Business Trends

Throughout the Southeast region there seems to be mixed opinions on how the market is doing at the time of this writing. One source said that his sales aren’t doing very well, while other sources have said that their sales are up. In Kentucky a lumber spokesperson said that his sales were not doing well. […]

West Coast lumbermen, when recently interviewed, voiced positive sentiments about their markets. “The market is starting to pick up, more so than a couple of months ago,” stated a lumber provider in California. “We are getting more business. “Business activity is the same as six months ago – it’s continuing to pick up some,” he […]

Spring has finally decided to show up, as winter held its grip longer than many of us preferred. Logging activities were constrained as a result of heavy snow and spring thaw, seen throughout March and April in some areas. According to several contacts, business has improved for kiln-dried Ash, and inventories have thus declined. With […]

Business activity varied over the last few months for secondary wood products manufacturers. Some truck trailer flooring businesses were busy, as well as moulding and millwork producers. Flooring manufacturers reported a slight improvement in sales. There has been a slowdown in the cabinet and furniture manufacturing sectors due to new residential construction being down both […]

In the Lake States region, a sawmill spokesman said he has seen an uptick in his company’s business. Other lumbermen, at the time they were interviewed, indicated strength in lumber sales mixed with weakness. A sawmill representative in Illinois stated, “I sense a slight improvement in our business activity compared to the fourth quarter of […]

Across the Northeast region there are mixed opinions, at the time of this writing, on how the market is going with some sources saying that the weather is making it hard for them to get logs and others saying that their sales are doing pretty well. In Pennsylvania a sawmill representative said, “There is very […]

Throughout the Southeast region sources agreed, that at the time of this writing, sales were doing well. In Mississippi a lumber salesman said that while they have been doing pretty well the past few weeks, they are doing worse than they were six months ago. “We are having a hard time getting logs. It’s been […]

On the West Coast, lumbermen rated their markets from “pretty slow” to “order-to-order” to “strong” at the time of these interviews. In Washington, a lumber provider said his business activity was “pretty slow.” He said the previous month was “pretty good. Many companies had lowered their inventories earlier” and had made up for that the […]

The usual slowdown for spring thaw affected logging activity. In December 2022, according to figures published, Hardwood production had a 4.2 percent gain in output. In February, contacts commented there had been a lot of green grade lumber entering the market based on buyers’ current needs and was reflected in prices for green Hard and […]

With spring upon us, logging activity will be increasing in some areas. This is good news as many in the province and along the U.S. border states commented log supplies were low, which had been due to poor weather conditions, competition for logs and some controlled log costs. Prices, it was noted, for most species […]