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Strategies & Market Trends : Fascist Oligarchs Attack Cute Cuddly Canadians -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crocodile who wrote (406)	3/26/2002 1:34:42 PM
From: marcos	Respond to of 1293

Great post Croc, number of points raised each of which could generate volumes of detailing, wish i had time now to do one or two justice .... on Japan - it is one of only three nations making extensive use of framing lumber in housing, the other two being Canada and the US ... for a period up to five-six years ago BC had a major market there, much smaller now as they are having problems The more uniform are products the easier they are to produce and market in volume, and that's framing lumber - uniform ... a two by four is a two by four the world over [actually it's a one and five eighths by three and five eighths, but same all over -g-] ..... the interior mills that are the biggest thorn in the side of the yeller pine landowners are the most efficient in the world, they squeeze out every last bit of dimension, thin-kerf saws guided by computerised optimisation systems ... one of these systems years ago i heard cost three millions, and that was just in one relatively small gang mill on the coast But uniformity takes you to the lowest common denominator of commodity value, eh ... puts you competing with anybody who can crank out the same sized piece .... true the more northern wood is straighter and finer grained, superior in quality to the taeda of the DC lobby and the radiata of Godzone, but that's a limited advantage and instantly negated by tariff walls .... to move away from uniformity in favour of value added uses is one major answer for sure, and there has been a move toward it for some time now, generally speaking it can be done much better by smaller more flexible entrepreneurs than by larger firms, a fact which presents considerable opportunity The currency thing too - sure, when air starts coming out of the USD problems in forestry will be compounded, though this will matter little should current control of their federal machinery be maintained The industry is always in change, always has been, always will be, every step of it is an exercise in problem solving .... and no matter how it changes, the fact remains that walled off from the largest and most proximate market, the one on which much of its capacity is based following so many years of peace between these two nations, it will be an uphill battle Got to run ... later ... cheers