Southeast Trends May 2025 – Positivity About Fuel Prices And Future Market Potential
While hardwood lumber spokesmen report slow markets due to a lack of demand, they hold out hope that the tariffs, which many commented negatively affected their businesses during the previously implemented ones, will have a positive, long-term effect this time by bringing manufacturing back to the United States.
Overall, the market is “soft” and in a “weird situation because there’s a lack of demand and a lack of supply,” according to a hardwood lumber source in Alabama. The “hardwood pulpwood isn’t moving, and the loggers down here are hauling a lot of softwood right now,” he added. It is “about the same” as six months ago.
He listed Sweet Gum, Poplar, Red and White Oak, which is “probably selling the best right now.” In addition to all NHLA grades and 4/4, they handle FAS, FAS1F, No. 1 Common, 2A Common and 3B Common.
When asked who his customers are, he explained that it’s a “basket full” because he offers products to flooring companies, concentration yards, millwork plants, “rail tie yards” and pallet companies.
They stopped importing and exporting “about 10 years ago” and there were two main reasons for this. “I think for the biggest part, and this goes back to about 2017,” he said, “is that we’ve had 220 million feet of receiving capacity dry up. There are customers that don’t exist anymore. On the other hand, on the supply end, ever since International Paper shut down their Alabama plant, and that goes back to 2010 or 2012, it took about half of our loggers off the market.”
He said that he is just “hoping manufacturing will pick back up or maybe new plants will go in here.”
In Arkansas, a lumber representative said the market is “okay” because “demand is beginning to move some” and that it is better than six months ago.
He works with “all upper and lower hardwood grades” such as FAS, “No. 2 and 3A Common” in Red and White Oak. White Oak has been “selling the best and has been for several months. It’s used mostly in hardwood floors and a lot of people have started using it in trim work.” He also mentioned that custom made trim work has become quite popular.
His clients consist of flooring and trim companies in addition to treating facilities such as Koppers. His customers are beginning to see a “pick up in the marketplace.”
He noted that the only negative impact upon his business is the price of logs. “It has not gone up or down; it has just been high. It got high three or four years ago and stayed there.”
He shared his thoughts about the tariffs, explaining that, “last time it did affect us because all the mills were full of logs and when the export business stopped, it flooded the American markets but this time of year, with the sawmills not being full of logs, I don’t think it will affect us that much.”
In Georgia, a lumber source rated the market as “poor” due to “low demand” and that it is “about the same as six months ago because the demand was low then, too. I just feel like the cause for this low demand is because customers are pursuing other products like imitation wood, rather than hardwood.”
They handle Poplar, Maple, Ash and Red and White Oak in 4/4 through 8/4 and grades such as FAS, No.1 Common, No. 2A Common and 3B Common. White Oak is selling the best.
Furniture and flooring companies are his customers, and they are “experiencing the same things as I am: a lack of demand.” They don’t export directly but sell to companies that do export.
He explained that “we could be affected by the tariffs but if they bring flooring and furniture manufacturing back to the United States, specifically to North Carolina, which is where most of the furniture manufacturing used to be done before it all moved to China or Southeast Asia, we’re willing to wait it out. I think it will be a good thing in the long term but in the short term, it’s probably going to be painful.”
According to him, fuel prices are actually a “shining star because they are relatively low but labor is definitely an issue.”
“I am hopeful for the future of the hardwood industry,” he said, ending on a positive note. “I want it to survive in the long term. It’s a great product but I don’t know if we aren’t marketing well enough or if architects or builders aren’t using it enough. I don’t know the reason, but it just seems like it is out of favor at the moment. We’re counting on trends to change and for it to come back into favor.”
