NOTEBOOK – ONE GOOD READ: Who is profiting from soaring lumber prices? Not tree growers
KATHY A. BOLTEN Feb 24, 2021 | 9:23 pm
1 min read time
132 wordsAll Latest News, Real Estate and Development, Retail and BusinessI recently talked with two people who operate lumber supply stores in the Des Moines area who told me about the increased costs of lumber. Prices have increased 50% and more, depending on the product, from a year ago, they said. You’d think the people who grow trees would be rolling in cash because of the high prices. Think again, report Ryan Dezember and Vipal Monga for the Wall Street Journal. Timber growers across the U.S. South, where many of the nation’s logs are harvested, have gained nothing from the run-up in prices for finished lumber, write the reporters. It is the region’s saw mills, including many that have been bought up by Canadian firms, that are harvesting the profits. “I’m not making anything,” a Georgia timber grower told the Journal reporters.