Bookmark.
Woodbutcher, I read your comments on this thread with great interest. Your points are fascinating and it’s rare to find such trade expertise on FR, and to have it presented so clearly.
You show how adaptive the market is. Capitalism finds a way to get the products it wants or needs.
If you apply pressure on one end, it creates opportunities somewhere else.
Your mentioned the least expensive lumber in the world is produced in the southern United States.
As I drive the highways of Georgia, I’ve noticed that logging operators have come along and thinned the edge of the forest as it meets the highway.
So they are beautifying the highway, preventing the spread of fires, and extracting wood for lumber all at the same time. Big machines with long arms come along and grab a tree, cut it down, and haul it away so it can be loaded into trucks.
Found a cool video showing this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JicItt4CxlI
Never underestimate American ingenuity.
“the least expensive lumber in the world is produced in the southern United States.”
There are several reasons for this. SYP(southern yellow pine) grows to a harvestable size faster than any other species in the world.
Most of the timberlands in the SE US are privately owned and managed. Out in the NW US we continue to see the fires resulting from poorly managed federal timber land. Canada is much better at managing their provincial timber land than the US government. However, private companies are always better than government on either side of the border.
Many of the SE US sawmills are all non union. This leads to a lower cost of production/board foot than other producers in the western US. It is the same reason why all the foreign auto makers build new plants in the SE.
All the projections by economists show that the SYP lumber producers will continue to gain market share in comparison to other species over the next 30 years. This is why all the major Canadian mills such as Canfor, West Fraser, Interfor, Tolko, Conifex have all purchased mills in the SE US or built new mills in places like Alabama. There are also German mills like Klausner that are in the process of building new mills in Florida with the idea that they will either sell in the US or ship overseas.