NEWS BRIEFS

It appears now that Masonite Corp. will buy up Al Thrasher Lurnber Co., in Calpena" Calif. Thrasher is one of the largest of the independent redwood producers. No price set so far The Jessup cutting plant" Chico, Calif., has bee.n enlarged from 28,000 sq. ft. to more than 52,000 sq. ft.

Southwest F orest I ndwstrics,'Phoenix, has purchased the remaining interest in Montezuma Plywood Co., Cortez, Colo., South. west has had a minority interest since '67 Fibreboard, Corp., which has had a 5O/o inter*t in Pickering Lumber Corp. since'65 bought the other half from Yuba River Lumber Co. recently for a stock exchange worth about $ll million. Picker' ing's '68 sales were approximately $fg million...

Due to the snail-like pace of the leileral got)erntnent, it now appear€ the ballots on the AlSC-recommended new softwood standards won't go to the acceptors till mid' month , . Eaans Products Co. has agreed to buy Missoula Sawmills, Inc., and Inland Sawmills, Inc. of Missoula, Mont., no amount given...

Hoff Lumber Co., Horseshoe Bend, Ida' ho, has acquired Ontario Timber Laminators {or an undisclosed amount Potlatch Forest's subsidiary, Speedspace Corp., which produces factory-built stiuctures which are mostly sold in the West, will operate Potlatch's newly acquired Midwest Homes. Inc. Midwest's factory builds relocatable structures.

Boise Cascaile is buying 25,000 acres on Hawaii's big island for development of a recreational village, the land is being bought from the vast Parker Ranch... Ohn Mathison Chemical Corp., says it plans to become a major builder of residential communities and is starting an $80 million program to up production of homebuilding materials from forest products, metals and chemicals

Handyman's big, new do-it-yourself center in Beaverton. Ore.. is due for an earlv

March completion high lumber prices are likely to remain firm through most of this first quarter, according to the WaIl Street lournaL. it added that the increase in the prime rate by big banks probably wouldn't lower prices.

More than B million acres oI Private, taxpaying land in 12 western states are now growing perpetual forest crops, says the WWPA. The area producing is roughly 2.5 times the size of Connecticut Boise Cascade points out that the average number of doors in a typical house five years ago was 11, todan about 25. Five years ago closets had one door, now they have four (bi-fold) doors.

Nissan Nohrin Kogyo of TokYo has developed a new product, aploid, made of wood and plastic and claims it is 5 times stronger than natural wood. ..

The English Morgan sPorts car still uses ash extensively in the production of the car's frame, as well as using other woods as interior trim Surxet lllagazine says that more than one-fourth (27.4/e) oL all western households changed their place of residence in the last 12 months.

U. S. Plywood-Champion Papers Inc. plans to acquire American Forest Products Corp. for approximately $92.7 million of its stock. The merger is subject to the approval of the directors of both companies and the stockholders of AFPC.

The annouhcement-came less than a month after proposed mergers between U.S. Ply and Johns-Manville Corp. and AFPC and Kimberly-Clark had collapsed.

AFPC, the parent company of Tarter, Webster & Johnson, owns about 200,000 acres of timberland containing more than two billion bf. of merchantable timber.

Sales

U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers, in the first nine months of 1968, were $950 million. American Forest Products Corp. in that period did 9102.? million in sales.

A unique and reportedly valuable service forecasting probable shifts in the prices of softwood lumber and plywood is being ofiered to lumber and building materials dealers nationally by Charles E. Young, publisher of. Young's Fore'casts and, Lumber Market Forecasts out of Portland, Oregon.

Young's Forecasts is a set of leading indicators of changes in mill prices of softwood lumber and plywood, published every Friday to reach you on Monday. The charts, which reflect shi{ts in demand-supply relationships, are based on weekly statistical reports from the lumber and plywood industry associations.

Each issue contains specific recommendations for buyers.

Iog exports from Oregon and Washington to Japan, which declined to 528 million bf. (up 3L/o irom the same period a year ago) in the third quarter of 1968, will continue to do so for the next several months, predicts G. Cleveland Edgett, Western Wood Products Association, following a two-week field study of Japanese wood products markets.

The prediction was based on personal interviews with principals of major Japanese trading houses, who indicated that they had already "laid ofi" numerous log charter ships due to a current surplus of roundwood glutting Japanese port lacilities. o'The overcr-owding is primarily due," says Edgett, "to the panio log buying following indications earlier this year that limitations would be placed on the export of logs from federal timber lands in the United States." Edgett also noted that the Japanese have attempted to- ease port crowding by stemming the flow of raw logs from Siberia, but that tho Russians have refused to cooperate, and so overcrowding of port log handling facilitiee will persist for some months.

He further predicts that by mid-I969, the Japanese will have to increase their purchases of manufactured wood products from Alaska and other sources.