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mandr-fw

Timber Prices Follow Lumber’s Sharp Climb

April 8, 2013/in media-2013, news-2013 /by mandr-fw

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ALBANY, GA., April 2013 — With new home construction hitting a million new starts a year for the first time since 2008, a national forest management firm reports that timber prices for large standing trees are rising off the bottom and lumber is starting to soar.

Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services, Inc., based in Albany, Ga., said timber prices are increasing in all of his company’s operating regions: the U.S. southern pine belt, the Appalachian central hardwood region, and the Northeast. The company also operates in South America.

“Stumpage (standing trees) prices were mostly up across our operating regions during the first quarter of 2013, continuing the trend from late last year,” Thomas writes in his firm’s publication, the –, that reports on national forestry developments. “That’s good news, and it’s about time that we are seeing increases quarter-over-quarter.

“The best news, however, is that southern pine lumber prices jumped 36 percent in the first quarter over last year’s average,” Thomas said. “That’s a sure sign of increasing demand.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that housing starts in March rose to an annualized rate of 1.04 million—the first time that measure has broken a million since 2008. Most of the increase was in multi-unit housing structures. Individual home starts were down slightly from February at an annualized rate of 619,000.

The overall strong March housing construction statistics come at the beginning of the prime spring home-buying season and point to a sustained comeback in home construction.

Thomas, the F&W president, said that while increases in timber prices growers are now receiving for trees are not as dramatic as the jump in lumber, higher prices are likely coming.

“It is typical that stumpage (tree) prices would lag lumber—it takes a while for price increases to work through the supply chain,” Thomas said. “But, and perhaps more importantly, it is widely believed that we have accumulated significant reserves of pine sawtimber on the stump (large mature trees for lumber production) over the last several years, and this excess inventory may cause a muting of the stumpage price recovery.

“We will have to wait and see, but one thing is certain: prices are better than they were, and it looks like they may continue to rise—especially if we move into a wet cycle,” he said.

About F&W:
F&W Forestry Services, Inc., of Albany, Ga., is one of the nation’s oldest and largest forest consulting and management firms. Established in 1962, F&W operates 19 offices in 12 states comprising the Southern pine belt, the Central and Appalachia region, Upstate New York, and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. It also manages private forestlands in South America with offices in Uruguay and Brazil.

www.FWFORESTRY.com

mandr-fw

Timber Prices Rise On Housing Recovery But Nothing Like Increases For Lumber

March 8, 2013/in news-2013 /by mandr-fw

Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services—one of the nation’s leading forestry management and consulting firms—reports the budding recovery in U.S. home construction is resulting in increased prices for standing timber and a dramatic rise in lumber prices.

Writing in his firm’s spring newsletter—The F&W Forestry Report—Thomas said tree prices in the first quarter across his company’s operating area were up for the second consecutive period.  And price rises for lumber, a building block for the housing industry, were even more dramatic.

“So why don’t sawtimber stumpage prices jump as much as lumber?  It is typical that stumpage prices would lag lumber—it takes a while for price increases to work through the supply chain.  But, and more importantly, it is widely believed that we have accumulated  significant reserves of pine timber on the stump….(B)ut one thing is certain—prices are better than they were and it looks like they may continue to rise….”

TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE SPRING 2013 F&W FORESTRY REPORT, SUBSCRIBE NOW.

mandr-fw

F&W Survey: Tree Planting Stable In Southern Pine Belt; Increase Likely In Coming Years As ‘Clear-cuts’ Increase

March 8, 2013/in news-2013 /by mandr-fw

A survey by F&W managers indicates that reforestation across the southern pine region was little changed in the 2012-13 winter planting season but is expected to increase in the next few years as landowners holding on to mature stands in hopes of higher prices increasingly are selling.

The survey indicated that tree-planting in the past season was probably in the range of 800,000-900,000 acres.   That’s about where it was in 2007/2008 when the last “official” survey was conducted by the Southern Group of State Foresters. No state or federal agency is now known to be tracking region-wide reforestation in the South.  Southern tree planting has been below one million acres a year since 2007.

The survey of F&W managers of 10 states in the southern pine belt consistently reported increased final harvest sales by landowners of mature pine stands that in most cases will be followed by replanting the cut-over stands.

TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE SPRING 2013 F&W FORESTRY REPORT, SUBSCRIBE NOW. 

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Betsy Bates 
770.451.0370
 [email protected]
Find out more about F&W and their extensive expertise.

Media Contact

Betsy Bates 770.451.0370 [email protected]

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