Economy - Mills not buying wood?
- Thread starter Billy_Bob
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chevytaHOE5674
ArboristSite Operative
Around here they haven't stopped buying logs, but they are paying less and buying less. The pulp mills are still going pretty strong.
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Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
Our local mills are still buying. Only they are buying from the big timber holding companies and harvesting their on land. Small stand and mom/pop owners and logging co are out of luck. The are hauling in just enough to keep them going
The lumber mills are all but completely laid-off, skeleton crews at best. The pulp mills however are going gang busters. They just fired up the third overflow pulper last week. Those yards haven't been that full for years and years.
I hope this will turn soon. Some people are starting to get desperate. The local helping stations are maxed out, food banks are empty, shelters are starting to fill slowly. Camps are starting to sprout up in the brush off the main roads.
I hope this will not last long and things turn for the better soon. In our area we can't take another hit like the late 80's, early 90's.
Owl
The lumber mills are all but completely laid-off, skeleton crews at best. The pulp mills however are going gang busters. They just fired up the third overflow pulper last week. Those yards haven't been that full for years and years.
I hope this will turn soon. Some people are starting to get desperate. The local helping stations are maxed out, food banks are empty, shelters are starting to fill slowly. Camps are starting to sprout up in the brush off the main roads.
I hope this will not last long and things turn for the better soon. In our area we can't take another hit like the late 80's, early 90's.
Owl
windthrown
361 Junkie
Round this part of OR is is mostly idle, though there is some logging still going on. They finally hauled all the logs up with a yarder near here last week that they slicked off a few weeks ago. Looks to be about a 160 clear cut.
Mostly specialty mills near here. The big mill in Southerlin burned down over a year ago and they never rebuilt it. Weyerhauser is bringing in logs from Canada on rail cars to cut into dimentional lumber in Cottage Grove. The plywood mills are still operating. I also see a lot of logs going to Coos Bay for export down Highway 38.
I see ads for logs in the Capital Press still, but no more posted prices for them. Alder and cedar seem to be in demand. I do not know the price on Doug or grand fir of late. I hear that Doug is down to $300/MBF in CA now. I will be calling around for buyers next week for a 20 acre cut I may be doing (if I can find the log buyers, seems to be pleanty of sawyers, truckers and yarding crew to work it). I may have to haul them farther than I want to get a good price, and with diesel at about $4.50 a gallon... (bend over, cough), well, its steep to get logs moved very far, and logs being cheap, I may have to delay cutting (like everyone else).
Mostly specialty mills near here. The big mill in Southerlin burned down over a year ago and they never rebuilt it. Weyerhauser is bringing in logs from Canada on rail cars to cut into dimentional lumber in Cottage Grove. The plywood mills are still operating. I also see a lot of logs going to Coos Bay for export down Highway 38.
I see ads for logs in the Capital Press still, but no more posted prices for them. Alder and cedar seem to be in demand. I do not know the price on Doug or grand fir of late. I hear that Doug is down to $300/MBF in CA now. I will be calling around for buyers next week for a 20 acre cut I may be doing (if I can find the log buyers, seems to be pleanty of sawyers, truckers and yarding crew to work it). I may have to haul them farther than I want to get a good price, and with diesel at about $4.50 a gallon... (bend over, cough), well, its steep to get logs moved very far, and logs being cheap, I may have to delay cutting (like everyone else).
I don't know what they're paying up there but I'd think long and hard about cutting at all. If you have to cut I guess that's all there is to it...but I think, from what you've said so far, that it's going to be ugly.
With log prices down and everything else up trying to get logs in at some kind of reasonable profit is almost impossible.
If you have somebody log it for you it's going to cost but the real heavy costs come in transportation. If a trucker is paying close to a dollar a mile for fuel, before any of the other myriad trucking costs are factored in, it's going to be super expensive to get the logs hauled. And the farther they travel, the more it's going to cost. And believe me, none of the truckers are even getting close to wealthy...most of them are hanging on by their fingernails. Most of the smaller landowners in our area are hanging on to their timber if they can.
