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Forest2Market CEO Pete Stewart Talks Log & Lumber Prices with MS Biz Journal

Picture of Forest2Market Forest2Market : November 23, 2020

North American finished lumber prices skyrocketed in September as pinched supplies and strong demand drove prices to new highs… by huge margins. But just a month later - and, as commodities markets are prone to do - prices corrected course and tumbled even more quickly than they ascended. Since peaking at $928 per thousand board feet (MBF) in September, SYP prices have now dropped 50 percent and seemed to have found a floor.

The lumber price run-up has caught the attention of a number of forest products manufacturers across the globe who have been eyeing the US South as a reliable, low-cost destination, and the market situation has even caught the eye of the national press, who ask the obvious question:

Why are log prices in local markets not reflective of a surging lumber market?

A recently published piece in the Mississippi Business Journal titled “THE WOOD GAP — Lumber prices set all-time high, while trees are stuck in the past,” broadly addresses the current disconnect between log and lumber prices. The piece features commentary from Forest2Market founder and CEO Pete Stewart, who discusses the oversupply of timber in the southern market.

Pete notes that while “Landowners are suffering through historically low prices,” there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The article continues, “The South's cheap and abundant supply of timber is attracting investors. Four state-of-the-art yellow-pine sawmills have either been announced for Mississippi or have already been built, and the state probably needs nine such facilities, according to Stewart.”

“Eventually, the landowners will benefit from such investments, he said.”