PULP PRICES TANK!!!!!!!

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Henz

New Member
Mar 23, 2006
1,735
Northville, NY
So you know what that means, firewood prices should follow!
 
My bro works in a corrugated facing paper pulping / recycling mill in CT. Says work has screeched to a halt. Shipments not moving, getting returned. Nobody buying = nobody selling = nobody boxing = nobody using boxes = nobody making paper for the boxes...

It'll take awhile still for the firewood prices to come down, since today's inventory was all cut, hauled, and processed on older (read: higher) fuel prices. But yeah - the trickle-down effect should be sweet in a few months...
 
I would tend to think firewood prices will stay about where they are...at least around here. The guys in my neck of the woods don't sell to the paper mill or other corrugated/paper manufacturers...so the pulp wood market probably won't affect what they charge for firewood. That remains to be seen, though...
 
I think prices will come down. Every load that's not going to the mill is a load looking for a home. Even if there's no pulpwood market in an area, it still affects the entire wood supply for a variety of good reasons. And the same forces that drive down demand for pulpwood also tend to put a lid on everything else, too. The exception is probably if you live in a place with a good wood-energy market--i.e., chips for power plants or pellet mills. I think those markets are still going pretty strong.

But I think loggers will be more receptive to firewood orders in the near future, and competition between them will probably drive prices down. Bad for them; good for you.
 
pulp prices in BC have been in the crapper for six months or more. Fire wood costs went up this year do to demand and fuel costs.
Logging truck loads went up $200 bucks do to fuel costs and even when the fuel has come down they are still charging 1600+ a load. Used to be 1200 to 1400.

Pulp prices have been going down for about two years I think.
 
Bigg_Redd said:
Unless someone starts paying me to take firewood the price won't go down for me.

I got a good laugh out of that one, thanks!
 
dont think they will come down much but 150 csd for green right now... few years ago it was 85-100 facotr i cost of living and everything else i can see it going to 125 for green or maybe even back to 100 but i'm betting about 125 and 175-225 this upcoming year for "seasoned"
but i hope it does come down!!
 
I don't think I'll see anything south of $135 c/s/d green. This is the least I've paid in the past few years. My supplier does both firewood and chipping for large lot clearing or state forest thinning. If anything, demand has gone up over last year as I and several others in the region installed a stove this past year.
 
It is going to have a ripple effect. If this keeps up for a few years there is going to be a lot more wood in the forest. I think that in some parts of the country. I hope the state and national forests in Wisconsin start letting us cut firewood too. They seem to frown if you even ask. County forests let us do it all the time (common guys running the show). So maybe it will open up some opportunities to use the public land for some firewood. This slowdown might last ten years.
 
There is going to be a lot less wood on the market to be had .Tree tops left from logging will become scarce in a year or so.Production and delivery costs for loggers have sky rocketed the last few years. Mid size skidders are now $150,000+ .Tree trimmers will more than likely see lost revenue from lack of tree jobs and may start charging more for waste wood.
I think prices will remain where they are.Then again there is always going to be some one who is hard up and work for nothing and will sell cheap wood to make do.
 
Up here we are seeing prices drop.
For instance, one biomass/pulp mill was supposed to restart around the end of Jan and didn't. One contractor had 27,000 cords(not wimpy face cords either) on the ground ready to move, all of a sudden, no home for it. That's one contractor, there are others that supply that plant. It has just restarted, but if the economy doesn't quite sliding.......
Also we had another major mill announce it's closing indefinatly. they supply hardwood pulp to overseas markets. They take in a sh!tload of hardwood. 24hour's a day they receive wood, always logging trucks and chip trucks waiting to get in. Typical load of wood going in has at least 35+ ton on.
Many other mills scaling back. Got one mill in central maine that when running wide open will process 2200 cord a day. They've scaled back some , but are still open.
I believe N.H. has had some closings in the last few years.
Price of crude dropping is making biomass plants that supply electricity scale back. They want less wood chips and hog fuel.
The mills that are open are overfilling their storage, in prep for spring breakup. Might not be able to get the restocking as needed in early summer.........because there might be alot less contractors around and/or said contractors might not have equipment ready to go because of cash flow to get the very expensive equipment 100% ready to go. They'll be trying to juggle the $$$$'s for repairs with what the future holds.
It takes a lot of wood to keep these guys(contractors) in the positive cash flow. It actually might become very hard to find a good load of firewood after spring breakup. I called 7 different wood cutters in the last few weeks, no extra hardwood to sell. Mills that are running want it. Got lucky and found one wheeler load. 8 to 10 cord. $95 per cord delivered. Hell of a nice price, beech and a little sugar maple mixed in. With what I got already, plus that load will give me 2 more years of wood. That will give me a nice buffer to start cutting my own, off a family wood lot.
Got really lucky, if said contractor wasn't someone I knew pretty well, i don't think I would have got that load. I'm surrounded by some good guys in the woods business, who i get along with, still took 8 calls to shake a load loose.
Some very troubling times, is a major understatement. Some very solid, stable contractors are nervous as hell. These guys have weathered some slow times, but.......................
 
The wood fired electric generation facilities in S. NH used to get tractor trailer loads of wood chips from developers clearing land and roads for new houses. That business has slowed to a trickle. Not that I miss them. When my development was being cleared, the tree clearing guy bid $1 per foot to clear the road on the condition that he could have 'anything else he wanted' on the remaining 600 acres. They made quite a mess, destroyed stone walls and created ruts that still will 'suck in a Ford 150' even today. The former paper mills in N. NH have been restarted as pellet factories so that loggoing will restart. My guess is that firewood prices will come down a bit, but not much.
 
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