Bad news from the mill

[2dogs]

Big Creek Lumber, the only mill left in the area cut its mill crew by half today. No overtime is permitted either. My friend runs the debarker and has been doing so for IIRC for more than 20 years. His job is secure but he now also has to do another job in the mill like oiling or cleanup. This mill processes redwood almost exclusively with DG being milled once a year or so. There is an overabundance of houses for sale here too so that can't help matters.

 

[Jacob J.]

Pretty much the same thing here, Roseburg Lumber has laid off 170 at the three local area mills in the last 6 weeks with another 260 layoffs coming before christmas.

 

[LEES WOODC]

My veneer buyer called Monday and said he lost orders for 178 out of 190 shipping containers of logs and yesterday our lumber buyer called and told us Hard Maple lumber took a dump. Our contract mills have been sawing but it looks like they will shut down around Thanksgiving with no restart date. Been in this business 20+ years and NEVER seen it anywhere near this bad. I think this will be the "final nail in the coffin" for alot of mills and loggers with payments.

 

[Bushler]

South Coast closed its yard Nov. 1, the plywood end is still running, but the sawmill end is down.

Batten down the hatches, we're in for stormy times.

 

[stihl 440]

lol

My boss did the same thing. He laid all of the mill crew and 2 truck drivers off. We went from a 15 person crew.....to 5 of us runnin his multi-million dollar operation. We only run the mill maybe once of twice a week.......we used to run 5-10's from the head saw starting at 6:30 sharp till 3:00......runnin hard all day, wide open..... But I cut so it don't matter......but I used to work in the mill......... He has me and 2 other guys cuttin everyday yet, plus the skidder operator.......:greenchainsaw:

 

[2dogs]

The local Harley dealership closed today too.

 

[mtngun]

Same here. Idaho Forest Group went to a 4-day workweek. Just a few weeks earlier they were bragging that they had nothing to worry about because they have a big Home Depot contract.

Potlatch is laying off in their lumber division. I imagine their paper mill will keep going -- people will still need to wipe, even in hard times.

I'm sorry to say that I think things will only get worse next year. Ouch.

 

[Roy M]

Lees, sure no market for shipping crates here. The docks are getting plugged because the carriers and overseas buyers are in financial straights.The urban greenies should be happy, no trees are being cut.

 

[056kid]

Looks like I wont be able to cop a fallin space when i get west..

 

[captainsteep]

looks the same here our mill started out with 42 crews in january now last mounth there was only 14 crews left. my cutter and i finished a block 4 weeks ago never got the call to start the next block, i have been working on getting the yoder working with the gas company,wood is still moving well here and expected to keep going moving tomorrow 3 hr from home, but you got to keep going,payments keep coming no matter what. everyone has to be tough and ride this out we loggers know what to do. be safe cut smart

 

[slowp]

Lees, sure no market for shipping crates here. The docks are getting plugged because the carriers and overseas buyers are in financial straights.The urban greenies should be happy, no trees are being cut.

I take part, and am not liked, on another website that is full of them. They are getting laid off now. In fact, there's a huge thread on it. Our mill has been running ads for hiring and started buying logs again. Have to wait and see.

 

[HolmenTree]

The Tolko lumber div. here in The Pas, Manitoba is now down to one shift. The 12 acre under one roof sawmill/planer mill is now just producing Home Depot style A-grade[#2 and better, clear]. Everthing else is chipped and sent to the pulp/paper mill.

 

[Bushler]

SlowP, what's the link to the 'other website'? We could mount an attack! I'm bored and would love to make others miserable.

 

[ak4195]

If a tree falls in a quiet forest.......

The last estimate I saw was 10 million homes on the market country wide,not sure if that was just new build or grand total.Either way the overhang is only growing.In this area(30,000 pop.) there is 2000 homes on the market,the average is 700.Only thing new build here is lower end stuff$156k-$180k.
No new construction =very little timber demand.
Dont fool yourself gang,these dark clouds most likely get darker.
I was fired from my job a few months ago,(Why the :censored: do you keep sharpening that saw so much!!)but it was a blessing in disquise,as I just barely made the deadline for the application period for an apprenticeship in the Operators Union.
I chose the classification nobody wants to do,or thinks about,the lowely Service Oiler.Apparently the attrition rate is high,and the young guys dont know how to work,so they stay exceptionally busy,we shall see.
To bad it doesnt start till march
If I was downsouth Id be looking at R.O.W clearing or winter hazard tree removal,any kind of utility trenching contract work.
Whats that old saying?
"Desperation is the mother of invention."
or
"Improvise,adapt,overcome"--clint eastwood
ak4195

 

[windthrown]

Only logs holding value here are red cedar. The rest are half price. If the mills are buying, that is. I know of many mills that are closed, or going at slow speed just to stay open with a skelleton crew. Its been pretty dead here for over a year now. And it started long before the global economic financial disaster. Chip logs seem to be the only thing moving. Paper prices are still pretty high now.

