Lumber railroad cars parked!

[Billy_Bob]

Yesterday I saw a long line of lumber railroad cars parked. As far as I could see either direction! Guess they don't need them these days.

And at a mill where in the past I would usually see maybe 6 or 8 railroad cars being loaded, lately I've just seen 2 being loaded.

Signs of the times...

 

[Burvol]

Yesterday I saw a long line of lumber railroad cars parked. As far as I could see either direction! Guess they don't need them these days.

And at a mill where in the past I would usually see maybe 6 or 8 railroad cars being loaded, lately I've just seen 2 being loaded.

Signs of the times...

I heard Weyerhauser is not even taking logs this week....

 

[slowp]

Send them up here please. I have a house to build!

 

[Spotted Owl]

I heard Weyerhauser is not even taking logs this week....

Local Weyerhauser is keeping only a 3 to 5 day supply of wood in the log yard. Only wood from their holdings aswell. The other mills have stopped buying or paying enough for loggers to work. Worked over at the fiber mill this afternoon, they said their prices were adjusting to $21 a ton.
not good.


Owl

 

[Zackman1801]

mills around here are laying off log buyers, that something that has really never happened. They just dont want the wood right now. The paper mills seem to lay off more and more guys each week and shut down more and more machines.

 

[Cedarkerf]

Very strange we have an export yard goin balls to the wall its the busiest Ive seen it ever log trucks are runnin in all day long and cargo containers are hauling out more frequently than ever. Maybe they are racing a deadline or something the logs have even been getting bigger just scratch my head and wonder.

 

[Burvol]

That's what was happening here. I heard that Weyerhauser is up for sale currently, and there was also some speculation on how many ships they had sold or were going to move at a certain price. Something just happened, not sure what. I heard that export was moving out of ports other than W as well.

 

[windthrown]

Yesterday I saw a long line of lumber railroad cars parked. As far as I could see either direction! Guess they don't need them these days.

And at a mill where in the past I would usually see maybe 6 or 8 railroad cars being loaded, lately I've just seen 2 being loaded.

Signs of the times...

Where are you located?

I saw a huge lumber train coming in from the west full of logs in Hillsboro the other day. Longest one I have seen in a long time (maybe 2 years?). My guess was it was all heading for the harbor yards for export. When I was in North Doug Co., they used to park the empty and full RR timber cars there between Cottage Grove, Drain and Yoncalla all the time.

I do not think that Weyerhauser is for sale, but they are selling off big divisions of the company in an effort to downsize.

 

[Spotted Owl]

Where are you located?

I saw a huge lumber train coming in from the west full of logs in Hillsboro the other day. Longest one I have seen in a long time (maybe 2 years?). My guess was it was all heading for the harbor yards for export. When I was in North Doug Co., they used to park the empty and full RR timber cars there between Cottage Grove, Drain and Yoncalla all the time.

I do not think that Weyerhauser is for sale, but they are selling off big divisions of the company in an effort to downsize.

Banks may be selling off their raw wood. They haven't been buying for quite some time now. I wonder if they finally bit the bullet. There is also some State ground that should be getting or getting ready to be worked, I think thats on HWY 6 just past Staley's. The word was that it would be mostly an export job, min bid was $75.

We lived in Drain and Elkton for a while, there was lots of train activity at the time. Lots of work up Tom Folley and Paradise Creek, good shad action at the yellow too. That entire Umpqua basin will always have a great place in my memory banks. Remember that mill in Reedsport right on 101 that they cut in half and shipped to Japan to reset and use there? They were literatlly out there cutting with torches and taking huge chuncks off that mill, then loading it onto the ships for the ride over.



Owl

 

[Burvol]

I thought BLM timber had to stay Stateside? WA does that policy on all their DNR wood. I know Weyerhauser is up for sale, and it could be good, or bad I guess. They were our export vehicle, but not at the moment. It peeves me .... I hope that we can find a reasonable place to send some wood, cause we have plenty and it's all gorgeous timber

 

[Burvol]

Your right about the banks selling off. There is two big chunks over here that had been aquired like that recently, but now have umpteen hundred loads decked....idle.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Where are you located?

I saw a huge lumber train coming in from the west full of logs in Hillsboro the other day. Longest one I have seen in a long time (maybe 2 years?). My guess was it was all heading for the harbor yards for export. When I was in North Doug Co., they used to park the empty and full RR timber cars there between Cottage Grove, Drain and Yoncalla all the time.

I saw these parked railroad cars in the Sweet Home / Lebanon Oregon area.

 

[Spotted Owl]

If I'm thinking right it's State of Oregon ground. I know 3 guys that went and cruised that piece. All said that export was an option. None got the bid, all entailed $75 min at the time would not have broken even.

Our rumor here is that the Canadians are looking at Weyerhauser. The name that keeps comming up is Cross Crown or Crown Cross it's said both ways here. At one point I believe they were if not still are the largest timber holding company in the western hemisphere. I really don't know anything about them, but the locals seem to be at ease with this for some reason.

