By Dan Testa, 10-12-08
Sun Mountain Lumber of Deer Lodge, Montana, has laid off 23 employees who worked in the finger joint and planer operations.
The layoffs were effective Thursday.
Owner Sherman Anderson says poor market conditions led to the decision.
Mills in Bonner, St. Regis, Columbia Falls and Libby have announced layoffs totaling nearly 180 workers since May.
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Lumber industry threatened by glut of unsold homes
Thursday October 23, 2008
By Timothy R. Brown, Associated Press Writer
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The glut of homes in foreclosure, vacant, or stuck on the market has the nation's lumber industry hanging on by a limb.
Since housing starts hit their peak in mid-2005, demand for lumber used in floors, home frames, and cabinets has declined sharply, and experts say the number of unsold homes would need to significantly decrease before homebuilders commit to building new ones.
Glenn Hughes, a forestry expert with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said many loggers are faced with difficult decisions. A global economic slowdown, tight credit, and the housing bust are hitting sawmills hard and shutting down logging companies.
"Boy, surviving this downturn. I have talked to a lot of people who have been in the business for many, many, years -- this is probably the roughest they have seen it," Hughes said.
The brutal economics of the housing crisis don't appear to be letting up, continuing to drag down demand for both hardwood lumber, for floors and cabinets, and softwood, used in home frames.
Even if home buyers miraculously returned to the market to purchase unsold homes, Al Schuler, a research economist with the USDA Forest Service, says it may be a little too late to lift up the lumber industry because the inventory of unsold homes is "a huge number."
"We are going to be building smaller houses. We are going to see lot more 2,000 square-foot homes rather than 5,000 square foot," he said.