SWHMC Attendees Hope For A Brighter 2026
Approximately 45 people recently attended the annual Southwestern Hardwood Manufacturers Club (SWHMC) meeting at Grand Hotel Golf Resort, Point Clear, AL.
Many shared comments about the hardwood marketplace with this publication. To follow are a few of those comments.
• Eddie Carson, Beasley Flooring Products Inc., which has facilities in South Carolina, Arkansas, and Georgia said, overall, they have had a busy year. Activity has been slow for the last month and a half, he added, but it picked up around the first week of December. His inventory at the time of the SWHMC meeting was good. Wide plank White Oak flooring, both engineered and solid, was still doing well.
The company’s Franklin, NC, location is not where they would like to be as far as raw materials. He added that their sawmills are struggling with residuals because Georgia has closed the paper plant. Also, another paper mill in Mississippi has closed.
Their concern is the continuation of losing sawmills because they feed the end use manufacturing plants.
• Jason Bunch, of DeepWell Forest Products LLC, Waynesboro, MS, at the time of the SWHMC meeting said his log inventory was low for the time of year. They were probably sitting on 1.5 million and they should have 3 million this time of year. Their lumber was moving in December as far as upper grades in White Oak. Red Oak, Poplar and Gum moves, he said, but not for the price that it should be. They are fortunate that they have papermills to be able to send the residuals to, he commented. They don’t have any trouble with residuals because they have outlets for that product that aren’t far away.
Labor continues to be an issue as well as finding truck drivers.
They can’t find anybody that wants to work anymore, he said, regardless of what they are paid.
• Wesley Robinson, of Robinson Lumber Company in New Orleans, LA, said in Europe they are asking where their wood is coming from. Robinson, which exports a lot from Brazil to Europe, does chain of custody from Brazil.
Robinson also has suppliers here in the states. They are providing documentation of where the products come from here in North America and they are moving more products from the Lake States region.
He noted that White Oak is being priced by length and there’s an abundance of 8-foot lengths due to oversupply of stave logs. Buyers want 10 and 12-foot White Oak regarding lengths.
There is no issue getting White Oak right now, according to Robinson Lumber Company.
Regarding export versus domestic, Robinson is shifting more into the North American market versus export. They still do a lot of export and are heavy in it, but they have focused more on the North American market and sales have been flat. The Appalachian region and the northern region seem to have adequate log supply. There is very little green lumber, Robinson noted. They don’t have any air-dried lumber.
They also operate a concentration yard in New Albany, IN, and broker lumber worldwide.
• Bill Behan, with Kopper’s Inc., of St. Louis, MO, said Kopper’s operates nine crosstie treating plants. Of the nine treating plants, they produce 100 percent of their own creosote with their chemical company. They service all six class I railroads. This year they bought about 6.5 to 7 million ties and they all treat between 9 to 10 million ties a year. They also operate utility pole plants. Union Pacific is in the process of buying Norfolk Southern, he noted, so while Kopper’s has been servicing all six Class I railroads, it will soon be five after UP is purchased.
They anticipate sales being very consistent as far as their procurement.
Behan said their procurement plans should mirror 2025 and they don’t expect tie pricing to move very much in 2026.
• Leslie Rutland, of Rutland Lumber Company in Collins, MS, expects 2026 will rival 2025 in terms of volume. Their log inventory was low for what they needed at the time of the SWHMC meeting. They probably had half of what they need, he said.
Sales are pretty good on most products that they produce, and he added that they have the lowest air-drying inventory since they started.
• Tim Lott with Rutland Lumber Company commented that they recently changed from running two shifts to one running nine-hour days.
• Joey Childs, also with Rutland Lumber Company, said this year has certainly been challenging, adding it has been the most challenging of his 11 years with the company.
• Tyler Walley, Rutland Lumber Company’s sales manager, said they were doing well in the first quarter of 2025. They had big expectations until the tariffs were implemented, after which, it’s been challenging. Walley explained they seem to have seen a bit more inquiries and orders coming from the export market. Prior to the SWHMC meeting, he was recently in Vietnam and one of his concerns was the volume of logs that Vietnam is importing. He saw sawmills in Vietnam that had massive log decks.
He thinks the dominant specie for Vietnam as far as logs was Walnut and they had Ash, too.
He said the Japanese market is very high-quality. He went to a show in Vietnam that was well attended. There were even some prospects from China that made it sound like business was picking up even in China.
• Keith Price with Corley Mfg. Co. in Chattanooga, TN, said they are about four months out on equipment orders. They are working to build an inventory of parts.
He is seeing more hardwood mills cutting pine in the southeast. He continues to see hardwood operations closing.
They have also seen some hardwood mills that have converted to pine putting in slabbers.
• Craig Pharr with Marietta Wood Supply Inc. in Marietta, MS, noted that stave production is way down. There are some stave mills obviously producing, but there is not the pressure on White Oak logs as it was, nor will there be any time in the near future.
He is not having any issues moving his residuals and their new mill was operating fairly seamless at the time of this writing.
• Alan Lewis, Linden Lumber LLC, in Linden, AL, who produces lumber and crossties, said they have a fair amount of well air-dried Red Oak on the lumber yard. They are cutting Cypress at one of the facilities, and they try to operate the three mills continuously.
• Kevin Lammons, All Star Forest Products Inc., Nashville, TN, said they have had a steady, good year regarding mats. They’re expecting stronger business after the new year in regard to the Canadians.
12-inch mats have been good sellers, said Lammons, as well as some 8-inch mats.
An equipment company representative in attendance at SWHMC said the bright spot for their business is the pole business. As far as sawmills are concerned, it has been relatively slow in regard to equipment.
Learn more about this club at swhmc.com.