I didn't think about the Banks selling off, but that makes sence. I was meaning Banks Lumber. There was also a log train that came from Hamptons here the other day. Nobody can ever remember raw log leaving the mill, at one point they would pull in 2 to 3 trains a day for their own production. They would also buy in close to 200 trucks a day. I don't know now but they were the nations best out put mill of 2 X 2 to 2 X 14 lumber.


Owl

 

[Burvol]

largest timber holding company in the western hemisphere.

That's what I was hearing, but did not know it was Crown Cross. I also heard that Longview Fiber might be part of the aquisition as well. To further cement what you stated as the largest timber holder in the west. Good? Bad? Canadian?

What's your opinion Wise old Owl? LOL

I think it could be great if the promise or outlook of sustainability (seems very probable) was there while it was producing enough wood to not to fully bring us back- never happen again, but to atleast keep who's in still going.

 

[windthrown]

A mill out in Banks that I know of has been shut down now. I got a lot of remnant cut wood from the owner's son out there about a year ago. They have some of the best trees on their lots that I have seen; perfect taper douggies that would sell for top dollar as poles. No buyers, so they are dropping a few firs a week and cutting them into firewood and selling that to pay the rent.

I remember a lot of stuff from old Reedsport. I commercial fished out of Winchester Bay one summer when I was in High School. Used to be the last of the independant cheese factories there, but they are all gone now. I do not remember the mill being moved, but that was typical in the old days. My grandmother was raised in Michigan and her father opened a saw mill there. When she was about 18 they took the mill apart and moved it someplace else.

4+ years ago when I moved in with the ex, Drain, Yoncalla and CC were all cranking full time. Logs were being slicked off and trucked all over, and all the local mills were going full bore. I had never ever seen logging that good before that time. Now its all off a cliff.

Banks may be selling off their raw wood. They haven't been buying for quite some time now. I wonder if they finally bit the bullet. There is also some State ground that should be getting or getting ready to be worked, I think thats on HWY 6 just past Staley's. The word was that it would be mostly an export job, min bid was $75.

We lived in Drain and Elkton for a while, there was lots of train activity at the time. Lots of work up Tom Folley and Paradise Creek, good shad action at the yellow too. That entire Umpqua basin will always have a great place in my memory banks. Remember that mill in Reedsport right on 101 that they cut in half and shipped to Japan to reset and use there? They were literatlly out there cutting with torches and taking huge chuncks off that mill, then loading it onto the ships for the ride over.



Owl

 

[Spotted Owl]

That's what I was hearing, but did not know it was Crown Cross. I also heard that Longview Fiber might be part of the aquisition as well. To further cement what you stated as the largest timber holder in the west. Good? Bad? Canadian?

What's your opinion Wise old Owl? LOL

I think it could be great if the promise or outlook of sustainability (seems very probable) was there while it was producing enough wood to not to fully bring us back- never happen again, but to atleast keep who's in still going.

I believe there is a Cross Crown that is a logging, trucking outfit around Yamhill county someplace. This is not the company that the talk is about.

Like I said up top I don't know much about them, thats just the talk going around right now. One of the former CEO types ownes a business around these parts and our crew was talking with him last spring. He had some interesting things to say about what was comming and how he thought things would play out. I believe he said that the headquarters was based in BC, or Alberta Canada. If this is a Canadian buy out, I hope they don't bring Canadian working rules/certifications down here.

If the re in fact that big and are still buying out outfitts as big as Weyerhauser, I don't see how that could be bad. Some place like that isn't gonna purchase a huge loss. Bad. All I can see is that this company would be so big and encopassing that it could dictate the price even more than we have seen now. I can see how more than a few Mom & Pop places could go by the way side. If they set the price low enough only the bigger more diverse companies will be able to compete. Sustainability. If this rumor talk holds true, they didn't get as big as they did by going in and rushing and slamming the work. They know how to extend and endure and put work out so that they will be around for a long time. These are only one way of thinking about things though. I aswell as anyone can come up with lots of others, from doomsday extreme to the most rose colored glasses scenerio you can think of.

My opinion. I don't think this is over yet. I don't think that we have hit the bottom yet. I think it is possible that we come back to the glory days. About 18 - 25 years from now there will be a huge need for more housing. I think there will be another population spike here real soon, what better to do while unemployed than "keep warm".

I think the same now as I do when the guys are drinking coffe and decideing what the weather will be like the rest of the winter and next. I know it's a no fun stace, but in my opinion we will just have to wait and see. I just hope as many as possible will be able to hang on for however long it takes.

I think that Bushler being an owner could/would have different insite to those questions. Good? Bad? Canadian? Sustainability? I would be interested in hearing what he would have to say.

Hope this rambling made some kind of sence.


Owl

 

[forestryworks]

surely from now to the future, the construction industry and pulp and paper industry will always keep some kind of logging going on.

i don't see much of a decline in paper products for a long, long time.

i hope for the current loggers' sake and the future timber and forestry workers' sake that logging keeps on a-chuggin'.

i really don't know what i'd to if i couldn't set chokers or count and measure trees. there's nothing more peaceful than a forest and working in the forest.

i got out of the film industry, not sure if i'd want to go back - but maybe as a last resort.

