Civil War

(Continued from previous page) reducing profits in 1996 by approximately $344.25 million. "Last year was the strongest construction year in the last several years, with 1.47 million housing starts. This should have provided our industry with reasonable profits for the year," said Kirk Grundahl, WTCA executive director. "Unfortunately, due to political conditions that caused the Canadian lumber quota which were beyond our control and the fact that lumber represents about 507o of the cost of our product, we suffered major economic losses."

"The lumber industry has no idea how devastatins this has been to our business," agreed Pat Keller, v.p., Truss Components, Inc., Peerless Park, Mo., which has put off plans to open a new plant this year. "Nothing prepared us for the price spike in November. We expected the price of lumber would rise, but businesses can't survive these types of price spikes. We were assured by the U.S. Trade Representative that this wouldn't happen, that U.S. lumber manufacturers could meet any demand surges, and as such, not to woffy about the quota."

A major market concern is that as the cost increases are passed on to the consumer, the consumer will be less able to buy housing. "This will lead to a market that is recessionary and will hurt truss manufacturers even mors,"