Last years typical cut split delivered (CSD) pricing in my area was around $300 a full cord. This spring I am seeing $200 to $225. When I go by the normal dealers in my area I see plenty of log length wood and lots of cut and split wood. I expect its related to a collapse in demand for low grade wood due to the shutdown or downsizing of pulp mills in the region, pellet producers shutting down or reducing production and the low demand for biomass power fuel. The price of diesel also probably factors in to it. I expect this may not be low point this year as its still mud season in the woods (but just about the tail end).
Big drop in firewood prices this spring
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sportbikerider78
Minister of Fire
Snotrocket
Feeling the Heat
Fuel oil prices are way down that's what I think made prices drop so fast.
Firewood dealers missed the boat. They should have been charging the $300 a cord when fuel oil was $4 a gallon.
I called a few places looking for a load of logs last fall and was quoted $1300 for a 7-8 cord load.
Firewood dealers missed the boat. They should have been charging the $300 a cord when fuel oil was $4 a gallon.
I called a few places looking for a load of logs last fall and was quoted $1300 for a 7-8 cord load.
I expect that more than a few folks will decide that last winter was the new norm and cut back on their yearly fall inventory of wood/pellets. Then we will have normal winter and they will run out early and then they will start posting about the high price of dry wood or pellets 
heavy hammer
Minister of Fire
I don't buy wood but I have noticed that it seems easier than ever to get my hands on firewood. It seems that a lot of people would rather use natural gas, or other means for heat than firewood. I have gotten my hands on about eight to ten cords of black locust so far this year with more available. Last couple of years it has been very difficult to get now it is practically being given to me. I say stock up normal winters will be back, being ahead will pay off.
Firewood prices here were up last Fall and winter so it will be interesting to see what this year brings.
10 miles north of me gets very rural and there is no natural gas options so most people I know of either use LP or burn wood.
In response to the first post mentioning shut down or collapse of pulp / paper mills what's the reason ? There's some pulp mills out my way that are a little north and I've heard been doing well and are always running. Plenty of loggers are or will be staying busy as we move into dryer conditions because of the pulp mills
10 miles north of me gets very rural and there is no natural gas options so most people I know of either use LP or burn wood.
In response to the first post mentioning shut down or collapse of pulp / paper mills what's the reason ? There's some pulp mills out my way that are a little north and I've heard been doing well and are always running. Plenty of loggers are or will be staying busy as we move into dryer conditions because of the pulp mills
collapse of pulp / paper mills what's the reason ?
Many of the New England mills were ground wood newsprint or coated mills. The demand for news print has plummeted with the swap to electronic media. There has also been a big drop in the demand for coated paper (used in magazines). Coated paper was a high profit margin product so many companies around the world chased for it and put in way too much capacity, once the demand dropped the demand went to the lowest cost producers. Shipping paper is expensive and a lot of the text books and books in general are now printed offshore so it makes sense to make the paper where the printers are.
The US/Canadian dollar exchange also factors in, when the US dollar is high compared to the Canadian dollar, production shifts to Canada. The US dollar is record high lately and the Canadian dollar is low due to the drop in oil prices and other commodities.
The other issue was that many of the mills in New England were old mills many of them 100 plus years old. In the 1970s the clean water act and a subsequent regulation in the eighties called the "cluster rule" cost millions of dollars to comply with. Many major companies decided to build new plants in the southeast due to liberal state tax incentives, lower energy costs and non unionized labor, they dumped their unwanted northern mills on "vulture firms" that picked up the assets cheap and made their money by selling what they could to pay off the loans and then running the plants into the ground. Pulp and paper is cyclical so once there was a downturn, the final owners shut down and declared bankruptcy. In the last couple of years there have been four complete closures of mills in Maine and the remaining ones are mostly owned by hedge funds looking to cash out. Its real tough as many of these mills are in rural areas and the communities supporting them were built to support the mill. Without the mills there is no real reason for the towns to exist and some are now ghettos for the elderly retired mill workers who are stuck with homes and diminished pensions for the multiple owners. I worked for one of the mills in NH and it went through 6 ownership changes in about 25 years, each subsequent owner selling assets and playing financial games until there was little left to run. In 1987 there were 1750 employees and the remaining remnant that is still operating has about 150 employees when they aren't laid off due to lack of orders. The current owner is under SEC investigation for financial fraud http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/03/30/lynn-tilton-sec-fraud-charges/70663448/. She had picked up another mill in Maine a few years before and that one was run into the ground.
This wikapedia link shows a quick history of the biggest operation in Maine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_Paper_Company
If you remember the cable show American Loggers, one of the firms worked the Golden Road in Maine. Great Northern Millinocket was the start of the Golden Road (which is actually a large system of roads), they controlled access to about 1/4 of the state of Maine as there are no public roads whatsoever in that area. The Golden Road connected up to the Canadian border so most traffic goes to Canada these days.
