OSB price check

[Jeff]

We started a project last week where we thought we would need some OSB. Checked into Home Depot last Friday night. $8.10 a sheet.  I knew it would go up. Just called for a new price. Its now at $9.95. For today he said.

I would expect it to be above 18 again before its done this go around. Aspen logs were already at a premium and will probably become impossible to buy asd the big sustainable forestry guys who preach proper use of the resource DEMAND that thier jobbers put everything into pulp or risk losing thier contracts.  I learned a lot sitting on a board as the flunky beside the bigboys. What I learned was something I didnt like but already knew. This world is run on the almighty dollar and on politics and has nothing to do with right wrong or "proper use"  SFI is a farce designed to benefit the big boys pockets and keep tree huggers just at arms length.

[Gilman]

What's SFI Jeff?

Lumber prices in WA state have already been affected.

[gary]

I have to buy 52 sheets of osb next week. I haven't checked on how much it has gone up yet. How many sheets do you think I can safely put in a 1/2ton pick up?

[SwampDonkey]

SFI = sustainable forestry initiative

http://www.michiganforestry.com/

http://www.aboutsfi.org/core.asp


I agree with Jeff. We also have some of these certification type initiatives here in New Brunswick.

You take a company like Fraser Papers, they are so hungry for wood that they don't care how it's been managed. There bottom line is what counts. They've just demonstrated that over the last two years by stopping cold of doing silviculture on their freehold. They're only concentrating on Public lands because of free hand outs by government. In the same breath they are also preaching wood shortages. They were trying to harvest 13 year old balsam fir thinnings over the last few years causing their contractors with their own money in equipment to loose their shirts. :

[floyd]

This kinda funny , logger in BC was tying to tell me the crown wasn't giving their timber away. Nice to see some who have a grip on reality

[leweee]

I have to buy 52 sheets of osb next week. I haven't checked on how much it has gone up yet. How many sheets do you think I can safely put in a 1/2ton pick up?

sounds like two loads minimum to me ;D if it's 7/16 more if it's thicker :

[isawlogs]

  30, 35 sheets if its a Dodge  ;) If you got a friend with a 3/4 ton you could put them all in and make one trip .
Then again why not get them delivered   ???

[TeaW]

How do the big guy's justify over a 20% increase in the price of OSB overnight. I could see a gradual increase within a few weeks. What's on the shelf wasn't made yesterday.

[hawby]

Capitalism.  Supply and demand. Demand has already increased. Orders are being placed ahead of the shortage. I'll be surprised if it stops at $18, Jeff. Studs will be up as well....  :-\

[Larry]

So what happens to all those pine trees down on the Gulf Coast?  Can't they be made into OSB or plywood?

[beenthere]

Sure would think so, if they can be cut, logged out, and trucked to the OSB and plywood plants, and were not yard trees. I gather that many forests and their foresters will be working on salvaging those downed trees as soon as possible to recover the wood instead of losing it. It will take some time to get organized, and there are possibly other priorities for the ones able and willing to work in those areas. Probably leaving the supply to the other areas of the country that are not under Katrina's devastation will be able to handle the needs for OSB and plywood best, albeit at a higher price. Demand does have a way with pricing.    Those supply houses that have the goods in demand 'right now' are going to 'make hay while the sunshines' so-to-speak. They are not going to think 'I'll just hold on to what I have and let someone else fill this demand when they can'.
The donated moneys and the Govt Billions will pay for goods and services which will pump a lot of cash into the economy, which may, for those willing to work, produce a lot of jobs.  But, I don't know that for sure, just suspect it will happen that way.

[Jeff]

That salvaged wood wont be in the system for a long time. The price will have gone bananas and them come down before any of it makes an impact on the market. I bet the only thing it will do by then is depress the local market it comes from.

[Don P]

If you've ever been in the woods after a hurricane its a whole different ballgame. The trees go everywhere and many never make it to the ground. Its a very unsafe twisted mess, full of giant springpoles and deadfall traps. We planted in several "Hugo Hells" after that storm, areas that couldn't be logged or even burned. Alot of that timber will be lost.

Sheetgoods, insulation and roofing materials will likely be in short supply for awhile.

[karl]

Yep, here we go agin, heard that Kat had hit, called my local yard that morning and the price of osb was already up- same with the local gas stations-it just don't seem right. Greedy SOB's.

The older I get the less I like people in general.

