Sales of Hardwood lumber in the Southeast are strong, with prices at a high level – but one lumber provider is feeling some pushback from his customers against those prices.
A Mississippi lumberman stated, “The market has been crazy, as other people have certainly said. Prices have been going up, but recently, I’m seeing a trend that folks are kind of pushing back on prices a little bit. The market may be readjusting a little bit since it took off like it did. We’re starting to see some changes along those lines. I think people, pretty much across the board, are starting to push back on higher prices, from what we see.
“Our sales are better than several months ago,” he added. “If you have had product in Hardwood over the past couple of months, you didn’t have any trouble selling it. It’s pretty much a seller’s market. That’s how I would define that. Between the supply and demand, everything just took off and blew up, went nuts. People on the purchasing side were just trying to keep up and get lumber. Now, I think there’s an adjustment in process. People are saying, ‘We can’t continue to pay this.’ ”
Challenges he is aware of include retaining labor. “I’ve heard nightmares of people trying to get people to work,” he remarked. “We’ve seen that through numerous industries and certainly this one. I think COVID’s had an impact on it, but it’s been hard to get people to work, for a number of reasons.”
He sells all grades and species of Hardwood lumber from coast to coast. He said Poplar is hard to find, so he considers it a best seller. “We can’t get enough of it,” he stated.
His customers are end users. “Everyone’s sales seem to be going well,” he noted. “As far as we can tell, everybody’s positive. Some end users say they don’t get help from their customers to combat this huge price increase they’re having to pay for lumber. Other parts of this industry say the sky’s the limit, ‘We’re going wide open. There’s not a ceiling on it at this time.’ Both of those things are happening within the Hardwood industry. One group is singing this tune, and the other group is singing just the opposite. Hardwood flooring is a huge customer pool, and we sell to manufacturers of upholstered furniture, crating and packaging, as well.”
This Mississippi lumberman finds transportation to be a challenge. “It’s been tough to find trucks,” he said. “There’s a lot of freight out there; you have to pay a lot to get trucks. A lot of trucks have been taken out of service for some reason.”
In North Carolina, a source said his market is good. “All the sales are good,” he said. “There’s strong demand for any of our species. You can move it at a good price.” Also, he noted, the market is stronger than it was half a year ago.
Species he sells include Red and White Oak, Poplar, Hickory, Beech, Gum, Sycamore and Soft Maple. Best sellers are Red and White Oak.
Customers include mostly distribution yards. “They say sales are good; they have strong demand,” he stated. “I think overall, the market is weather-related to a large extent, because nobody has any logs. That means we are low on lumber. A large part is due to an extremely wet winter, and the loggers haven’t been able to get out to fell trees. To a small degree, it’s because of COVID. Some mills – including mine – have had to shut down when one or two get sick with it. Then there’s some panic and nobody wants to work. I think that’s improving. It wasn’t terrible but it did have an effect.
“Transportation is a huge problem and getting worse,” he added. “You can’t get drivers or trucks. They’re really hard to come by. Also, there are a tremendous number of regulations from the U.S. Department of Transportation.”
A Georgia lumber provider considers his market to be “strong.” “We’re getting $105 over the market price on the No. 2 all the way through,” he said. Compared to the recent past, his market is “much better,” he remarked.
He sells Red and White Oak, Poplar, Hickory and Ash. White Oak is the best seller. “Everybody’s looking for White Oak,” he stated. His customers are from a variety of industries.
“Transportation affects my profit,” he observed. “I own my fleet of trucks, and fuel is going up; it’s affecting the bottom line, but we still can control when we ship something. You can get the product to the customer.
“The worst problem we have is labor. COVID has been tough on us. We had to shut down a couple of weeks, and you’ll never regain the production you lost. It seems like people have been able to cope with it a little better recently and it seems like they’re not as scared of it as they used to be.”
An Alabama source said his market is “really good,” and it’s better than it was several months ago.
He sells every species and every grade of lumber to distributors. His customers’ business is “wonderful,” he stated. Transportation is “not yet” a problem, he said.