Here is the national timber price report link site:

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/econ/data/prices/index_b.htm

 

[Burvol]

Export quality Doug Fir just went up, big time for this day and age (especially logs with ring count). I guess if private parties, timber holders and the like want to sell their purtty logs, it's a good time to do it. Pretty much why I'm still falling timber right now.

Is this still wrong? I know when I was a young shaver, I use to hear about all the negatives, and it was bad for a lot of folks. Now it puts loggers to work, but leaves the mills out. We killed the infastructure long ago by many factors, but it creates woods' jobs. I was told by one of W's head log buyers last year that the stuff coming out of our region was going to Japan for beams in the traditonal Japanese home that is making a huge comeback over there. You could honestly say that you would almost rather see a nice log turn into a beautiful beam somewhere rather than backing, pulp, chips or whatever. We sure aren't building here. It sucks. I know a lot of folks in the construction industry that are really hurting right now. We have a parasitic relationship with homebuilders and the general economy.

 

[windthrown]

Nothing wrong with sending logs to Coos Bay and Protland for export. I remember when the Japanese were paying high prices for logs and were blamed for jacking up log prices and depleting our stock of trees, causing excessive old growth logging, etc.

In the end? Hey, if exports are up, cut, cut, cut. We need something to ballance the trade defecit! Also in Oregon at least, the BLM plan is to cut a lot more trees. Just in time for a major recession, which means a lot less trees will be cut for domestic demand.

 

[Burvol]

I feel the same way, just bad that our mills are closing.
I love cutting export timber, are you kidding me???? Cut the creamiest, best, nicest #### & stop when you hit too many knots or defect and let the processor finish it. Every cutter's dream. :greenchainsaw:

 

[Jacob J.]

Export quality Doug Fir just went up, big time for this day and age (especially logs with ring count). I guess if private parties, timber holders and the like want to sell their purtty logs, it's a good time to do it. Pretty much why I'm still falling timber right now.

Is this still wrong? I know when I was a young shaver, I use to hear about all the negatives, and it was bad for a lot of folks. Now it puts loggers to work, but leaves the mills out. We killed the infastructure long ago by many factors, but it creates woods' jobs. I was told by one of W's head log buyers last year that the stuff coming out of our region was going to Japan for beams in the traditonal Japanese home that is making a huge comeback over there. You could honestly say that you would almost rather see a nice log turn into a beautiful beam somewhere rather than backing, pulp, chips or whatever. We sure aren't building here. It sucks. I know a lot of folks in the construction industry that are really hurting right now. We have a parasitic relationship with homebuilders and the general economy.

One thing to keep in mind too is that there was a huge export market from S.E. Alaska, Washington, and Oregon to the Pacific Rim from the late '60's to the early 90's (most of which was classified as 'old growth'). It was at that time that the Canadians started flooding the market with huge softwood exports. Then the Soviets came on the scene shortly thereafter and quite a bit of their wood was derived from illegal logging. My point here is that we had a strong market for a lot of years that kept men working in the woods when domestic construction was slow. Exports of raw, renewable materials is a damn good thing (especially now that we're shipping high-quality classified 'second growth').

 

[hammerlogging]

looks the same here our mill started out with 42 crews in january now last mounth there was only 14 crews left. my cutter and i finished a block 4 weeks ago never got the call to start the next block, i have been working on getting the yoder working with the gas company,wood is still moving well here and expected to keep going moving tomorrow 3 hr from home, but you got to keep going,payments keep coming no matter what. everyone has to be tough and ride this out we loggers know what to do. be safe cut smart

Can you downhill with your yoder?

I've cut plenty of export hardwoods. Ideally, I'd like to see our country back in "splendid isolation" but thats not how it is, and I agree, its part of what keeps us going in the woods, thank god.