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WWPA: more marketing

ESPITE a low attendance of approximately 170 and dismal market conditions, the Western Wood Products Association made a concerted effort at its annual fall meeting to be as optimistic as common sense allowed. The individual members' attitudes ranged downward from there; to restrained hope with a salting of pessimism.

The necessity of the industry paying more attention to marketing (and less to production) received continued emphasis. Approval was given to Impetus/83, a tentative marketing plan to be developed further by the WWPA staffers for a full blown presentation and possible final approval at the spring meeting, March 8-ll,

1983 at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, Ca.

This fall's meeting was held in Newport Beach, Ca.; the fallmeeting for next year is set for Scottsdale,

Story at a Glance

Need to build markets . . . new marketing plan being devel, oped . . . 1.3 million housing starts forecast lor'83 . increases will be slight.

Az., with 1984 slated to be held at Monterey, Ca.

WWPA's top staffer, executive v.p. Bob Roberts forecast only a slight rebound in 1983 for the Western lumber industry.

"Unfortunately, the rate of housing demand will not be enough to bring the thousands of workers who have been unemployed andunderemployed back to work on a full-time basis," Roberts said.

The 1.3 million housing units that the WWPA hopes will be built in 1983 will fall far short of the 1.75 million units the association measures against as normal.

" It will, however, be slightly better than the l.l million units we're pro- jecting for 1982.

"The home building market should consume some I1.42 billion board feet of lumber during 1983, which is well below the 16 billion board feet consumed in our 1979-normal year," Roberts said. Home building will account for 3690 of the total U.S. softwood consumption projected to be 31.68 billion board feet. In comparison, 1982's total consumption should reach 29.1I billion feet.

Lumber consumption for markets other than home building will show improvements from 1982 but will still be off considerably from 1979, he noted. The repair and remodeling market, grouped with other new construction, is expected to consume some 13.6 billion board feet next year, up from this year's 12.95 billion feet of production.

Roberts forecasted imports from Canada to be 8.4 billion board feet in 1982 and 9. I billion feet in 1983, both years accounting for 28.50/o of U.S. consumption.

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