In spite of weather that usually depresses business activity, lumber providers in the Northeast have been very busy lately.
“It’s been pretty steady to be quite honest,” noted a lumberman in Connecticut. “At this time of the year, usually we see a bit of a drop-off in business. Even with the snow and everything, it’s been pretty active.”
This market is “about the same, maybe a little better” than it was six months ago, he stated.
Species carried by this firm include Eastern White Pine, Sugar Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Doug Fir, Western Red Cedar, Atlantic White Cedar and Radiata Pine. “We sell lots of Eastern White Pine boards and patterns,” he said. “That’s been very strong.”
Customers of this establishment include dealers (80 percent) and manufacturers (20 percent). “The dealers are still pretty busy,” he stated, “but some of the manufacturers are a little bit slow, given the issues with shipping and supply.”
Lack of supply is the main problem, he said. “Getting material is tied into shipping, trucking, COVID: it’s all tied in together into one big, hot mess. It’s difficult to get product into our distribution yard to sell. It’s very difficult, very challenging.”
To the north, in Maine, “It’s very busy. We’ve seen an upward trend in orders and ever-increasing demand for Eastern White Pine,” said a lumber provider there.
“Sales are very easy at the moment,” he stated. “Even with increasing prices, we have seen little to no pushback on them at all. The larger concern for customers is their ability to get the fiber in order to get the substrate material. We are a manufacturer, and we can only produce so much. But we are producing at full capacity, but it doesn’t seem to be enough.”
This firm sells Eastern White Pine, from logs to a finishing facility in Industrial Grade to C-Select. “We sell to a large variety of customers, to a lot of wholesale brokers as well as retail yards,” he noted. “They’re all very busy and are demanding more lumber from us.
“We have had a few minor issues when it comes to transportation but nothing major. Being in the upper northeast corridor of the United States, transportation has always been a challenge. But it’s nothing major right now.”
A lumber professional in New Hampshire stated that his organization has been “very busy.” The market is “definitely better, definitely stronger” than it was a half a year earlier, he remarked.
He sells “strictly” Eastern White Pine, he said. Customers include wholesale distributors and lumber brokers. His customers’ sales are good.
“Transportation has gotten a little tougher in the last two weeks,” he observed.
