Forest Products Laboratory

Title: Roseburg repeat : Roseburg Forest Products' sawmill at Dillard, Ore was the biggest producer in a year that ended with a whimper

Author: Spelter, Henry

Date: 2009

Source: Timber processing. Vol. 34, no.6 (July/Aug. 2009): p. 18-20.

Description: A vintage year for sawmilling 2008 was not. In an industry strongly driven to produce, we were apprehensive that firms would be more shy than usual about divulging their 2008 activities. So this year we cast a wider net but, in the end, 149 out of the 200 mills appearing on the Top 200 list, and 48 out of the top 50, volunteered their numbers. For the remainder, capacities usually serve as a good proxy because most mills strive to operate near their limits in good years. This year, however, that approach was unreliable because operating rates varied widely. Among our respondents they ranged from 17 to 107% with an average of 72% (Figure 1). By contrast, 2008 data from the Western Wood Products Assn. (WWPA) implied a 68% U.S. utilization rate. Therefore, to more realistically represent non-respondents, I applied the 68% factor to their capacities, modified by whatever information was available about downtime at specific mills during 2008.

Keywords: Sawmills, statistics, mills, millwork, United States, industrial capacity, forest products industry, economic aspects, softwoods

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Citation

Spelter, Henry  2009.  Roseburg repeat : Roseburg Forest Products' sawmill at Dillard, Ore was the biggest producer in a year that ended with a whimper.   Timber processing. Vol. 34, no.6 (July/Aug. 2009): p. 18-20. .