anyone else feel a slow down

woodmills1 · July 07, 2010, 07:24:42 PM

I have been busy with a combination of pick ups/log sales and cutting/ firewood

pickups stopped last week, green firewood is iffy now, and the log yard shut off pine log deliveries for 3 weeks.

What DanG reovery???? ???

Autocar · July 07, 2010, 08:00:39 PM

It's been dead for me also, one of the mills I deal with went to a 16 inch diameter small end. So that makes it tuff to move alot of wood. Pallet mills have been slow paying me so that market isn't there eather. No use hauling more if your not getting paid. I talked to my veneer buyer and he say's the same thing very shackey. I suppose we got spoiled from the past log proces. :-\

woodmills1 · July 07, 2010, 08:10:34 PM

yes them log prices rose last few months, but I guess no buyers so shaky market now cut off

thinkin I get pine pick ups i cut and stick in 20 minutes..........big stain season here now of course I cuold always cut some 8x8 for my own raised bed backhoe landscape project

must ad I love the 70......cut 500 buck fence order from 3 logs 72 minutes

wwsjr · July 07, 2010, 08:35:34 PM

I can't explain what is going on in my area. I have more custom sawing jobs on my yard that I have had at one time in several years. I unloaded 4 big gooseneck trailer loads of red oak yesterday and today from a farmer who is a regular customer. I had a logger bring me 2 tractor trailer loads of SYP a few weeks ago. I have not gone on site to saw in about 3 months, all the logs are coming to me. I have an old Prentiss loader mounted on tandem truck to handle unloading, makes it much quicker and easier than the tractor FIL. I am not complaining, but has been almost too hot to saw the last few weeks. Slowly I will finish all the jobs. I am constantly getting calls for cypress beams that I cannot provide, cannot get the logs. Loggers have slowed down or gone out of business.

Magicman · July 07, 2010, 08:42:37 PM

The custom sawing is not slowing down here either. I've been busier than normal and still have the same number of saw jobs ahead of me that I started the year with, just different ones.

For me, storms and beetle killed SYP is good. Sometimes folks don't know what they are going to do with the lumber, but they can't let those big trees rot. Farmers always need lumber.

Buck · July 07, 2010, 09:35:35 PM

All the new regulation and inspection and permit process is killing us in this post hurricane Louisiana. If you dont have a specialty niche you are behind the 8 ball. They have tied insurance to kiln dried and inspected lumber as well as building inspection and permits. Gotta love bureacracy!

Cedarman · July 07, 2010, 10:28:41 PM

ERC is moving like hotcakes. We can not keep up. Even with more help. Logs are coming in fine so far. Price increases have not slowed things down. Yesterday I had a call from a lumber broker for China wanting 2 loads of cants per week. They pay commodity pricing so you have to be efficient and just saw cants. Some mills are set up for that , but we are not in Indiana. Mulch sales are doing very well in Ok, but the rain is preventing us from making any this week. This will be one of our best years ever profit wise if the second half is like the first half. Pergolas are hot items too.
Being in a niche market has saved our buns from the downturn that many in the lumber business are facing.

Ironwood · July 07, 2010, 10:46:37 PM

Things are still moving here in my little world.

Ironwood

paul case · July 07, 2010, 10:57:52 PM

i am just keeping my fingers crossed and not ask too many questions. pc

DR Buck · July 07, 2010, 11:00:49 PM

Phone has been ringing off the hook. Almost one new custom sawing request everyday the past two weeks. I don't want to be this busy. It's too hot and I have to much elst to do. I have been sending most of them elsewhere or telling them to call me back in September.

Bibbyman · July 07, 2010, 11:07:32 PM

We're sawing as much as we are able to and have ample markets at this time. Almost all going to some commercial market. Local retail sales have not been good for some time. Slabs are moving. Sold 2 PU loads today and some marked down lumber that a customer ordered last winter but never picked up.

We got two calls today from compainies from far away we've never done business with. They were looking for product and volume we could not produce. The conversation didn't get to the price quote stage. Maybe they wanted everything for nothing.

Forestry trade papers came in the other day. The back pages are still filled with sawmill auctions.

paul case · July 07, 2010, 11:17:09 PM

are those back pages the ones that should be filled with ''lumber wanted'' ads? pc

Brucer · July 08, 2010, 01:33:19 AM

I've had 50% more volume over last year, up until the end of June. Then the orders just stopped. From what I hear, the work is there but the crazy amount of rain we've been having has slowed the contractors right down.

