Provided by SWHMC
The Southwestern Hardwood Manufacturers Club (SWHMC) met recently at the Grand Hotel in Natchez, MS for their annual Crawfish Boil. There were over 100 registered for this event. The weekend started with an Icebreaker Cocktail Party Friday night as everyone gathered for a busy weekend. Saturday morning, the Club tried a new addition to the meeting by hosting a presentation by USNR featuring their auto grading system for Hardwood lumber. Participation was great and those in attendance were very impressed by the capabilities of the USNR system. There was much discussion with questions and answers provided by the USNR team, headed by Chad Smith. SWHMC is looking forward to more presentations of equipment and technology to make our production more efficient and profitable.
The day continued with a RoundTable Meeting. The SWHMC is one of the few organizations that hosts a discussion allowing every participant to share aspects of their business and to share about the good and the bad happenings. This RoundTable discussion revealed a lot of concern about the Hardwood market for grade lumber in both green and kiln-dried. Most mills were having trouble consistently moving their lumber production, while ties and industrial products were moving fairly well with the exception of cants. Log supply seemed to be okay for most mills, but the overwhelming concern on logs was log prices. The overall consensus was that log prices need to adjust in order for mills to be able to continue in operation with lumber prices at the current levels.
There was much discussion centered around the cross tie and switch tie markets with tie buyers sharing the possibility of tie prices dropping along with an even greater possibility of quotas being presented. Most of the tie buyers were in agreement, but a few were still optimistic going forward with current pricing and production levels. The annual tie need is generally between 18 million and 22 million cross ties each year and these quantities remain fairly stable since most of these ties are for scheduled routine tie replacement.
Another point of discussion centered around the need for Hardwood promotion mostly in a generic manner rather than promoting a company or a brand. The consensus at the meeting was that the industry needs more people to want Hardwood products in their homes.
Later in the afternoon, the group finished up the business portion of the meeting and dismissed out to the street party on the bluff above the Mississippi River. Once again, SWHMC had Crawfish cooked right there on the street flooded by the band Cha Cha Boo, bringing the music. Another highlight of the weekend was the attendance of a retired member of the SWHMC, Buddy Irby, who everyone enjoyed seeing.
Overall, all those who attended were cautiously optimistic about the future with most in hopes of the upcoming election to help bring about the needed changes to help the industry to get back into the black.
The next meeting of the SWHMC will be in mid July at the Gulf State Park Lodge in Gulf Shores, AL. The exact date was not available at press time.
Learn more at www.swhmc.com.