The last stuff that I cut off our family place, with me doing all the falling, skidding, and loading, netted me about 4%. In other words I made about enough to pay my land taxes, a few incidentals, and have a cup of coffee.
Right now, unless you can bring in a couple of million BF and make it on volume I wouldn't even mess with it.
Let 'em grow...they're like savings bonds.
Bob
Last week log truck traffic increased dramatically on the highway. They go to the Hampton mill. Got a guy thinking about plowing in except I explored and he won't need to plow to get to 2 units. The ground has to dry out more because they are skidder units. None of the gyppo owned sales are planning to go unless they absolutely have to. Those guys were looking for work other than logging to keep going. There was a pan handler in Morton yesterday! That was a shock. He was moving pretty fast though and I only saw him go up to me. I shoulda given him some food except he moved on pretty fast and I hadn't bought any food yet. 
Ryan Willock
Addicted to ArboristSite
One of the biggest sawmills around here just laid off all of their American help that has been with them for 10-20 years (5 guys) and hired back mexicans!
So they wouldn't't have to pay for decent labor. I wish the rest of the country would make it a felony to hire/employ, transport of house illegals, and enforce it.
So they wouldn't't have to pay for decent labor. I wish the rest of the country would make it a felony to hire/employ, transport of house illegals, and enforce it.ak4195
ArboristSite Operative
How Ironic...
you'd be surprised how hard it is to get jobs overseas for americans(above board).Your talking govt intervention and more tied up courts,more law enforcement and the end result of higher taxes to pay for it,nobody ever thinks about that.Only winners there is lawyers,Be carefull what you wish for.
ak4195
One of the biggest sawmills around here just laid off all of their American help that has been with them for 10-20 years (5 guys) and hired back mexicans!
you'd be surprised how hard it is to get jobs overseas for americans(above board).Your talking govt intervention and more tied up courts,more law enforcement and the end result of higher taxes to pay for it,nobody ever thinks about that.Only winners there is lawyers,Be carefull what you wish for.
ak4195
goatchin
ArboristSite Operative
hmmm...the lumber/loggin industry sounds bout like the dairy farming industry. milk prices goin back down and fuel, grain and fertilzer prices sky rocketing.
good luck to all of you
good luck to all of you
windthrown
361 Junkie
The system is headed for a big crash and breakdown, yes indeed. Too bad the US does not have a vote of confidence and we are stuck with lame ducks that do not give a rats arse for anything but personal greed. *sigh*
Logging in the tank, mills are in the tank, housing and construction are in the tank. Coach builders are all in the tank here and laying off. Salmon season was just cancelled here, so the fishing industry is in the tank. Cheap illegal aliens are sucking up all the restaurant, factory, field and blue-collar labor jobs. White collar jobs (long since) off-shored, and cheap H1-B visa holders here en masse to fill in any vacancies.
Why, its everything a multi-national company could love.
Logging in the tank, mills are in the tank, housing and construction are in the tank. Coach builders are all in the tank here and laying off. Salmon season was just cancelled here, so the fishing industry is in the tank. Cheap illegal aliens are sucking up all the restaurant, factory, field and blue-collar labor jobs. White collar jobs (long since) off-shored, and cheap H1-B visa holders here en masse to fill in any vacancies.
Why, its everything a multi-national company could love.
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Zodiac45
Paleostoveologist & Sawwhisperer
Yep it's not too good these days. We've got a huge stockpile of logs stashed in a gravel quarry at the moment. The pulp mills are the only thing that are worth cutting for at the moment.
Got to agree with Windthrown that we are in trouble. The last 8 yrs has been disasterous and people need too wake up. When I see things like "which candidate would you rather have a beer with? or wearing lapel pins posed as serious questions I really have to wonder where peoples heads are at? How about what are you going to do about oil prices? What are going to do about the dollar tanking? Sheesh!
Ok enough rant.
Got to agree with Windthrown that we are in trouble. The last 8 yrs has been disasterous and people need too wake up. When I see things like "which candidate would you rather have a beer with? or wearing lapel pins posed as serious questions I really have to wonder where peoples heads are at? How about what are you going to do about oil prices? What are going to do about the dollar tanking? Sheesh!
Ok enough rant. 
