Increase in Log Exports from North Olympic Peninsula
China's increased demand for wood products has given a boost to log exports from the North Olympic Peninsula. The vice president and general manager of Merrill & Ring of Port Angeles said:
“China is, as they say, red hot. We get calls from three or four people a week wanting to buy logs from us. Somebody’s got a friend who’s related to somebody in China and they want to buy logs. It’s a bit of a gold rush mentality right now. I don’t know when it will change, but let’s hope it doesn’t. The wood that’s going there . . . is primarily for forming material that they use to make the concrete housing units, also for packaging and pallet material.”
“China is, as they say, red hot. We get calls from three or four people a week wanting to buy logs from us. Somebody’s got a friend who’s related to somebody in China and they want to buy logs. It’s a bit of a gold rush mentality right now. I don’t know when it will change, but let’s hope it doesn’t. The wood that’s going there . . . is primarily for forming material that they use to make the concrete housing units, also for packaging and pallet material.”
posted by Tom Harper at 4:31 PM
23 Comments:
So - now we know why there are so many logs stacked up at Pen Ply. It looks more like a log yard than a plywood mill operation. I wonder which enterprise is making more money for Pen Ply --- plywood manufacturing or log exports?
Part of the PDN article talked about some of the overseas log buyers wanting only bare logs - without bark. So - are all those piles of bark chips and wood shavings at Pen Ply caused by the log export business, or are they merely a by-product of making plywood?
The clouds clear for many, but darken for one. Three times shall the bell toll for thee, KR. Three times shall your infamy be noted. But not once will you bow your head in shame.
also for packaging and pallet material.”
It has never occurred to me that the trees here may be inferior to the trees in other areas.
But just today I heard a bit of a news blimp about the fact that Japan isn't interested in our trees for building all the new buildings they are going to have to build.
They'll buy our trees for other uses but not for building buildings.
Very interesting....
It has never occurred to me that the trees here may be inferior to the trees in other areas.
.....
Really? Why does this surprise you? Inferior wood from an area where parents brand their children with cattle style branding irons, and teen age girls throw their newborns into trash cans?
Maybe there is something in the water.
Get out while you still can.
Yeeeeeeaaah baaaby!
Get the loggers back to work!
Speaking of PenPly, I wish Public Works would crack down on the giant trails of mud leading out of their log yard, across the sidewalk and into Marine Drive. It's filthy the entire length of their property. Plus, the driveway entrances on the sidewalks are broken down from the weight of the trucks. Make 'em pay for the replacement before a Waterfront Trail walker falls and sues. Oh but wait, I forgot, Downtown is open for business . . . and getting better!
Get out while you still can.
No, this is a damn good place to hide when/if things go to hell.
Gosh, with all the business Pen-Ply is doing they may have to hire more people.
Wait, wait ... we don't want that!
Damn you resource extracting fiends! Damn you and your short-lived success!
Well, our trees make good paper and bio-mass fuels, and great campfires so we got that going for us.
Yeeeeeeaaah baaaby!
Get the loggers back to work!
....
YES! We can see from the recent history of the Peninsula that relying on fishing and logging is the way to create a stable and thriving economy.
Just strip those hills bare. Make all the money you can, when you can.
Who cares about the future.
"Speaking of PenPly, I wish Public Works would crack down on the giant trails of mud leading out of their log yard, across the sidewalk and into Marine Drive. It's filthy the entire length of their property. Plus, the driveway entrances on the sidewalks are broken down from the weight of the trucks."
You're funny! You really expect the City to care?
Agreed with the comment about the mud and debris being tracked around the sidewalks and streets at Pen Ply. Also agreed that the City likely doesn't give a damn about correcting this situation.
By the way --- is Grant Munro who is involved with the log export business one of the investors in the rejuvenated Pen Ply operation?
Just strip those hills bare. Make all the money you can, when you can.
Who cares about the future.
Responsible logging will not strip all the hills so I wouldn't worry about the future in that respect.
Pen Ply will be bankrupt by Christmas 2011
"Pen Ply will be bankrupt by Christmas 2011"
I tend to agree, being that they're artificially propped up with loans, grants, deferred rent, etc. Hardly the "business success" model we've been presented - especially by the right-wingers who supposedly hate Big Government giveaways like this.
Billy Sez:
"Responsible logging will not strip all the hills so I wouldn't worry about the future in that respect."
Oh, come on, Billy. You are WAY smarter than this. Where do you have ANY evidence that the local operations do ANYTHING "responsible".
If they did, Port Angeles wouldn't be in the situation it is now, and has been for years.
"Responsible" is a dirty word in Port Angeles. Haven't you figured THAT out, by now?
"I tend to agree, being that they're artificially propped up with loans, grants, deferred rent, etc. Hardly the "business success" model we've been presented - especially by the right-wingers who supposedly hate."
And, you wonder why Port Angeles is so successful? (Or not quite so?)
This is yet another example of why Port Angeles needs to get smart, and start thinking about self sustainability.
Or, maybe not. We can just keep calling each other rhetorical names, feel smug about ourselves, and watch the town dry up.
"We can just keep calling each other rhetorical names, feel smug about ourselves, and watch the town dry up."
You read this blog... What do you think we're going to do?
Ok so does anybody remember “Export or Die”? That was the watchword catch phrase for the attitude that resulted in the clear-cutting of virtually all the rest of our old growth forests for shipment to Japan, the last time the Asian appetite for NW timber products was this ravenous. Worked real well for us THAT time. This reprod stud-grade crap wood the Chinese are interested in is no great loss, and in fact is the perfect “farmed tree’ market, but the historical obsessive “boom or bust” greed of timber companies will no doubt result in over production, followed by price drops, followed by the traditional “bust” that ends all harvest cycles. If we could ever find a way to actually “manage” our forest production, we could milk this cow forever. I’m betting we’ll kill the old girl in eighteen months or less.
You read this blog... What do you think we're going to do?
9:08 PM, March 31, 2011
I think there are a few people in the area that are trying to move the community forward, despite the efforts of the "old crowd" that don't seem to be able to see the new circumstances in America, today. It seems they want it to be 1958 again.
But it isn't.
I don't know about you, but I do spend a large amount of my time involved in community issues. I look for others who have a similar outlook, and we do what we can. Much of the time, it is VERY frustrating trying to get meaningful change in Port Angeles, and it becomes mostly an exercise in enduring patience.
Some times, there are glimmers of hope.
Most times, I just want to move to another place.
The "old growth" forests are decrepit. Ever see much wildlife in 'em? Second growth forests are much more wildlife abundant.
So cut the "old growth" kumbaya crap.
The "old growth" forests are decrepit. Ever see much wildlife in 'em?
....
Actually, I do. Mostly the piles if guts, bones and skin the hunters take out into the forests and dump.
The "old growth" forests are decrepit. Ever see much wildlife in 'em? Second growth forests are much more wildlife abundant.
So cut the "old growth" kumbaya crap.
I think you may be reacting to the term “old growth” in the tree-hugger environmentalist idiom. What I’m talking about is the value of the lumber. During the “export or die’ period, millions of board feet of top quality wood was shipped to Japan in log form at bargain basement prices. None of it milled, no jobs except cutting it down and shipping it out. Millions of dollars wasted so timber companies could make a quick buck. And at the end of the cycle, no work for loggers, or anybody else. I’ve worked in saw mills, lumber yards, and graded lumber. What I’m talking about is bad forest management, lost wages and wasted dollars. If that’s “kumbaya crap” so be it.
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