Glo ll0n anilme Gominu su[[ly G]unon

By John Krier

IIJHILE attending a local garden

V Y show, I noticed a booth set up by a large regional vendor of wood byproducts for the landscaping industry.

On a whim, I approached one of the salespeople and made two rhetorical comments. The first was, "I will bet your retail prices are up at least 407o ." The second was, "Your scarcest species is hemlock, correct?" I was right on both counts. He asked me how I knew, and the answer was simple: Globalization.

After he gave me a blank stare, I explained that the hemlock scarcities in the short term came from weather and strike problems on the B.C. coast and in the medium-to-long term from higher round log demand from Korea and China. I also cited political risks from the future pine beetle raw material shortages, along with byproduct cost increases resulting from a global shortage of softwood pulp and the emergence of biofuel as an important new end-user in the industry.

This anecdote illustrates why lack of preparation for the coming sea change in our industry can be catastrophic even for the smaller regional and local businesses who think themselves immune.

Until very recently, conventional wisdom held that there was plenty of wood fiber in the world: trees are renewable, Russian and South American producers are emerging. etc.. etc. But conventional wisdom is just that. It leaves out key elements that can radically change the outlook.

The first is political. Russia has just announced a huge increase in export taxes for round log exports in an attempt to force value adding industries to relocate inside the coun- try.B.C.is seeing the beginnings of a protest movement against raw log exports, especially from the Coast, obviously motivated by the same concerns as Russia. Because of the beetle catastrophe in the B.C. Interior, these protests will become deafening in the next two or three years

The second element is economic. In North America it is not cost effective to move raw logs long distances. The same is true to a lesser extent for the big producing regions in Europe.

So if the existing logging and sawmill infrastructures are located in relatively small areas, they are pressuring a limited fiber basket. So does it help that Russia has 40Vo of the world's growing softwood inventory if there are no roads or rail lines to remove the trees or build the processing facili-

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Rrrlttrns

84 Lumber Ca. opened a 5,840sq. ft. store with 36,160-sq. ft. warehouse on 10 acres in Spanish Fork, Ut., Aprll24 (Shane Kober, mgr.), and expects an early summer opening in Hesperia,Ca.

84 Lumber is the subject of an EEOC lawsuit that claims that the chain had not filed federally mandated reports since 2005 on the composition of its workforce

Orchard Supply Hardware, San Jose, Ca., is leasing a 35,000-sq. ft. building in Santa Rosa, Ca., to open a new store by the end of the year...

Lowe's Cos. opened a 117000sq. ft. store May 1 in Sierra Vista, Az., and a 116000-sq. ft. location May 5 in Federal Way, Wa. ...

Lowe's submitted plans to build a 140000-sq. ft. store on 13 acres in Spokane Valley, Wa.; a 119,327-sq. ft. store with 27 ,265sq. ft. garden center in Redmond, Or.; a 119000-sq. ft. store on 10.5 acres in Ogden, Ut.; a 170000-sq. ft. store with 31,600-sq. ft. garden center in Pleasanton. Ca., and a 170,000-sq. ft. unit in Springfield, Or....

Lowe's won approval to build in Hollister, Ca., and held a public auction to clear merchandise from a store it replaced in Sandy, Ut.

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Home Depot will appeal an order halting its almost-finished conversion of a former Kmart in Sunland, Ca.; received approval to build a 102p00-sq. ft. store with 28,000-sq. ft. garden center in Redmond, Or.; agreed to concessions permitting rezoning for a new store in Warrenton, Or., and is considering building a day laborer center in Baldwin Park, Ca. ...

Home Depot is seeking permission to acquire Enerbank USA, Salt Lake City, Ut., specializing in unsecured home improvement in all 50 states, from CMS Energy Corp.,Jackson, Mi. ...

Stock Building Supply will use F inancial Sy stems Innov ation's credit card fraud protection ...

Lumber Liquidators has filed for a $150-million initial public offering

Wnor:sn:ns/trrulrcrur:rs

Swanson Group, Glendale, Or., is in exclusive negotiations to purchase the assets of veneer and PIYwood manufacturcr Mc Kenzie Fore st Products, lLC, Springfield, Or....

Michael Jones Lumber, Wilsonville, Or., merged with Western Lumber Co.. Medford, Or.; sales personnel are unchanged ...

Hampton Affiliate s, Portland, Or., temporarily curtailed production at Willamina Lumber Co., Willamina, Or., due to market conditions...

Quiet Solution, Sunnyvale, Ca., opened its second facility to produce QuietRock soundproof drywall and QuietWood products on 12 acres in Newark, Ca.

Premier Industrie s, Tacoma, Wa., sold its Insulfuarn business, including 13 EPS plants, to Carlisle Construction Materials

United Coatings, Spokane, Wa., has been acquired by Quest Specialty Chemicals, Inc., and equity partner Huron Capital Partners LLC; operations at United's manufacturing facilities in Spokane and Phoenix, Az.o continue uninterrupted and all management was retained ...

CorrectDeclc has relaunched its contractor loyalty program as the CorrectB uil t Zone (www.correctbuiltzone.com)

ChemPoint.com is distributing Innxess Corp.'s Biochek industrial preservatives, Tektamer commercial microbiocides, Metasol commercial parasiticide/biocides, and some Prevenlol products ...

Vandermeer Forest Products, Lynnwood, Wa., is now distributing PrairePicket composite fencing from Heartland BioCompos' ites in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii; Snavely Forest Products is supplying the product in Colorado and southern Wyoming, and Empire Building Materials in ldaho, Montana, and northern Wyoming

North Pacific, Portland, Or., launched a joint production and marketing program with J.P. Price Lumber, Monticello, Ar., to exclusively distribute J.P. Price's 1" and 2" lumber and timbers, with a focus on Prime and #1 grades

New Website: Blue Ox Lumber, LLC (Harry T. Williams Lumber Co.), Torrance, Ca., www.blueoxlumberco.com...

Anniversaries: Desticon Transportation Service s, Richmond, 8.C., 20th Diamond Building Supply,Deer Park, Wa., 1st

Housing starts in March inched up 0.8Vo to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.518 million ... singlefamily starts rose ZVo to a 1.218million pace.

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