Thoughts about last week

In conversations late last week with customers who are larger distributors and companies who are serving the "Big Box" stores, it is fairly certain that we have had a slight trend downward again in business activity and orders. This is going to be a real paradox where we have reduced supply and reduced demand in relative lock step with one another. It certainly can be argued that supply is dropping faster in the Mississippi / Ohio Valley regions than in the East and the Northeast. It may well be the the supply in this region is dropping faster than the demand!

Domestic demand continues to be somewhat soft while export demand increases. This may well be a combination of the drop in the value of the dollar as well as a recognized threat to the Europeans of the possible further reduced supply due to bad weather associated with winter.

I frankly had expected activity to increase throughout November before tailing off once again in early December in anticipation of year end inventories and the holidays. If you have a different perspective on the market dynamics or what is going on, please feel free to offer a conflicting view.

Ethanol Refinery Turns Wood Chips Into Fuel

Ethanol Refinery Turns Wood Chips Into Fuel: "A Pennsylvania facility can produce 100 million gallons of cellulosic fuel annually, and the company wants to license the technology to others."

This is an interesting article worth a read. For those industries who are not currently recycling their own sawdust and end cuts, etc., through their own waste fired boiler, this may(?) be a better option than a contribution to the paper industry or fiberboard products.

It is definitely worth a discussion. Check and see for yourself.

Why are rates to Canada so high?

I know from past experience that there has been some friction at the border between the U.S. and Canada because of pricing differentials, tariffs, etc., on the part of softwood producers. This was not a gray area, just an out and out hot spot! I know from having to ship product across the border into Canada that life can be a little difficult for the truck driver, the dispatcher and even the one who is issuing the paperwork. I can attest to that because at times I’ve been working feverishly to get documents perfected and transmitted to the border ahead of the deadline (5 p.m.) for trucks crossing during the night. If you don’t get the paperwork there by 5 p.m. they have to spend the night at the border, costing someone(?) money and they start the process all over again at 9 in the morning. Everyone is just a little less happy at that point!

Currently, it is an extraordinary challenge to get trucks to go to into Canada from the Midwest at a reasonable rate. Reasonable in this case is a comparative judgment based on what we pay for long haul trucking here in the United States compared to what those rates are going into Canada. There are numerous reasons why this might be occurring. There was an attempt to define what the critical reasons are but I didn’t want to get involved in a debate about anti- US or Canadian sentiment nor to get involved in an obscure argument over the logistics of border crossings. The only thing that really matters is that the cost structures for going from the US into Canada versus two points in the US are significantly different. The difference is about $.60 per mile on a 500 mile run and that is prohibitive. This might be a great place to employ some useful technology to streamline the process and reduce costs.

If you think about this in a way that compares the costs of cross border traffic here to that of the costs of shipping product by container to some other country the implications are pretty scary. For just another $500(?), loads can be shipped all the way around the world!

A new era in Canada-U.S. relations

Wednesday Sep 30, 2009

By

Edmonton Journal

The following is an abridged version of a presentation by Grant Aldonas to a CN trade relations forum organized by the U of A's Western Centre for Economic Research. Aldonas, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, is a former U. S. undersecretary of commerce, and was an adviser on trade issues to the 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain.

Building on a foundation of shared values and friendship arising from confronting common challenges together, relations between U. S. and Canadian relations have remained close over many years. At the same time, there have been serious disagreements and points at which goodwill ebbed....

The early years of this decade witnessed another ebb tide in our relations. The most significant conflict lay in differences between the Bush and Chretien administrations over the perceived threat of Iraq's putative weapons of mass destruction and the subsequent U. S. invasion of Iraq. But the continuing friction over U. S. security controls implemented after the events of Sept. 11 and another flare-up over softwood lumber led many to question whether the we were on the cusp of a more definitive breach in U. S.-Canadian affairs.

A FRESH START

Seven industry groups back second annual ‘green’ seminar - | ISWOnline

Seven industry groups back second annual ‘green’ seminar - ISWOnline: "Industry News
Seven industry groups back second annual ‘green’ seminar"

SCHAUMBURG, IL – Five major wood industry trade groups and two other wood organizations have come on board as cooperating associations for the second annual Dollars & Sense of Going Green Conference, Nov. 19-20 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel.
The cooperating associations include:

Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Inc.

Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers

Business & Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Assn.

Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Assn.

Wood Component Manufacturers Assn.


Representatives of companies belonging to any one of these groups will qualify for a $75 discount on registration for the unique two-day event.