iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Log Yard and Tie yard shut down

Started by just_sawing, February 18, 2009, 09:30:43 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Ron Wenrich

Our local Kopper's plant has put everyone on quotas and have started to grade the ties a lot heavier.  This is the first I have had a reject in over 10 years.

But, the reason isn't because they're not buying ties.  They have too many ties to process, and they want to get their workload down before the end of spring.  They lose too many due to burning and splitting in the bundles.  So, they're backing everyone off to get a control on their inventory.  They also said they expect this year to be a good year for ties.

Maybe the same is happening in other parts of the country and the shutdown is only temporary.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Bibbyman

We hauled 64 ties to the Koppers yard in Sedalia, MO today.  Price still holding at $24/8'-8" 7x9 tie.  The buyer there said he had 18,000 ties on the lot.  He received 8 trailer truck loads in today plus our 62 and 25 from another local one-man sawmill operation.   Said his big problem is getting rail road cars to ship ties out.  We talked about having a "glut" in the tie market.  He said they were backed up for miles out in their Denver facility waiting to be unloaded.  He also said Koppers just got an order for 500,000 ties from, if I remember right, Union Pacific.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

WH_Conley

The BPB guy said the try to keep about 7000 in front of the end trimmer, they have 45000. Kopper's have 300 train car loads backed up at the plant that serves this area.
Bill

big_sid

 my koppers buyer has put me on a quota (so to speak) said he  could't take a load from me next week, then the next week after that, to come on in, but don't try to break my truck down, meaning smaller loads I guess, they are grading harder also, said in two weeks they were dropping their prices  (.50 cents per tie) they also have ties piled on the yard thats not getting shipped ,  I have 4 loads there 1 in a car which has been sitting there for 3 wks. now ( that's 4 carloads total) other 3 loads on the ground, maybe when they get started shipping and laying black ties things will get better.
never been so happy to be so broke

Ron Wenrich

I think most Kopper's yards are shut down next week.  There's some sort of business meeting involving the supervisors and tie buyers. 
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

fishpharmer

I don't know much about the tie market and buyers.

When I went to Lonoke, AR, the week before this past one, I made an observation that maybe someone can explain.

I left Lonoke early Wednesday and passed at least ten flatbed eighteen wheeler loads of what appeared to be crossties heading west on I 40.

Is there a crosstie buyer in central AR? 



Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

big_sid

yea Ron, said he had to go to the plant in pa. I guess, said he had to watch them grade ties there, he didn't seem to happy about it.
never been so happy to be so broke

Banjo picker

Quote from: fishpharmer on March 22, 2009, 09:37:59 PM
I don't know much about the tie market and buyers.

When I went to Lonoke, AR, the week before this past one, I made an observation that maybe someone can explain.

I left Lonoke early Wednesday and passed at least ten flatbed eighteen wheeler loads of what appeared to be crossties heading west on I 40.

Is there a crosstie buyer in central AR? 





James i don't know anything about the where a bouts of the towns you speak of, but the other day i was delivering a load to Amory and i met a semi coming out of the mill with a big load.  From watching the guys on the knucklebooms a few min.  i believe that a lot of sorting is going on.  When they get clear face of a target species.  I think it goes in a stack to go somewhere else.  Just my guess.  That would explain why a load of ties were headed away from the railhead though. 

The buyer in Amory alluded to the fact that if i were a big player I would get put on quota.  Prices is dropping 50 cents at months end.-- and another dollar April 15.   That beats what i got when I took a load of 6x 8 s and 7 x 8 s to the yard in Sheifield Al.  They cut from 14.50 to 10.00 on the 6 x 8 s .  With no warning.  Twenty years ago he would have got a pretty good cussing.  he desirved one anyway, because i had called him the day before and told him I was bring a load,  the decent thing would have been to at least tell a man the price has gone down.  imo  Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

WH_Conley

Hey, Sid, don't I remember the last time Harold had to go for tie grading class that the grade got really tight?
Bill

big_sid

yea, he was showing me some on the yard that he had already paid for, that they would reject, mostly rot is what the big deal is right now, so I would say after he gets back the ties will have to be perfect.
never been so happy to be so broke

woodhick

Well I knew it was coming.  I got a  letter from BPB's Spencer WV yard where I've been hauling some ties.  They will not be taking any for the first few weeks in April and it came with a new price list that dropped  $0.50 per tie.
Woodmizer LT40 Super 42hp Kubota, and more heavy iron woodworking equipment than I have room for.

SuperDuty335

What do you guys mostly saw ties out of? If I could find a tie yard here in NC I might be able to convince my wife to buy me a new mill... ;)

Banjo picker

I cut mainly out of oak , sweetgum, hickory and maple.  I can't sell cottonwood or popler  (evidently I can't spell popler either--it don't look right. ;D)  No pine.   It might be a mite hard to get started with a buyer right this minute as most yards are clogged up due to not being able to get enouth rail cars in to get the ties out.  ( Piling up in the rail rards quicker than they can be treated i think.)  Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

Ron Wenrich

Oak pays a little more that the other dense hardwoods.  We're in oak country, so that's what we mainly saw.  Other species I have used include maple, birch, beech, black gum, hackberry, elm, hickory and sycamore. 

Our buyer has since stopped buying sycamore and ash.  They don't want to spread the emerald ash borer, so they stopped buying ash.  I think guys were splitting the sycamore, and that was causing problems. 
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Bro. Noble

We haavn't cut any ties since we started cuttin utility poles last fall.  The local tie buyers were buying all they could get last fall and winter and even bought pine ties for a while.  Koppers were still buying the last I heard,  but we got a letter from Sommerville Tie Co.  saying they were no longer buying 6X8 ties and to call before delivering any ties.

My son ran across a co-owner of a fair sized sawmill  last Sat.  He was saying that they were trucking their ties to the East coast where they were eventually sent to Canada.  He was also saying that they had 18 semi loads of grade lumber on stickers waiting for a better market.  If many of the mills are doing that,  it will take a loong time to get prices back to where they were even after the demand picks up :(
milking and logging and sawing and milking

Thank You Sponsors!