Western lumber industry recouers, refits for new century

ECORD demand and red-hot housing markets have spurred a renaissance for the Western lumber industry. The region once supplied some 45Vo of the lumber used in the country before spiraling to a postWorld War II low in 1995. But this new decade has been marked by a resurgence in production and a retooling for the future.

The current era has been unprecedented for lumber demand in the U.S. Western Wood Products Association projects Americans will use 63.5 billion bd. ft. of lumber in 2005, the most in history. The 2005 demand volume is not only the fourth record year in the past five, but represents a nearly l0 billion bd. ft. increase from 2000 consumption.

Housing and repair/remodeling have been the main lumber demand drivers. Housing starts have increased steadily since 2000, topping 2 million units in 2005 and consuming a record 27 billion bd. ft. of lumber. With nearly half of the American housing stock more than 40 years old, lumber used in repair and remodeling has surged to more than 20 billion bd. ft.

Western sarvmills have rode this wave of demand to steadv increases in production. Sarvmills in the region rvill produce just over l9 billion bd. ft. in 2005. the fourth consecutive annual increase. Unfortunately, the gains have not been shared equally throughout the West.

Mills in the Coast Region. covering Oregon and Washington rvest of the Cascades. have posted a decadelong string of annual production increases. reaching more than I I billion bd. ft. in 2005. Producing mostly Douglas fir and hem-fir framing lumber. Coast mills have paced the West's volume surge.

By comparison, the Inland Region,