2 minute read
HILL & MORTON, lNC.
W HOLES ALE DISTR'BUTORS
Yards and Oflices:
Dennison Street Whorl, OaHcnd 6
165 South lst Street, Fresno 5 Since l9l8
Demand For Plywood Exceeds Productive Capacity of Industry
fn a statement discussing conditions in the plywood industry, Lawrence Ottinger, president of the United States Plywood Corporation, states :
"Demand for plywood of all kinds far exceeds the productive capacity of the industry, and that condition is likely to prevail for a long period of time, not only because of the housing shortage but because so many new uses have been found for plywood as a result of the war.
"Two major factors are curtailing production of West Coast Fir plywood. One is a 40-hour work week, the other is the OPA. Fir plywood production is traditionally a 6 or 7-day operation and all plants were lvorking around the clock on that basis prior to the war. Annual production went as high as 1,800,000,000 square feet and the estimate for 1946 is 1,200,000,000 square feet.
"I believe it would be a national calamity to eliminate OPA control at this time, but to function effectively it must be less pedantic and more flexible. In the case of Fir plywood, which is an indispensable item for prefabrication and other low priced building construction, wages ancl raw materials havr: advanced between 40 per cent and 50 per cent over 1941, whereas OPA prices are up only 2 per cent. This means that the Fir plywood industry must resort to selective manufacture of higher priced items in order to exist and these items do not include the types of plywood required for low cost building construction.
"Hardwood plywood is likewise in great demand. Large users such as radio and furniture manufacturers are finding great difificulty in obtaining required quantities. This is due very largely to raw material shortages, meaning the basic material, logs, lumber and veneer. These shortages are due to a combination of circumstances, principally lack of labor in the woods and rapid depletion of timber caused by the demands of the war. This situation is applicable to the entire plywood industry.
"A number of new veneer and plywood units are under construction, so that the shortage in Hardwood plyr,vood should gradually adjust itself. In Hardwood plywood, too, there is an OPA situation, but somewhat different from that obtaining in the Fir plywood industry. While adjustment on certain items is necessary to take care of increased costs, suppliers of raw materials are skimping grades, which increases manufacturing waste and consequently cost.. It is very hard to control this situation, as demand is so great a purchaser is inclined to accept the materials which can be obtained without complaint rather than do r,vithout.
"The problems in the industry are concerned entirely with production and the industry is taking steps to install additional equipment and to employ new techniques, but the scarcity of equipment of all kinds makes this a relatively slow process."
