Sawlog prices rise as western mills up output to meet higher demand

f occens AND TTMBERLAND owners IJin the Pacific Northwest have good reasons to be more optimistic about the new year since there are signs that demand for timber will increase in 2O13.

Housing starts in the U.S. jumped to 894,000 units in October. This was l97o higher than in August, and as much as 42 percent more than in October of last year. For the year, housing starts were at their highest levels since 2008, and market analysts expect the next l2 months to be bumpy but still upward-trending.

The improved housing market has been good news for many sawmills in North America, including the U.S. Northwest. Lumber production in 2012 was higher throughout the continent as compared to 2011, with an increase of 5 .9Vo in the first nine months year-over-year in the U.S., and of 4.6 7o in Canada over the same time period, according to WWPA.

The U.S. Northwest is the region that has experienced the biggest increase in the production of lumber this year, with a 9.1Vo jump yearover-year. It is also interesting to note that for the first time in two years, sawmills in the western U.S. produced as much lumber as the mills in the U.S. South in September. Typically production levels are higher in the U.S. South than in the West. Sawmills in West benefited not only from improved domestic sales, but also from a continued healthy overseas market in Asia to which the western sawmills export between ll%o

(Continued on page 30)