More mill closers

[customsawyer]

INDUSTRY NEWS. CANFOR ANNOUNCES CLOSURE OF DARLINGTON AND ESTILL SAWMILLS.  Canfor Corporation announced today [June 26, 2025] its decision to permanently close the Estill and Darlington sawmills in South Carolina, effective August 2025. These closures follow an extended period of persistently weak market conditions and sustained financial losses, which have made continued operations at these facilities no longer viable. "We understand the significant impact this difficult decision will have on our employees," said Lee Goodloe, President, Canfor Southern Pine. "This outcome is in no way a reflection of the dedication and hard work of our teams. We are committed to supporting our employees through this transition, including providing severance payments and exploring opportunities for redeployment within our other operations where possible." Approximately 290 employees will be affected by the closures, which will also reduce Canfor's U.S. lumber production capacity by 350 million board feet annually.

[Stephen1]

A sign of the economy. I noticed the railways starting to lay off also. 
 I worked on the railway for 38 years.  The railways are the 1st into a recession and 1st out. 

[customsawyer]

I find it interesting that a lot of 2x material is still close to pre covid prices around here. Makes it tough when everything else has gone up so much. 

[Larry]

On the other hand.......

Top U.S. Logger Weyerhaeuser Expands with $500M Arkansas Mill  

The best info source is a story in the WSJ, but its behind a paywall.

America's Top Logger Bets It Can Make Money Off Small, Crooked Trees

From what I understand the new plant will be taking small and crooked trees that not even the pulp mills want. They turn this junk into LSL framing lumber. 

TimberStrand® LSL Framing Lumber

I wonder how much impact this will have on traditional sawmills kicking out framing lumber. In today's world innovation and science are requirements for keeping ahead of the other guys.

[TreefarmerNN]

On the other hand.......

Top U.S. Logger Weyerhaeuser Expands with $500M Arkansas Mill 

The best info source is a story in the WSJ, but its behind a paywall.

America's Top Logger Bets It Can Make Money Off Small, Crooked Trees

From what I understand the new plant will be taking small and crooked trees that not even the pulp mills want. They turn this junk into LSL framing lumber.

TimberStrand® LSL Framing Lumber

I wonder how much impact this will have on traditional sawmills kicking out framing lumber. In today's world innovation and science are requirements for keeping ahead of the other guys.

I'm guessing that Weyerhaeuser took a hard look at their timberlands inventory and realized they could make more money turning those smaller trees into LVL/LSL product than selling it for pulp.  They have a lot of timberland in that area and do a great job of tracking the trees in the forest.  It's also a hedge against having pulp mills shut down and losing the ability to thin trees at the 15-18 year time.  Our area is dependent on one pulp mill and a lot of forest isn't getting thinned because the mill only needs so many logs/month and has a plentiful supply.  So pulp prices barely pay the logger much less leaving any return for the landowner.  I think Weyerhaeuser saw a potential problem for their timberlands and moved to remediate the issue while developing a new product line.  I hope it works for them and they duplicate it elsewhere. 

[SawyerTed]

The only the place new home construction is up is in the West.  All other regions are down by 10-11%.   Interest rates are still up.  

[TreefarmerNN]

I haven't seen May figures yet but here's a graph of housing starts through April.  (Source: Virginia Tech Housing Commentary- https://woodproducts.sbio.vt.edu/content/dam/woodproducts_sbio_vt_edu/housing-reports/2025-housing-report/casa-2025-04a-april-main.pdf).

[customsawyer]

I had mentioned somewhere here on the forum about receiving multiple auction papers every week. They're not all Mom and Pop type operations that are going under.
I made some phone calls yesterday, to contacts I have in the area. They all said that the loss of pulp market was a contributing factor in these mill closings. There is also the fact that lots of these mills are running a little older equipment and it isn't efficient enough to produce at the lower prices. When I say older equipment, I'm not talking about stuff made in the '60s. I'm talking about 20 year old equipment. You know 2000-2010.
When a 2x4x8 has maybe gone up in price by about 10%, from pre covid, and everything else has gone up more than 100%. Then the math isn't mathing.(New word). I hardly ever cut 2x material now days. I don't see where I can be of value to my customers, so why do it. If I was building something right now and needed 2x for its construction, I would go and buy them. They won't be as good as I can produce, but they will get the job done, and be cheaper. Especially if I went to the trouble of cutting the trees from my own land. Sometimes you can make/save more money with your checkbook.