There was some hope for a process called Torrefaction to make a "super" version of a wood pellet that had much higher BTU content and was water resistant for export to Europe but the lead developer got caught in some financial messes and it hasn't happened.
Many of the New England mills were ground wood newsprint or coated mills. The demand for news print has plummeted with the swap to electronic media. There has also been a big drop in the demand for coated paper (used in magazines). Coated paper was a high profit margin product so many companies around the world chased for it and put in way too much capacity, once the demand dropped the demand went to the lowest cost producers. Shipping paper is expensive and a lot of the text books and books in general are now printed offshore so it makes sense to make the paper where the printers are.
The US/Canadian dollar exchange also factors in, when the US dollar is high compared to the Canadian dollar, production shifts to Canada. The US dollar is record high lately and the Canadian dollar is low due to the drop in oil prices and other commodities.
The other issue was that many of the mills in New England were old mills many of them 100 plus years old. In the 1970s the clean water act and a subsequent regulation in the eighties called the "cluster rule" cost millions of dollars to comply with. Many major companies decided to build new plants in the southeast due to liberal state tax incentives, lower energy costs and non unionized labor, they dumped their unwanted northern mills on "vulture firms" that picked up the assets cheap and made their money by selling what they could to pay off the loans and then running the plants into the ground. Pulp and paper is cyclical so once there was a downturn, the final owners shut down and declared bankruptcy. In the last couple of years there have been four complete closures of mills in Maine and the remaining ones are mostly owned by hedge funds looking to cash out. Its real tough as many of these mills are in rural areas and the communities supporting them were built to support the mill. Without the mills there is no real reason for the towns to exist and some are now ghettos for the elderly retired mill workers who are stuck with homes and diminished pensions for the multiple owners. I worked for one of the mills in NH and it went through 6 ownership changes in about 25 years, each subsequent owner selling assets and playing financial games until there was little left to run. In 1987 there were 1750 employees and the remaining remnant that is still operating has about 150 employees when they aren't laid off due to lack of orders. The current owner is under SEC investigation for financial fraud http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/03/30/lynn-tilton-sec-fraud-charges/70663448/. She had picked up another mill in Maine a few years before and that one was run into the ground.
This wikapedia link shows a quick history of the biggest operation in Maine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_Paper_Company
If you remember the cable show American Loggers, one of the firms worked the Golden Road in Maine. Great Northern Millinocket was the start of the Golden Road (which is actually a large system of roads), they controlled access to about 1/4 of the state of Maine as there are no public roads whatsoever in that area. The Golden Road connected up to the Canadian border so most traffic goes to Canada these days.
There was some hope for a process called Torrefaction to make a "super" version of a wood pellet that had much higher BTU content and was water resistant for export to Europe but the lead developer got caught in some financial messes and it hasn't happened.
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Wow that's one very detailed and lengthy explanation I for a second thought I was back in college
All kidding aside your response was very informative. Without a doubt any mill producing print grade type of paper will continue to struggle in the digital age. It's only going to get worse. Let's just say print advertising sales is probably not a great career to get into.
I'm sure the paper mills everywhere that make publishing type of material are in the same boat. However there's a couple of mills north of me that produce paper towels and tissues and stuff like that. I've heard they are very busy. Consumables like towels and tissue will always be around.
However I haven't looked into how competitive foreign importers are in this product area. The next time I buy paper towels I will take a look to see where the stuffs made.
When I think of New England the big industry that comes to mind that took a huge hit is textiles. Theres hundreds and thousands of old decaying brick textile mills all over New England that are empty. Textiles was probably the first to go over seas years ago in favor of cheap labor and currency exchange rates favoring the importer. There are some textiles left but I hear it minimal and the ones that are doing well have government contracts, military contracts, etc.
All kidding aside your response was very informative. Without a doubt any mill producing print grade type of paper will continue to struggle in the digital age. It's only going to get worse. Let's just say print advertising sales is probably not a great career to get into.
I'm sure the paper mills everywhere that make publishing type of material are in the same boat. However there's a couple of mills north of me that produce paper towels and tissues and stuff like that. I've heard they are very busy. Consumables like towels and tissue will always be around.
However I haven't looked into how competitive foreign importers are in this product area. The next time I buy paper towels I will take a look to see where the stuffs made.
When I think of New England the big industry that comes to mind that took a huge hit is textiles. Theres hundreds and thousands of old decaying brick textile mills all over New England that are empty. Textiles was probably the first to go over seas years ago in favor of cheap labor and currency exchange rates favoring the importer. There are some textiles left but I hear it minimal and the ones that are doing well have government contracts, military contracts, etc.
maple1
Minister of Fire
Not the situation here. The appetite is still strong for biomass fuel, and the overseas market is still there for pellets.
Bad LP
Minister of Fire
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