The Rural Voice, 2003-05, Page 38ANig
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34 THE RURAL VOICE
The early 1990s saw the high
demand for maple turn around the
industry around. By 2000 the
competition for good hard maple had
become frantic.
At the same time some mill
owners, were introducing "resaw"
operations that could increase
production by a third to a half. These
mills use two sets of saws, one which
squares the log while the other cuts it
into dimension lumber, breaking the
log down faster. Nine of these faster
mills were installed in Michigan. The
demand for wood to keep these mills
going increased the competition.
The price of good maple on the
stump spiraled as buyers competed.
The combination of so much
extra lumber in the pipeline
from the expanded mills plus
the fact mill owners had
overextended to expand, caused a
two-year downturn from which the
industry is just starting to recover,
Keeso said. At a convention he
attended in Montreal earlier this year
he learned New England had lost 14
sawmill operations in the past year.
Wholesalers have helped change
the picture in the sawmill industry,
Keeso said. As well, mill operators
need to look at getting more out of
every log or they will be in problems
again.
And like other industries, the
customers for wood are changing,
Keeso said. After much of Ontario's
furniture industry collapsed, North
Carolina and the Appalachian area
became a centre for North American
furniture making. Today some
companies are shipping their U.S.
hardwoods to China to be
manufactured into furniture and be
shipped back to the U.S.
But the good news, said Keeso, is
that the decline in the number of
sawmill's doesn't seem to have
affected the price of wood to the bush
owner. While maple has come down
from its record prices at the height of
the bidding frenzy, "it's still nine
times the price it was when 1 started
to buy timber," said Keesso who
started working in the mill during a
winter break from school 35 years
ago. The quality of hard maple grown
in Midwestern Ontario is so good it's
being looked on as an exotic wood.
There's a healthy demand for
hickory, walnut and cherry. The