Hurricane Helene has led to a surge in demand for Southern Yellow Pine, resulting in a spillover into Eastern S-P-F. That is, according to the Madison Lumber Report, which reports that damage caused by the Hurricane could take years to recover.
It comes after Wood Central last week reported that more than US $1.24 billion in timber stock could be impacted by the disaster – with the Georgia Forestry Commission revealing that the Hurricane traversed more than 8.9 million acres of forestland—about 40% of the state’s total timberlands.
Adding to the crunch is a three-day Strike – which earlier this month saw trade across 36 ports on the American East Coast, and the Gulf brought to a standstill – the first time in almost 50 years that the International Longshoremen’s Association union, the United States Maritime Alliance and 45,000 port workers went on strike.
Along with South Carolina and Alabama, Georgia is home to the United States’ largest timber stock – and is considered one of the world’s top growing areas for pulp, paper, and, increasingly, engineered wood products. According to a 2019 report, the state has 207 primary wood processing mills and 1,100 secondary processing mills – processing 47,268,311 logs and transporting 1.9 million truckloads for manufacturing lumber, veneer, sheathing, poles, posts, pulp and biomass.
- For more information, download the latest Maddison Lumber Report here.
