In this aritcle from the Charleston Regional Business Journal, the Forest2Market wood-fiber consulting service explains the significant rise in price of lumber in 2010. This article caught my interest because I am originally form a lumber producing town that has suffered immensely for the past few years.
Beginning in December of 2009, the price of lumber rose from $252 per board feet to $263 per board feet at the end of 2010.
If you only look at price, it doesn't look like there has been a significant difference from 2009 to 2010. Looking further into the problem you can see that the significant difference is the amount of logs being supplied to the sawmills. At the beginning of 2010, sawmills faced log shortages due to an unusually wet fall. Becuase of this factor, the mills could not produce enought board feet for the increasing production demands of 2010. Because of the lack of logs during the better half of 2009 and the recession, the price of board feet rose pushing lead times out weeks and even months.
This year the inventories are healthier and are predicted to stabilize with the growing demand later in the year. As long as the mills can meet the market demand, prices should stay relatively the same.
The question I have is "is the log shortage affecting mills all over the United States or is it only affecting mills that manufacture certain species of trees?" I know that mills in the Pacific Northwest are suffering rightnow and this article was written about mills on the east coast.
http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/37521-lumber-prices-up-4-4-for-2010
Beginning in December of 2009, the price of lumber rose from $252 per board feet to $263 per board feet at the end of 2010.
If you only look at price, it doesn't look like there has been a significant difference from 2009 to 2010. Looking further into the problem you can see that the significant difference is the amount of logs being supplied to the sawmills. At the beginning of 2010, sawmills faced log shortages due to an unusually wet fall. Becuase of this factor, the mills could not produce enought board feet for the increasing production demands of 2010. Because of the lack of logs during the better half of 2009 and the recession, the price of board feet rose pushing lead times out weeks and even months.
This year the inventories are healthier and are predicted to stabilize with the growing demand later in the year. As long as the mills can meet the market demand, prices should stay relatively the same.
The question I have is "is the log shortage affecting mills all over the United States or is it only affecting mills that manufacture certain species of trees?" I know that mills in the Pacific Northwest are suffering rightnow and this article was written about mills on the east coast.
http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/news/37521-lumber-prices-up-4-4-for-2010
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