By Lydian Kennin
Staff Writer
As winter approaches the Northeast, the market climate for domestic Softwood remains volatile but steady. “It seems to be stable and leveling off,” said one sales executive in Maine who has worked in the industry for the past 13 years. “We still have a fairly strong market up here. We only see demand relaxation in some of the lower grades.”
The source explained that his company has been able to keep up with the demand for select Eastern White Pine products in recent months, “but still, with probably about half of our items in our higher grades, we are significantly struggling,” he said.
His company manufactures Eastern White Pine products in NELMA grades available in 4/4 and 5/4, Surfaced, Pattern and Rough, offers Southern Yellow Pine flooring in 1×4, 1×6 and 1×8 at Grade C and Better, and Euro Spruce Rooftop Decking in 2×6. This source sells its products to a variety of retail customers, wholesalers and brokers.
When asked about current trends in transportation, the executive reported a struggling nationwide market (especially internationally) that he has dodged by way of his company’s own trucking fleet. “So, our local business is fairly stable,” he explained. “But as far as containers go, containers are getting extremely expensive and harder to come by.”
In Pennsylvania, a sales source reported that “supply is struggling to keep up with the demand in this current market and then the previous year’s market to a substantial degree.” This lumberman’s company is a leading manufacturer and distributor of mouldings and related millwork products.
“Six months ago, it was still a spry market, meaning the demand certainly exceeded supply with the current container,” he said.
“We’re seeing a market that’s as robust as then, but we’re starting to see some pushback in terms of pricing, so the market’s adjusting in a downward trend.”
This source manufactures Radiata Pine in 9/16 and 11/16 profiles and 3/4-inch flat-board material. His company also uses imported Pines and hardwoods to make the products it sells to various retail lumberyards, Nord shops, and door and gym companies. “We’re sharing the same feedback we get from our vendors with our retailers,” he said. “They like to bulk up in terms of buying ahead of the supply chain challenge.”
He described trucking as “difficult.” “We own all of our own trucks, so we handle our own shipping to our retailers, but trucking has been a challenge,” he said. “There is a shortage of truckers nationwide, and that seems to affect the supply chain on the trucking as it has with the shipping side.”
He added, “We control our own destiny in terms of using our own trucks, as opposed to using a common carrier where you’re at the mercy of the carrier.”
In New Hampshire, a lumber supplier described the Softwood market as “pretty strong,” despite limited production and low supply. “There’s just not quite as much Eastern White Pine available as it normally would be, and the prices are dipping a little bit, but they’re holding pretty good,” he said.
His company is a manufacturer of Eastern White Pine, specializing in pattern stock offered in D & Better, Select, Finish, Premium, Standard and Industrial grades and available in 1×4, 1×6, 1×8, 1×10 and 1×12.
He reported that his company cannot meet its current demand for upper-grade material from its customer base of stocking distributors. “We’re not getting the production out because we’re short of help,” the source explained. “Some of the other mills, we all know each other pretty well, and it’s the same situation in a lot of places that just can’t get enough bodies in the mill to get everything done.”
When asked to compare current business to three months ago, he described it as less hectic. “The calls are a little bit quieter, but we’re still getting more calls looking for wood than we can handle.”
This source’s company also manages its own transportation, but he described “horror stories” from other mills experiencing issues with shipping loads that are handled by bigger trucking companies.
“We’ve been pretty lucky, so that just tells me there’s a lot of freight coming into New England and they’re looking for loads to go back somewhere,” he said.
