NEWS BRIEFS

Retailers

Evan's Building Center, Eagle (west Boise), Id., has recently iemodeled, doubling its store size, updating its exterior, and adding a new showroom and warehouse arca...

Blackman Lumber Co., Oakland, Ca., has closed after 100 ylars and put the property up for sale...

Franklin B uilding Supply, Elko, Nv., has added store #6 in Winnemucca, Nv.; Clif Brown, mgr....

F ischer Lumb e r Co.,Firebaugh, Ca., recently held a grand reopening of its Ace Hardware store

Rod's One Stop Hardware, Sirtland, W.a, has been opened by Rodney Guillory

Melrose Lumber & Supply Co., -O^akland, Ca., has closed after 90 years...

Denpak Building Products, Denver, Franktown and Alamosa, Co., has been acquired by Erb Lumber...

HomeBase has opened a 110,0@sq. ft. store with 24,000sq. ft. nursery in Vacaville, Ca. ...

Home Depot opened a new store last month in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca.; is building in San Jose, Ca.., and purchased a Be_llevue, Wa., business park it will level

Ransom Brothers Lumber & SuppU: Ramona, Ca., recently remodeled

Eagle Hardware & Garden is nearing completion of stores in Boulder and Pueblo, Co. ...

Wholesalers & Manufaclurers

Snavely Forest Products has closed its Medford, Or., office ... Dick Maurer, ex-Snavely, has opened a Medford office for ltanrs Wood Products

Hardel Mutual Plvwood Corp.. Olympia, Wa., was destroybd Sept. I by a $50 million fire of undetennined orieinl the company will rebuild

Larulnark Forest Products, Sarr Bernardino, C&., opened subsidiary Tri-State Laminating Co. in a 20,000-sq. ft. warehouse and production facility in Ontario, Ca.; added a warehouse in Reno, Nv., and was named Cladwood MDO exterior siding distributor for Ca. and Nv. ...

Semper Resources Corp., a Nevada Corporation, has a preliminary agreement to purchase for cash and stock the lumber handling operations of Fremont Forest Products in the Port of Long Beach, Ca.; if a final agreement is reached, a Fremont Resources Corp. subsidiary will retain Fremont's current management and personnel to expand their cargo, rail and truck custom handling for existing and new softwood customers; current members of Fremont's board of directors will serve on the board of the new subsidiary

Idaho Timber Corp., Boise, Id., has acquired, Duke City Lumber Co., Espafrola, N.M. (see story, p. 44)...

IJniversal Forest Products has agreed to purchase Hi-Tek Forest Products,Inc., with factory manufactured housing roof and truss plants in Idaho, Oregon and California, from Alpine Engineered Products, Inc,,..

Kaibab Industries, Inc., after more than 40 years, has closed its last sawmill in Panguitch, Ut., and has auctioned it off

Crown Pacific, Portland, Or., purchased the Garka Mill, Marysville, Wa., for $2.7 million

Louisiana-Pacifrc has agreed to acquire insulation manufacturer GreenStone Industries, with eieht U.S. plants and annual saleslf $411 million Louisiana-Pacific was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencv for its waste reduction progrim

Toro Co., Riverside, Ca., has agreed to purchase Australianowned James Hardie lrrisation Group, Laguna Niguel, Cl., for $13O million, and will likelv consolidate operations in Riv6rside; Hardie is selling the unit to concentrate on its fiber-cement siding busmess

South Bay Forest Products is no Ionger in business; its Orange, Ca., plant has been leased to Diablo Timber Co., Nap4 Ca.

U.S. Ttmberlands, Bandon, Or., has completed its $309 million purchase of Weyerhaeuser Co.'s Klamath Falls, Or., timber operations, including 600,000 acres of timberlandl genetic center in Malin, Or.; forest nursery in Bonanza, Or., and three manufacturing plants in Klamath Falls

U.S. Timberlands then resold the three plants to Collins Products

UC: uuqit of Collins Holdings, Portland, Or.

Weyerhaeuser Co. has hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to study options for, including possibly selling, its Woodland Hills, Ca., mortgage subsidiary

New construction contracts rose l%o in Aug. (latest figs.) to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $320.8 billion ...

Housing starts in Aug. (latest figs.) jumped 4.57o to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.53 million ... single family starts rose 8.37o; small multi-family starts (24 units) fell 16.3%o, and larger multis (5+) dropped 8.4Vo permits slipped 47o.

Western Lumber Forecast

An active housing market and economic growth have been a welcome tonic for beleaguered western lumber producers in 1996. Next year, however, the same good medicine may not be available. Western Wood Products Association president Robert H. Hunt reported at the group's fall meeting.

Providing WWPA's semiannual lumber market forecast, Hunt said western mills overcame a slow start earlier this year and have managed to increase output to feed expanding consumer demand for lumber. "This has been one ofthe better years for lumber demand, with housing construction stronger than expected. Western lumber producers are working hard to fill orders for products and are just finding the mix of logs from public and private sources they need to edge production up modestly," he said.

Housing starts in the first six months were l4Vo higher compared to 1995. WWPA estimates by year-end starts will total 1.425 million, the best since 1994 and the second highest annual mark since 1988.

With more home construction, the volume of lumber used in housing should rise to 18.88 billion bd. ft.,sEo above 1995 totals. Repair and remodeling, the second largest lumber market. should use about the same voltme, 14.4 billion bd. ft. Together, the two markets will account for almost 70Vo of lumber use in the country.

Western mills have responded to the better markets with a modest increase in production and higher shipments, which have reduced lumber inventories at mills to all-time lows. For the year, western lumber output is expected to reach 16.1 billion bd. ft., np 2.l%o from 1995. Hunt noted the production volume reflects the new operating realities for western mills and other suppliers. Western lumber shipments to U.S. markets are expected to fall3.lVo in 199'1

"1997 should show reasonable stability for western mills as production and available log supplies come closer to market balance." Hunt said. "Hopefully, we're at the end of the painful downsizing this industry has experienced during the 1990s."

Also during the recent meeting in Coeur d'Alene,Id., WWPA said it will relocate the 1998 spring meeting from Palm Springs to the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and during the 1997 spring meeting will evaluate alternatives to the normal fall meeting.

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