While West Coast lumber providers fluctuated on the current state of Hardwoods, one source summed up the market in one word – “mediocre.”
“We are doing OK,” he noted. “There is still some money out here from the tech industries.
“But things are worse than they were six months ago,” he added.
The Washington based buyer and seller handles “the usual suspects,” like Cherry, White Oak, and Maple, most of which are from Appalachia and the upper Mid-West. He noted that the company uses all thicknesses of wood, like 10/4, 12/4 and 16/4.
“Everybody had a full order file a year ago,” he reflected. “That’s just not the case now.”
At the time of this writing, a California lumber source reported that the market for cabinets, moulding and floors has been a “little quiet.”
“Anything going into a new home is slow,” he noted. “I’d like to say that our sales are half off but it almost feels like it’s a little more than half.
“The first of 2023 was good,” he continued, “but the last half was a struggle.”
The lumber source said the sale of first and second grade (FAS) lumber has “been good,” along with FAS wides and rustics.
The company has also been doing well with 8”-and-wider and 9”-and-wider lumber.
“We’ve been doing some Walnut on the high-end stuff,” he said. “We’re doing NHLA Oak Grade Rule Walnut.”
While some woods like Red Oak and Cherry are not currently being sought by buyers, the lumber provider said that White Oak sales are up.
“We have been fortunate with White Oak,” he acknowledged. “That seems to be pretty dominant, except the low-grade stuff.”
With the soaring demand of White Oak, the distributor said it is becoming challenging to find.
The Washington lumber source echoed these sentiments.
“The trend in White Oak is that they have a narrower diameter,” he said. “So, it is more difficult to get.”
The lumber provider said jokingly that he hopes “these architects and designers will stop using White Oak for a bit.”
“It would be nice to get away from it,” he acknowledged.
Another California source said the market is “still order-to-order.”
“There are orders out there you just have to wait longer to get them,” he noted. “Guys just don’t want to pull the trigger until they really want it. I try to keep my customers up-to-date as to where the market is going.”
He added that the market teeters from “not really busy to not too slow.”
Specializing in flooring, he noted that everything the lumber company gets is “pulled to width.”
He also said that the company sells all grades, FAS 1 and 2.
Regarding transportation, all three of the men acknowledged that it wasn’t much of an issue on the bottom line.
Because there are no Hardwood forests to speak of in the west, these lumber providers must have all Hardwoods shipped to the western states and provinces.
“But we have so many trucking companies out here,” one source noted. “So, transportation isn’t an issue.”
Another source stated that he doesn’t “have a hard time getting our inner modal containers out of the east.”
“We’ve dealt with the same trucking company for about 20 years,” he added.
A California source said that transportation rates have been dropping.
“We’re getting better rates,” he said. “There is too much capacity in the market. It’s not that the fuel is dropping, it’s the fact that the trucking companies have trucks sitting and they have to move them.”
When asked for some trends that could improve the West Coast market, the Washington lumber provider simply said, “I wish I knew.”
At the time of publication, an Oregon source agreed and called the market “unpredictable.”
“Business is spotty,” he said. “People are buying just in time, and everybody is trying to pare their inventories down. It happens every year, but this year is a little bit more than usual.
“We have come off some good years of COVID,” he continued, “so that kind of distorts things a little bit.”
Specializing in Alder, the lumberman acknowledged that the market should improve by the first quarter of 2024.
“Everybody is in a holding pattern and trying to get through the year and start fresh.” n