 

[slowp]

Crown Pacific? I'll have to "google it" and see if they still exist. Guys liked to log for them. But that was before my exile.

The Hampton mill here has to make up for the Morton mill being down. They do have orders and deadlines to meet. The bad thing is that the log yard here is smaller so they take logs, then cut them off, then take them...

Nope, not Crown Pacific. I just looked them up and they went bankrupt in 2003. There's also Crown Fletcher and they were in Canada and New Zealand.

Too many crowns.

 

[RPM]

Crown Pacific? I'll have to "google it" and see if they still exist. Guys liked to log for them. But that was before my exile.

The Hampton mill here has to make up for the Morton mill being down. They do have orders and deadlines to meet. The bad thing is that the log yard here is smaller so they take logs, then cut them off, then take them...

Nope, not Crown Pacific. I just looked them up and they went bankrupt in 2003. There's also Crown Fletcher and they were in Canada and New Zealand.

Too many crowns.

Fletcher Clhallenge and Crown Zellerbach used to operate in BC (not sure about elsewhere in Canada). Fletcher Challenge disappeared from timber land operations in 1994 ...I worked for then in the early 90's..... Crown Z went before them. They bought out the old BCFP (BC Forest Products) and other timber operations in the early 80's. They also ran some pulp mills. Foreign ownership is certainly a double edged sword and in the end it comes down to the almighty dollar. Timber is a resource and the rights to it are bought and sold by whomever can make the most $$ out of it and most often at the expense of the people who extract it, the local areas that support those people and om outward from there.

 

[RPM]

I believe there is a Cross Crown that is a logging, trucking outfit around Yamhill county someplace. This is not the company that the talk is about.

Like I said up top I don't know much about them, thats just the talk going around right now. One of the former CEO types ownes a business around these parts and our crew was talking with him last spring. He had some interesting things to say about what was comming and how he thought things would play out. I believe he said that the headquarters was based in BC, or Alberta Canada. If this is a Canadian buy out, I hope they don't bring Canadian working rules/certifications down here.

If the re in fact that big and are still buying out outfitts as big as Weyerhauser, I don't see how that could be bad. Some place like that isn't gonna purchase a huge loss. Bad. All I can see is that this company would be so big and encopassing that it could dictate the price even more than we have seen now. I can see how more than a few Mom & Pop places could go by the way side. If they set the price low enough only the bigger more diverse companies will be able to compete. Sustainability. If this rumor talk holds true, they didn't get as big as they did by going in and rushing and slamming the work. They know how to extend and endure and put work out so that they will be around for a long time. These are only one way of thinking about things though. I aswell as anyone can come up with lots of others, from doomsday extreme to the most rose colored glasses scenerio you can think of.

My opinion. I don't think this is over yet. I don't think that we have hit the bottom yet. I think it is possible that we come back to the glory days. About 18 - 25 years from now there will be a huge need for more housing. I think there will be another population spike here real soon, what better to do while unemployed than "keep warm".

I think the same now as I do when the guys are drinking coffe and decideing what the weather will be like the rest of the winter and next. I know it's a no fun stace, but in my opinion we will just have to wait and see. I just hope as many as possible will be able to hang on for however long it takes.

I think that Bushler being an owner could/would have different insite to those questions. Good? Bad? Canadian? Sustainability? I would be interested in hearing what he would have to say.

Hope this rambling made some kind of sence.


Owl

In the last 10 years in BC, the majority of privately owned timberlands on the west coast have been purchased and controlled by large conglomerate type companies. They have a variety of other assets in their portfolios that all are all managed to provide a guaranteed return to the their share holders. Our public lands have also been 'owned' by foreign multinationals (New Zealanders, Scandianavians).

The company you are referring to is located in Canada but would doubt that it is actually held by Canadians. This company used to be called Brascan Corp - who was involved in the purchase of the private lands from Weyhauser 10 years ago. The current reincarnation is called Brookfield - also in Canada, but publicly traded around the world. If you google them you will see that they already own the Longview Timberlands,

Companies like this are certainly not interested in bringing Candadian rules and regulations and certifications to your neck of the woods. That would cost them money and I don't think they care if you don't wear hi-vis. They are 100% focused on extracting the most $$ they can from the asset that they paid the rights for.

I worked for another company called Pacific Forest Products and their private land was bought by the John Hancook Mutual Life company (familiar)? We went froma nice sustained harvest with an awesome outlook for the region (long term viability) to out of control liquidation. The share holders were looking for their guaranteed return.

I've given up hoping to work for the same company until I retire..every other year it seems there is a new logo on the door (thats why no one custom paints the company crummies anymore). In the end the timber will still be there in some form or another and there will always be a demand for someone to try and figure out how to get it, to build the roads, to go cut it, load it, haul it....mill it (thats a toss.....export.....amalgamation...)