Softwood Lumbermen Still Feeling Good

U.S. softwood lumbermen are not as bullish about their lumber business situation as they were a year ago, but they’re still upbeat and capital expenditure projects are in full force, according to Timber Processing’s annual 2022 U.S. Sawmill Operations & Capital Expenditures Survey.

Eighty-five percent of the respondents forecasted their situation for 2022-2023 as excellent or good (compared to 92% a year ago looking at 2021-2022), while 11% said fair, and 4% said poor or very poor.

“I think markets should continue to be strong, but not near the level of 2021,” commented Patrick Harrigan, president of Harrigan Lumber in Alabama.

The survey questionnaire, which was e-mailed to subscribers of Timber Processing, drew responses from representatives of approximately 175 sawmills.

The main question of the survey asked lumbermen how much capital expenditure they have committed to for 2022 and 2023. An impressive 54% of the lumbermen said at least $1 million, and broken down further it was 2% at more than $50 million, 1% at $30-$50 million, 3% at $20-$30 million, 6% at $15-$20 million, 9% at $10-$15 million, 4% at $8-$10 million, 7% at $5-$8 million, 6% at $4-$5 million, 3% at $3-4 million, 4% at $2-$3 million, and 9% at $1-$2 million.

Read the full report in the June issue of Timber Processing.