areas of supply there has been no notable issues. The uncertainly is an issue for sure in the market–tariffs, stock market, housing starts–there are a lot of issues to monitor. Election years have had probably the best that we can hope for in 2020.” mestic side. We always have some issues with transportation, that’s normal. The port of Douala is especially congested, but it’s always congested so that’s really nothing new. I’m glad to see we are luckily getting a little relief on some of the government regulations. They’ve eased up on an export fumigation rule instituted by a previous presidential administration. Now if an inspector again is dealing with fumigators ‘of good character,’ they don’t have to sit and babysit them all the time. The regulations are still there, but the inspector doesn’t have to treat everybody as a criminal.” Jordan Dery Tropical Forest Products Mississauga, Ontario “2019 has really boomed for us in the imports. We brought in double what we did last year. We feel the phone has been ringing a lot more for the exotics than the domestic species we carry. Ipe and Sapele are currently our main bread and butter here at Tropical Forest Products. It’s been crazy–we can barely keep up Jordan Dery with the supply and demand. We are preparing for 2020 by increasing our warehouse space an extra 50,000 square feet. Price transportation from our overseas suppliers. 2019 has been our biggest year yet. And we will continue to work hard to be the top import supplier in North America.” Continued on page 16 Doug Newman Doug Newman Newman Lumber Co. Gulfport, Mississippi “The import business is somewhat steady. Things aren’t great, they’re not bad. It’s a toss-up as to whether Sapele or Spanish Cedar is our top a little bit of a concern, but we don’t import industry that you do on the do- Import/Export Wood Purchasing News October/November 2019 Page 11
