Interesting info about lumber for mats. How long does that lumber last? Does a lot of timber harvest go to that application? Is it mainly cull logs used to make that low-value lumber? I never knew about that timber market.
It is a small percentage of the timber harvested that goes into any/all matting applications.
It becomes a feast or famine type of product. Either the drilling industry can not get enough OR nobody is drilling and demand drops to almost nothing. Companies making mats come and go. Meaning, they go from buying almost nothing to huge quantities. Then when the price of oil drops to under $55/barrel(or whatever the current price is) they ALL stop drilling and nobody needs mats.
The company I sold was down in Fruitland, ID. He was big during the Great Recession when oil went to $150. In Fruitland there was a big temporary labor pool he could draw from. Pay them for a job and then lay them off. All through a temp agency. The same people pick produce.
He has been out of business for years.
I remember a lumber trader who went from one of the top in the company to losing everything because he had a million dollars worth of mats on the ground in Edmonton.
When the price of oil dropped and he couldn’t sell them. He no longer works for the company.
Mats are typically bought new and then sold for a salvage(used) value at the end of the job. They do have a value and can be used again multiple times. Oak lasts longer than Doug Fir. Douglas Fir last longer than Hemlock.
An Access Mat is three layers of 2x8’s. 14’ on the top and bottom and 8’ in the middle. The middle layer is perpendicular to the top and bottom. Just like plywood or OSB. There are 160 +/- bolts holding them together. An electric drill used to last the company I sold two weeks before it died. Rigid drills lasted the longest.
There are also Rig Mats. They are made of Douglas Fir/Larch 6” thick timbers. The mat is 20’ long with a steel welded frame around. They last a long time.
The other major mat use are Crane mats. They are made of 12 x12-16’s. Douglas Fir is typically used. They bolt 4 together making a 4’x16’ mat. These are used to drive an Excavator and then a Crane on to install buried pipelines. hence the name.
When a several hundred mile pipeline is built they use hundreds of truckloads. Staged at various places along the pipelines length.
Crane mats are also used when your excavator needs to cross dunes to repair seawalls or anything else along the ocean.
I have seen them used at the mouth of the Merrimack River where it flows into the ocean. They had to build a road to get out onto the beach to repair winter storm damage.
Crane mats get used over and over again. There are companies that recondition them. However, the money is not made in selling new ones. The most money is made buying them back after the job is done for pennies on the dollar and then reselling them again. Similar to car dealers make more money on used cars than new.
I have a sister company that specializes in buying and selling mats. My knowledge is from selling one customer twenty years ago. He was my biggest customer for a couple years. Then nothing.