[Peter Drouin]

I see a lot of things 4 sale, sawmills, firewood processors. A lot of heavy equipment, too.
We had bike week here in NH. I was talking to a vendor. Sales down 30%.

[SwampDonkey]

Looking at national figures here in Canada, #2 - 2x4x8' has been a steady US$600/th for a long time. OSB panels have recently dipped a bit from this spring but that was from a high in winter time, which seems odd for up here, except I saw 4 huge wooden structures go up last winter on one site locally and this summer an even bigger one going up that had some steel in it. It's an Ag business selling fertilizer, spray, equipment you name it. They moved from a town location out to the highway near a clover leaf and way bigger storage. Looks like a lot more stuff going to be built to, I see a huge pile of top soil all shored up by those off road dump trucks. Maybe they are digging for gold, who knows.    Kraft pulp have hovered around US$1800/MT for months, a slight up tick at both ends of the 12 mo graph, but a little slag in the winter.  We had an OSB plant close down right at the start of COVID, when government were handing out free money, so that makes no sense to me. All I can think was supply issues. I know some of their crews were 200 miles away cutting what the last guy left behind 30 years ago. Too frequent of a cutting cycle and you get mostly poor small wood with junk residual to cut. Cheep for them, but cheep wood does not translate that well into gold. Garbage in, garbage out.    I think 2008-2011 took out most of the big losers and I have not heard anyone crying since.

#2 - 2x6x8' is about CDN$7.50, which is the framing material size used up here. 2x4 is interior walls.

[Stephen1]

My portable sawing is up big time this year. I am booking into august and sept now. 
This is the 1st July in a few years that I have portable sawmill Jobs. We had the big ice storm a few months ago and people are salvaging the lumber from the EWP. 
I saw  B&B siding at a price I can make money. I saw a smaller sawmill that I sharpen blades for selling 8' 2x4 for $1 a piece.   

[Ron Wenrich]

Weaber has shut down their ChoiceWood operation in Titusville, PA.  Not sure if its temporary or permanent.  They make S4S lumber and mouldings from red oak, tulip poplar, and soft maple.  8 MMbf/yr capacity.

International Timber and Veneer is closing their plant Mercer county, PA.  They make custom cut veneer products.  Shortage of skilled labor and the loss of the Chinese markets are contributing factors. 

[customsawyer]

They are dropping like flies. It will be interesting how long it takes to turn around, and who's going to be left standing. 

[Ron Wenrich]

The ones left standing will be the ones with the least debt. 

[Larry]

And Weyerhaeuser is buying. 117,000 acres of high quality timber land late May this year in N. Carolina and Virginia. I wonder if they got it at bargain basement prices?

[Ron Wenrich]

Weaber is laying off another 145 people at their distribution center in Lebanon, PA.  I didn't see the underlying reasons, but it may be tied to the Chinese markets. 

It looks like China's economy is imploding.  They're housing bubble has burst.  They're also having horrendous weather that ranges from extreme heat in some sections and extreme flooding in others.  They even had July snow in some sections. 

[SwampDonkey]

Chinese housing market is in decline with it's declining population, fewer births and more deaths. Also a glut of subsidized supply on the market. And incomes are not growing. We had 2 out of the 3 over here until our government opened the immigration flood gates that pushed prices up. Emigration happened to, pushing our lower pricing up, during the pandemic which continued. A lot of that was flipping houses, most of that crowd were never going to be permanent residence. The emigration numbers have pretty much dwindled. Never saw those kind of price gains here in New Brunswick ever. They are now not pushing the immigration numbers like Trudeau did, but it has not stopped. I saw old $40,000 houses that never had anything done to them for years. They would sit on the market for years. All the sudden, $90,000, then $120,000, then $180,000 was paid.  It's still an old house with an old foundation. Buyers I seen around here, where drifters, never stayed. Just out for the buck. Savings accounts don't pay anything. They have this scam going at the banks now with interest, they tell you it's per annum. Your only going to get it for a few weeks, not a year. So it don't work out more than what it's been. They'll always fool someone.