Fewer logs are leaving West Coast docks this year, as Asian demand shifts toward other regions because of the stronger U.S. dollar. That could mean fewer hours for longshoremen and logging contractors as timberland owners clamp down on harvests as a result.
“The export market really has been declining for some time. It wasn’t too big of a problem when domestic markets were really strong, but those markets have weakened as well, so we are kind of cutting our harvest a bit,” said Bill Marre, a Vancouver-based general manager for Hancock Forest Management, which has locations scattered throughout the Northwest, the South and New Zealand.
There were 29.43 million board feet of logs exported from the Port of Longview in the first quarter of 2015, down 45 percent from the same period last year. That continues a trend that started last year, when log exports at the Port dropped 20 percent from the previous year.
It’s not just Longview that’s hurting. The volume of log and lumber exports from Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Alaska plunged 13 percent in 2014 compared to 2013, according to U.S. Forest Service.
From The Daily News: https://tdn.com/news/local/falling-west-coast-exports-dampen-loggers-sales/article_38589e9e-6077-5095-ae48-6001704569ec.html