Rich Sohn

The headliner this month is log prices. Logs are in short supply and log prices are way up, a new October record. While log sellers are guardedly ecstatic, one local mill operator was exasperated at being beaten in a recent auction, when the logs sold for $975 per thousand. Of course that is probably an outlier high price. In this column, we report the average monthly log price for #2 Douglas Fir logs, but this is still new territory for price. At that price, nearly 2.5 times last months stud price, margins get thinner for manufacturers. Some operators will buy a sale, at an outlier price, and average the price of those logs with their other logs, just to keep the mill running and not shut down. …Stability in pricing in the forest products industry would be a good thing to add to our Christmas lists.