[Dan_Shade]

Isabel was a tropical storm when it hit here (well, it may have not even been that by that time), and it made a huge mess.  I pulled out a few pine trees in a friend's yard, and a big oak I wanted for a sawlog that was leaning.

it makes a mess, if you wait long enough, sometimes they settle out, but it's still dangerous work.  I'll take a picture of a lot of a friend of mine's thats still got a bunch of trees down from isabel, down there it will be much worse.  things get all tied together and crisscrossed.

this lot, i'm gonna cut at the stump, and use a log arch to drag the trees free with my winch, but his won't be as bad, most of his are almost all the way to the ground now, they're all playing dominoes, though...

[Frank_Pender]

And log prices for us out here on the Left Coast will not go up do the the demand for the finished product, that is for DanG sure.    Douglas fir is bringinning about $675 a thousand for 32 and 36 foot logs.  :'(

[craigc90]

 I paid $15.00 a sheet for 5/8 osb thursday. I was dragging my feet ordering the lumber for my new garage and when the hurricane hit it put a fire under my @@@. I am not complaining. I feel sorry for everyone who has suffered  from this. a little more money for wood is a minor issue compared to what they are going through.

[caryr]

And log prices for us out here on the Left Coast will not go up do the the demand for the finished product, that is for DanG sure.    Douglas fir is bringinning about $675 a thousand for 32 and 36 foot logs.  :'(

Frank,

I doubt log prices will move much anywhere. It is the perceived increase in demand for the finished goods that is driving the price. Of course since we are moving into the slow time of year for building in the US there should be adequate capacity to produce material, but for some reason disasters seem to produce strange supply vs demand curves. It's always interesting to observe that the more manufactured/processed items are the one that get the biggest percentage increase. I'm not sure if this is because everyone along the ways wants a little extra profit or because the few companies that are setup to produce the items get overly greedy.

Cary

[Jeff]

It does have a huge effect on aspen log prices in this area due to the fact that we have Georgia Pacific and Weyerhauser board plants in our market. THe demand for board will cause the board mills to go into overdrive and as stated in my first post, they get thier product. If its thier stumpage or guys working under contract, and they all do, they will demand the extra wood, which means putting the logs in pulp which means in order to get them back the price goes up. One bad thing about the price of logs is it seems it never comes back down. The loggers will get the money back they lost by not selling as logs after the demand for the raw materials to the board plants have slacked.

[OneWithWood]

For once my timing was half way decent.  I bought 21 sheets of 7/16 OSB for my kiln a bit over a week ago.  $7.19/sheet.  8)

[ScottAR]

Down here, its gonna be about availablity.  A local developer I know of purchased enough materials for 4 spec houses at once so he could be sure of having it.  Shingles and osb then later sheetrock will be hard to even get much less cost more.   

My uncle beat the rush for sheetrock for his new house...   8) 8) 8)  We'll be painting it soon.  Their first new house ever. 

[gary]

I went to the box store to get my osb .They sold out of it and don't know when they are getting more

[Stump Jumper]

Ohhhh!  Why did you have to start this Jeff.

Saturday:
The Mrs. called the Big Rapids Lowes store to to get prices on sheeting because they were having a Labor Day Sale.  She then asked them if they had what we needed in stock and the manager went out and checked and said yes they did and could they have it banded and ready to go when we got there.  Wellllllllllll when we got there the manager was no where to be found and the lady that we were dealing with said no that the 1/2" osb was not available and had been sold out as of 2 days ago and that there was nothing that they could do about it.  We then asked for another person in charge and they said the same thing.  They had also said that we could not get a rain check the price. It was for 9.88/sheet.  Well explaining to the 2nd person that the only reason we came into town was to get sheeting and now the majority of it we cannot purchase they should pay for my fuel becuase it is now a wasted trip to town this is 30 miles one way.  Well they gave us a $10 store credit for fuel. 

Now we also needed 14 sheets of 3/4" t & g osb he said that they also had this when on the phone.  Wellllllll they didn't but we were able to get it  though they said that they would take it from somebody elses order now how are they gonna replace that? :

Now we also needed 10 sheets of 3/8" plywood imagine that they had it. 8)  But it was the last ten that they had. 

Well by the time everything was said and done the person that the Mrs. talked to on the phone shows up and tried to explain what happened.  He did give us a raincheck for the 1/2" osb for the $9.88 / sheet and we need 47 sheets.  All of this took 2 hours.  Boy was this a badddddd day.  >:( >:(

[Gilman]

Looks like people might have to start sheeting their houses with cabinet grade birch.

[Paul_H]

Now StumpJumper Jeff it wasn't a bad day.You eventually got your 47 sheets at the price you wanted plus the 10 other sheets and gas money from a store plus you got to meet some interesting people.

Don't you feel better now?