Look back on 2023 and look forward to 2024 with the Christmas issue of National Hardwood Magazine. The issue also features stories on Lauzon Hardwood Flooring, Wolverine Hardwoods, the RTA Annual Symposium & Technical Conference, and much more.
2024 HARDWOOD PURCHASING
2024 HARDWOOD PURCHASING PLANS Continued Oak and Walnut prices increasing over the past three months. FAS Poplar, White Oak, and Select Cypress continue to be our biggest movers. Walnut has been steady; Nos. 1 and 2 in Hard Maple has picked up a little this year. FAS Red Oak, Cherry and Soft Maple, however, have been slow. I noticed that FAS Flat Cut White Oak was preferred over the past year. A CLEANER, GREENER CHOICE While we will not be adding new products or services, we will be adding automated equipment to lower labor costs and be more competitive with current offering. Transportation and logistics have not posed a problem for us and I have noticed that truck freight has come down over the past six months and availability is better. We have been able to cover our labor needs. We have increased wages to stay competitive and attract quality employees. We have not had any supply issues that stand out, and our demand has been strong all year. Demand has been good all year, up 20 percent over 2022. We anticipate 2024 being steady with only a 10 percent increase in revenue. s what’s new (www.WhiteRiver.com). We ship LTL for outbound orders to our customers and have a good relationship with our drivers. Ocean freight has been good. Prices on transportation have also been good. We are actively looking for two or three skilled employees. They are out there but you have to have patience at times. We have not had any real issues with the supply chain, except with some machine parts coming from overseas. Our lead times are less than a week and transit for thousands of stock items. Lead times on custom items are three to four weeks. We work on some of the largest homes in America and pride ourselves on designing and developing some of the most exquisite interior millwork in America. s turers, as well as decking installers. Some sectors of our market like Hardwood plywood and millwork, including Hardwood moulding and S4S boards remain fairly steady, while others experienced a noteworthy decline in volume. Our decking business declined in 2023 and we anticipate that trend to stay the same into 2024. Decking surged during and immediately post Covid, but between high costs and a saturated mar- Please turn the page Patrick Lumber Company Over 100 Years in Business Est 1915 Our Specialized Services Include: • Shipping Dry Lumber • Kiln Dried Lumber • Clear Strips • Surfacing-2-Sides (S2S) • Gang Ripping / Parallel Sawing • Straight Line Ripping • Optimized Cross Cut • Molding Millwork • Edged & Face Glued Products • End Matching (Cabinet Parts & Flooring) Wheeland Lumber Company, Inc. 3558 Williamson Trail • Liberty, PA 16930-0965 USA P: 570-324-6042 • F: 570-324-2127 Ben Johnson White River Hardwoods Fayetteville, AR We anticipate prices to stay steady in 2024. White Oak has been in high demand for us over the past year while we continue to run FAS Poplar as our daily Hardwood for production and stock mouldings. Other Hardwoods we run weekly are Cherry, Hard Maple and Mahogany. We anticipate that we will continue to introduce new products throughout 2024, which will be an exciting year for White River. Our new products range from wood to plaster materials offering hundreds of new SKUs. We introduce new products and services throughout the course of the year, please check our website to see Eric Boer Mason’s Mill & Lumber Co. Houston, TX 2023 started off pretty briskly for us and maintained steady activity through the first three quarters. We noted an overall decline in activity starting in our 4th quarter. This was expected as interest rates and inflation continue to take their toll on the construction market. There is still both residential and commercial building underway but it has cooled down from the robust market we saw emerge post Covid. Mason’s Mill & Lumber supplies the custom residential and commercial builder market, as well as the industrial trades that service that market including cabinet shops, custom door and window manufacturers and flooring manufac- Patrick Lumber Company is a secondary manufacturer and exporter of niche high-grade wood products sold to a network of worldwide distribution. Products: Doug Fir Western Red Cedar Southern Yellow Pine Western Hemlock Alaskan Yellow Cedar West Coast Softwoods West Coast Hardwoods Services: Remanufacturing Packaging & Transport Consultation Procurement 33415 Noon Rd., Philomath, OR 97370 503-222-9671 sales@patlbr.com Follow us on Instagram @Patricklumber patlbr.com 2022 Impact Advertising • 22WLC-PFC-PAHardwoods-ProgAd-Aug-B 62 CHRISTMAS 2023 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE RealAmericanHardwood.com/industry RealAmericanHardwood.com/industry CHRISTMAS 2023 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 63
