National Hardwood Magazine - October 2014

SAWMILL MD continued

SAWMILL MD continued from page 59 tinue to focus on what we need to do on our end. They allow us to provide the level of customer service and quality that we expect from ourselves for our customers. Our relationships with our vendors and our customers are in the forefront of everything that we do at Sawmill MD. Tommy and Lee Stiles at A.W. Stiles are great people to work with and they’ve been working with us for a number of years. We’ve given each other business opportunities because we’ll see something the other can do or we’ll partner on it if we can. It’s good to work with real honest straightforward people. That’s one of the reasons I love this industry. Because you know the people are honest people to work with and that’s what makes it fun.” For more information visit www.sawmillmd.com or email Mike Ballard and Duncan Ferguson at sawmillmd@mindspring.com. ■ SOUTHEAST continued from page 14 well, but getting your hands on supply is the difficult part.” With average inventory levels he said his prices have been trending up across the board. “Between supply and demand, higher prices are the new normal. I don’t look for any real improvement in pricing over the next two or three months. We are looking at the first of the year before inventory starts to loosen up.” Transportation concerns are at the top of the list for suppliers. In Mississippi a source said, “Trucking availability is terrible. Most of the trouble is on the availability side, not the cost. I have three loads that have been sitting for a week. Finding the trucks to carry them is the problem. LTL’s are simple, but full flat-beds are an issue.” Marketing 90 percent of his stock to distribution yards he said his customer’s demand is up, which makes supply issues difficult to manage. “I don’t see much changing until early 2015.” A Hardwood supplier in Alabama noted, “The market is good right now. It may be slightly worse than earlier this year, but we’re still not doing bad. Transportation is affecting us, but supply is easing up. Demand on finished goods as well as the lumber isn’t quite as strong as earlier in the year. Transportation is a major issue. Freight costs were a concern early on, but now availability has tightened to the point that cost is the least of our concerns.” Supplying Red and White Oak, Hickory, Walnut and Maple the contact said, “Inventory is the highest we’ve seen in the history of this company. Prices are down slightly and business looks good. I think we’ll hold steady for the remainder of the year.” ■ For decades, Northland Corporation has offered the best Value in High Quality Hardwoods for our customers. From our Menu we can promptly ship virtually any Domestic, Imported, and Exotic species. Whether your take out order is gently kiln dried or carefully air dried...rough or planed...standard or custom lengths, widths, thicknesses...We are here to serve you. When your “just-in-time” order arrives, you will be pleased to see that the lumber is flat & straight because our Hardwood is measured and graded after kiln drying...sorted in five separate lengths...accompanied by a printed manifest detailing package numbers, footage, thickness, grade, length, average width, and number of pieces - all to make it easy for you to keep track of inventory...turning it, problem free, into product and profit. ALL OF THIS AND WE DELIVER! CALL OR FAX TODAY “The Best Value in High Quality Hardwoods” 1-800-873-1441 P.O. BOX 265, 2600 HIGHWAY 146 EAST LAGRANGE, KY 40031, USA FAX: 502-222-5355 Web: www.northlandcorp.com E-mail: tagirardi@gmail.com LAKE STATES continued from page 14 little. We’ve hit a wall on the upper grades of Birch and the No. 1 Common Hard Maple and No. 2 and 3A Soft Maple. I would say that those are our weak points right now. It hasn’t come to a dead stop, but it’s definitely a lot more challenging than it was. I think the issue lies with China’s reluctance and pullback on Red Oak. A lot of people went to other species instead. They just decided that at this point they were going to put the Red Oak on the shelf. We’ve seen more orders for Birch and Soft Maple than anything else, because the Red Oak was going to be a loss for them if they kept on producing it. That put a lot of other species on the market and it’s affected us for sure. Everyone 70 OCTOBER 2014 ■ NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE

was sawing Maple, for instance, and throwing it to the flooring plants and the cabinet manufacturers, whereas normally they would be sawing Red Oak and selling it to China. The minor species became the major species as far as production goes. Not so far as what people are using, but as far as production goes.” In Wisconsin a Hardwood supplier stated, “Inventory levels have risen. They always do this time of year. We’re hoping to see a little bit of a drop through the end of the year. Late in the summer, lumber goes through the kilns faster, too. It’s not frozen and it air dries better, so it does push up the inventory a bit.” Primarily serving domestic markets, the contact does serve some export customers. “Comments from customers in Europe are that things are a little slow to pick up after vacation time, but we’re still moving lumber in that direction. Canada is in the same situation as us. They have their summer shut down for two to three weeks and it just takes a while to get geared back up afterwards.” When asked about the months ahead in the final quarter he said, “Things are going to stay quiet I believe. A lot depends on whether or not China comes back on the market or not.” ■ NORTHEAST continued from page 14 that air-drying is pretty much non-existent this year. The kilns are turning a little bit slower because of that and we’re not getting enough air on some of the wood.” Offering most domestic Hardwood species he said, “I’ve been getting above market prices on Aspen and we’re actually sold out right now. Soft Maple has been a little harder to find and I’d probably be in the same boat if I were looking for Hard Maple. I’m not, because I have plenty of it inventoried. Our biggest issue is the price between the green and kiln-dried. There’s no margin in there. I can’t help but wonder how they’re figuring the math because it costs more than 0 to process and you’re tying up over a foot of lumber, yet you can’t get a per thousand foot margin in there.” As for the rest of the year he commented, “If weather patterns keep up throughout the U.S., it’s going to keep our inven- Please turn to page 82 WEST COAST continued from page 14 netry industry and other applications are planned for later production.” Handling Hard Maple, Cherry, Red Oak, Poplar, Walnut and Alder, a Hardwood supplier in Oregon said higher grades are moving the best. “It’s more diverse than it used to be. There was a time when the majority of what went out the door was Maple and Cherry, but now there’s a pretty good mix of Alder, Red Oak, and Poplar. It’s gotten a lot more straight-lined than peaks and valleys. Only Walnut seems to be having an availability issue from time to time.” With average inventories he said prices are mostly stable. “The difficulty finding Walnut has driven the prices up on that, but everything else has been stable for the last six or seven months.” As for transportation concerns he said, “The issue is that there’s not a lot to backhaul, so a lot of the drivers don’t want to come here for a one-way ticket.” Marketing to cabinet and furniture manufacturers he said, “For the most part we have the inventory that they need and things are looking really good for the rest of the year.” ■ OCTOBER 2014 ■ NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 71