Lumber production figures

1968 will long be remembered as .the year of the unexpected becoming the expected; a year full of surprises. And the lumber industry proved to be no different.

In figures released by Forest Inilustries, in their Yearbook edition, sawmill production figures for 1968 by the ten largest firms produced a lot of surprises. (See the accompanying table).

Although Weyerhauser Co. has been in the number one spot for as long as :rnyone cares to remember, it surprised some observers. W'eyco's production has remained steady the last several years at one-and-one-half billion feet. During 1968, however, with steadily rising prices, I[eyerhauser production increased about six percent, or I00 million feet.

Iconceal

Georgia-Pacific Corp. Corp. have pursued policies and now find and third in production.

Some Surpnses

and Boise-Cascade strong acquisition themselves second

Sfory st q Glclnce

An industry expert who prefers to be called Chip Wood, examines latest annual results and finds they didn't turn out as you might expect . consolidations affect some totals acquisitions bolster others one important name turns up missing.

The factor causing the largest jump in Boise Cascade's production was the purchase of Union Lumber Co., a major redwood producer for more than one hundred years.

Georgia-Pacific's production remained nearly stationary, according to their figures. Despite acquisition of several mills in northern California, they also closed some British Columbia operations.

Simpson Timber Co. showed a sizable increase in production as well and enough to bring that company into tlle top ten this year. Production at their Klamath, Calif., mill doubled while Simpson also added an additional facility in Canada.

Pack River Co. moved from tenth in size to ninth because of their increases in production, most notably at two mills in Montana.

During the same period, Edward Hines Lumber Co. fell from ninth to tenth. Although Hines' production increased about 25 million feet, Pack River production spurted nearly 54 million feet, or enough to place Pack River a mere 727,000 Ieet ahead of Edward Hines.

of 1968, made the two the three largest producers in o{ these would not even have top ten a few years ago.

Diamond National Corp. showed an increase in production o{ nearly twenty percent. Overall, production remained stable or nearly stable at all mills oper. ating in both 1967 and 1968. Start-up of production at mills in Marysville and Oroville. both in California, accounted for the large increase for the most part.

An interesting sidelight is that the proposed merger between U.S. PlywoodChampion Papers, Inc. and American Forest Products C-orp., which subsequent- ly was terminated, would have rnade those companies the fourth largest producer with production of 684,45I,000 feet. Potlatch Forests, Inc. would then have dropped to fifth place.

Missing from the top ten this year is American Forest Products Corp, who held the eighth spot in 1967, or just ahead of Edward Hines in 1967. In 1968, the company fell one place behind Hines, who had fallen into tenth place, and thus is not shown on the list.