SWHMC Continued from
SWHMC Continued from page 28 margins are starting to get squeezed a bit but they are still healthy enough to smile, just not to giggle about. We’ve grown business here in North America." A Mississippi lumberman said: "We've had a pretty good year in 2021 and 2020 was a good year. I am hearing that 2022 has some potential to continue that trend. We are busy as we can be. "Business is booming and we pay an hour for somebody to sweep the floor and then, you get somebody that knows how to read a tape measure, do a radius cut, put together a profile, put up P-Lam and solid surface and that is to an hour. So it is expensive to employ folks but you know, what are you going to do? I don’t care if it is insurance, milk, water, clothes, gas, a hotel room – it all costs more." Regarding employees, another attendee commented: "We have had trouble getting help just a little bit, but our boss just started paying all of us 0 a day – truck drivers, steer driving, knuckle boom driver, or whoever – 0 a day straight across the board to everyone." An Alabama lumber representative addressed the log/ lumber situation and how it all impacts housing, stating: "From May to September in my part of the world, it was as wet as I have ever seen and I had probably more timber fall, other than one time in my life, in different tracts and different places. We couldn’t get to any of them and then, in October, I think that we had two to four weeks of logs under water. Then everything started drying up, things started moving and here we are today. I’ve got about 4-1/2 million feet of logs underwater, too many logs, and I don’t know what the hell to do. I probably need to start to sell some, but business is good. Business is really good. Regarding the flooring business… I can think of one other time in my life since 1999 that it has been this good. Recently I was at a meeting in Nashville and they had a National Association of Home Builders Economist giving a talk about housing and showing all these slides. It was almost like being in Alice in Wonderland because all the slides showed nothing but growth. We all heard that we are behind on building houses so I said, 'I keep hearing we are behind on building houses and we have strong demand in the United States market; how long will it take us to catch up?’ He said, ‘It is going to take us 10 years to catch up.’ That’s like a million houses a year!" He continued, "The logging is a problem in our area. Any kind of labor is a problem. We all have problems, Please turn to page 43 JS-50 WX SCAN HEAD SIMPLY BETTER 30 FEBRUARY 2022 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE
Nate Irby, Railway Tie Association, Vicksburg, MS; David Roberts, Stella-Jones Corp., Jonesboro, LA; and David Hollis, Hassell & Hughes Lumber Co., Collinwood, TN Bill Price, All Star Forest Products Inc., Jackson, MS; Jay Hanna, Woodus K. Humphrey & Co. Inc., Shreveport, LA; and Craig Bilberry, Barefoot Lumber Company, Florence, MS Leslie Rutland and Joey Childs, Rutland Lumber, Collins, MS; and Eddie Carson, Beasley Flooring, Franklin, NC Scott Wesberry, Fred Netterville Lumber Co., Woodville, MS; and Robyn Birdsong, Kitchens Lumber Company LLC, Utica, MS Consistency. Yield. Trust. Specializing in Premium Pennsylvania Hardwood Lumber and Logs: • Red Oak • White Oak • Hard Maple • Soft Maple • Cherry • Poplar • Ash • Hickory ® Matson Lumber Company 132 Main St. Brookville, PA 15825 Phone: (814) 849-5334 Fax: (814) 849-3811 www.MatsonLumber.com info@MatsonLumber.com Your trusted source for exceptional quality and consistency for more than 200 years. FEBRUARY 2022 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 31