I had no work scheduled this week, so I spent some time tuning up the mill & edger. Yesterday I got a call from the couple who committed to having me saw their timber-frame house. Things are finally happening and their engineer has approved the timber sizes for the upper portion of the house. They want me to start sawing right away. There's at least 3 months of work in that job-- probably more.

Today I had three contractors wanting to place orders. I'm sending them to one of my competitors.

Ron Wenrich · July 08, 2010, 05:30:50 AM

We never had a slow down. Prices have recovered pretty well on red oak. We move trailer loads of grade lumber with just a phone call. We have standing orders for casket lumber. We can't produce enough pallet cants and prices are above what they were in 2008. We got an order for 2 trailer loads of poplar fence boards. They're going to Ohio, and the total order was for 14 loads. I heard there's a guy building mats for the gas drillers that have come in. He's only paying $55/ton, which comes out to $330/Mbf for 6" and 8" blocking. He won't get much at that price.

Sold a load of soft maple veneer yesterday. The logs were sold using pictures over the cell phone. We continue to sell veneer for export.

The log yard is full and the orders are good.

Kansas · July 08, 2010, 07:23:49 AM

Well I thought we were slowing down, but apparently I was mistaken. Our regular customers had quit calling a few weeks ago. We got all their orders done, and finally got on all the custom cutting logs laying around the yard, some of them for months. Just about to get those wrapped up yesterday and start on some grade logs we had. The phone started ringing. And didn't stop. With the usual weekly stuff, we are set for the rest of this month. I think I'm going to get someone in to do some custom cutting for us. We have ash that came in this spring, and if we don't salvage what we can soon, it won't be worth cutting.

bugdust · July 08, 2010, 07:28:38 AM

So far it's been pretty good in southern WV, matter of fact there's more jobs than time. Custom saw jobs seem to back up. Very wet spring and now HOT early summer makes it tough to get ahead.

Coon · July 08, 2010, 03:07:51 PM

From what I have been told the Weherhauser (sp?) OSB mill in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan is about to come back online after nearly two years of being shut down. They have pushed the start up date back a bit because the forestry end of things had to be shut down as it is too wet to get the timber out. That being said I also hear that all of the portable bandmills in the countryside around here can't keep up with the demands. Many of the logs were taken out last winter with the farmers figuring they could get some lumber sawn up at low prices. The lumber prices have been climbing and so have the custom rates as well.

Magicman · July 08, 2010, 04:15:02 PM

I moved in on this job yesterday morning. There was about 20 logs when I got there. That number increased all morning to about 50 when I quit. Even after I had sawn about a dozen. ;)

Cherrybark Red Oak and SYP.

I finished the oak this morning.

This is 1440 BF of oak that is field stacked and will be moved to a shed and restacked.

Mark Webb · July 08, 2010, 06:00:05 PM

Things would be real here if it wasn't for cow pen lumber and fence boards.
Mark

woodmills1 · July 08, 2010, 07:54:25 PM

I love fence boards, got an order just after i began this thread

then tonight met a contractor who needs scaffold boards, thought I never call them that. guess the big spruce gets cut this weekend.

Magicman · July 08, 2010, 08:15:44 PM

That stacked oak will be used for sub-flooring in a home addition. Doesn't matter with me. I saw it and they use it.

I also saw lumber for cattle catch pen fences, etc. Actually, most of the oak that I saw is for general farm use. I asked a guy once if he wanted it sawed a full 4/4. He said no, he wanted it 1 inch. You just saw what the customer wants.

SAWMILL BUDDY · July 09, 2010, 03:53:27 PM

Slow down Whats that Though I had this Sunday off and got a call from a new customer this morn He rented a bobcat to make moving logs easyer but has to return it monday morn so looks like Im milling this Sunday ;D

trailman · July 09, 2010, 06:25:47 PM

Quote from: Magicman on July 08, 2010, 08:15:44 PM
That stacked oak will be used for sub-flooring in a home addition. Doesn't matter with me. I saw it and they use it.

I also saw lumber for cattle catch pen fences, etc. Actually, most of the oak that I saw is for general farm use. I asked a guy once if he wanted it sawed a full 4/4. He said no, he wanted it 1 inch. You just saw what the customer wants.

i wonder if he was thinking dimentional size like the stuff at the lumberyard.b Ionec worked with a pritty lady who didnt know anything about lumber. she was a short lived gofer on the job. sent here to the lumber yard to get some 2x4s. she came back with nothing. she said all they had were 1.1\2 x 3.1\2s