Editor
Across the Southeast region sources said that their sales aren’t going well and that they are worse than they were six months ago.
In Mississippi, a lumber supplier said that his market has slowed down and that they are doing worse than they were six months ago. “We’re a little more insulated than most people since we carry big timbers and specialty products as opposed to just dimension lumber or board mills, but even our products have slowed down considerably in the last couple of months.”
His company only handles Southern Yellow Pine in grades No. 1 Common through No. 4 Common and in thicknesses 5/4 to 16×16.
“We sell to treaters primarily and they have slowed down as well,” he commented.
When asked if his company was having issues with transportation or labor, he said, “Trucks are readily available and mile prices are starting to come down. Our labor force, however, has been pretty consistent.”
A spokeswoman in Alabama said that her company’s sales weren’t doing well, at the time of this writing. “We are doing worse than we were six months ago. It seems like people just don’t want to buy anything. They are holding back and the only buying that we are seeing is on a need to buy basis,” she added.
Her company only handles Southern Yellow Pine in grades Prime, No. 2, 3 and 4 and in thicknesses 2×4, 2×6, 3×4 and 4×4. “Sixty percent of our production is PET material and even the people that had their orders put in for weeks aren’t ready to use it,” she mentioned.
She said that her company sells to traders, truss manufacturers, crate builders and wholesalers. “Everyone I’ve talked to seems to be trying to counter the price on what they need us to sell them. They are struggling right now as well.”
When asked if her company was having issues with transportation or labor she said that while transportation hasn’t been an issue, labor has been. “We go through so many employees, it’s unreal. They might work for a week and quit, sometimes they aren’t even here for more than a day or two before they quit,” she noted.
She said that she thinks that the market will settle down after the next holiday. “I think that we have hit rock bottom and it might start to go up a little bit by the third quarter,” she added. “The market is usually booming this time of year and it’s not.”
In Louisiana, a sawmill representative said that the market continues to remain soft. “We are starting to see a slowdown that has been manifesting itself through slow payments from our clients,” he added, noting that their sales are off by about 30 percent. “We are definitely doing worse than we were six months ago.”
When it comes to Softwood, his company mainly handles Southern Yellow Pine in thicknesses of 4/4-16/4. “We handle it in all grades, from the saps to the crafts,” he said.
His company sells to stocking distributors, importers and manufacturers. “The stocking distributors have been especially vocal. They have been reporting very soft sales. Some of our customers were buying 40 to 50 containers/truckloads a month and now they are buying four or five, and they are just basically filling holes,” he continued.
He said that transportation isn’t as big of a factor as it was, noting that they haven’t seen pricing of domestic trucking start to contract yet.
