Southeast Business Trends October 2026 – Market Receives Mixed Reviews In The Southeast
The Southeastern hardwood lumber market is receiving mixed reviews from sources across the region. While some are seeing a decrease in demand, others report that the market is steady and lumber products are moving but prices are down. The exporting side of the industry is not as much help as more logs are being bought rather than lumber.
A Tennessee sawmill representative said that the market in his area is flat.
“It’s pretty stale,” he noted, adding that the market is worse than it was six months ago.
At the time of this writing, the source said, “It just doesn’t seem like there’s as much demand for hardwood.”
His operation handles all major Appalachian species, including Ash, Cherry, Hard and Soft Maple, Hickory, Poplar, and Red and White Oak. All of the lumber is 4/4 in thickness, except Poplar, which is also offered in 5/4 and 6/4, and White Oak, which is also offered in 6/4. Grades are Nos. 1 and 2 Common, No. 3A Common for Red and White Oak only, FAS One Face and framestock.
The lumber supplier said Hickory seems to be the hot item at the moment.
“Hickory and Poplar seem to be moving the best,” he explained. “Red Oak is not bad. Ash is OK, if you can get it.”
He said that all hardwood is trendy and what’s moving best has a lot to do with what’s trending at the time, like Hickory’s current popularity.
“I’m sure it’ll run its course eventually and something else will be in, but right now it seems to be the trend is kind of heavy toward Hickory,” the source said.
His customers include distribution centers, flooring plants, and trim, moulding, furniture and cabinet manufacturers.
Many of his customers have also made comments about the market being flat.
“They are all pretty much saying the same thing. It just seems that their demand, their orders, are down,” the source said. “Overall, demand is down. We don’t have a whole lot of help from the export side of things mainly due to heavy exporting of logs. If they’re getting the logs, then they don’t necessarily need their lumber.
He said labor is stable. Freight, however, is always a challenge.
“We have our own trucks, so we take care of the majority of our freight, but doing it yourself offers its own challenges, keeping equipment on the road, fuel prices,” he said. “It’s definitely not great.”
In Georgia, a lumber supplier said the market is steady in his area, although it’s not as good as it was six months ago.
“Prices are a little more depressed now than they were six months ago,” he explained.
He said prices have decreased overall among all species of hardwood lumber.
His operation handles Red and White Oak, Poplar, Maple, Ash and mixed hardwoods in primarily 4/4 and 5/4. Grades include FAS and Nos. 1, 2 and 3A Common.
Regarding species movement, White Oak is the top seller.
“Customer demand has White Oak as the preference at the moment,” he explained.
His operation sells to mainly furniture and flooring manufacturers.
He said he is hopeful that prices will increase in the next six months. But he added, “My outlook is no; I don’t think so.”
At a Kentucky sawmill, a supplier said lumber is moving but prices are down.
“Especially on the lower end of Poplar. It’s moving but it’s not really profitable at this time,” although it’s enough to keep sawing, he noted.
He said the market for Poplar is worse than it was six months ago, but it’s about the same for the rest of the species he handles.
His top three species are Poplar and Red and White Oak. “That’s about 90 percent of our sawing,” the source said.
As for the other two of his best-selling species, he said, “White Oak has been up for some time. It’s fallen off some. Six months ago, it was better than what it is right now. Red Oak is probably about the same.”
While White Oak has fallen off a bit, he said it’s the most profitable species. “Red Oak is probably in the middle, and Poplar is on the lower end of it, and we’ll saw a little Hard and Soft Maple, and Hickory, but we don’t get near the volume as we do for the other three.”
Ninety percent of what his operation offers is 4/4 thickness. Grades are Nos. 1 and 2 as well as No. 3A Common and FAS.
“In the Poplar, we’ll saw a little 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4. White Oak, we’ll saw a little 5/4 and 8/4, and then in Red Oak, mostly 4/4 some 5/4. We’ve not sawn any 8/4 for some time on the others,” he said.
His customers include millwork, crown moulding, framing and paint stock companies, and a lot of the upper and FAS grade hardwood stays in-house for the sawmill’s parent company, which exports lumber and makes flooring.
“Fifty percent of ours probably stays in-house, I’d say, but the rest, the lower end of Poplar, all goes out, and then we also sell some of the 2 and 3, all the Oaks 2 and 3 are 95 percent flooring grade,” he said.
Some of his customers are seeing a rise in demand.
“One of my big flooring customers right now, they’re in demand,” he said. “For a while, they weren’t. As far as the demand for lumber right now, it’s better than it was six months ago but the price is down some.”
Transportation, the source noted, is not an issue, but he’s cautious about long-distance lumber hauls.
“You’ve got to be careful where you go,” he said. “You get the same amount of money a lot of times. You can get it hauled for $200 or you can get it hauled for $1,000. So, you have to be careful with how far you are going with your lumber. That’s a lot of your profit.”
The lumber supplier said he is continuing to struggle with finding labor as the younger generation does not seem interested in the demanding work of a sawmill.
“I don’t blame them; they’re getting a good education, which sawmills now are totally different than what they used to be,” he noted. “Ours is all computer-driven, but it’s still not anything that the generation now is interested in like it used to be.”
He said the lack of labor has pushed the industry toward utilizing more machines to do jobs that were once done by people.
“It’s kind of the people who have pushed it that way because nobody’s interested in it,” he explained. “For instance, saw filing, nobody is interested in it. It’s an art of its own, and guys my age, 65-66, they are the ones (who have been doing those jobs) but we’re all retirement age now, so it’s hard to replace those kinds of guys right now with this generation. They’re just not interested.”
Lumber sources in the Southeast remain optimistic that demand as well as prices will increase in the future. The industry, however, continues to evolve as technological advances are made, some out of necessity as certain sawmill positions become increasingly hard to fill.
