STEPHEN G. FREEAAAN &. CO.

Newport Beoch, Colifornio

Excellent

Lwere enjoyed dustry in the this year.

Business Conditions

by the hardwood inUnited States durins

As the general economy continues its slow, non-inflationary rise, demand for hardwood lumber is at a higher level than that of most other industries. Premium prices are being paid for dry lumber in the upper grades of almost all species and requirements for the lower grades are also on the rise along with increased activity of pallets and flooring.

Optimism is high in the furniture industry at both the manufacturer and retailer levels. For the first twothirds of the year, casegoods orders were up by ll% and shipments by 12%. Forecasts predict an increase in furniture shipments for l97l of 10.5% with a further gain of 16.5% in 1978. Housing starts are expected to peak at about 2 million units at mid-1978. The current demand for hardwood crossties is excellent and this market looks very good for the next decade due to the 1976 Railroad Reform Act which provides $6.3 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees. The export market for American hardwoods is also extremely good.

E. Howard Gatewood Secretary-Manager National Hardwood Lumber Association

Hardwood Use Up

With all of these bright indications, there can be little doubt that United States consumption of hardwood lumber will attain, if not exceed, the predictions of 6.9 billion board feet in 1977 and 7.1 billion board feet in 1978.

On July 21 , tbe National Conference on Weights and Measures accepted National Hardwood Lumber Association recommendations for their Model State Resulation for kiln dried

Story at aGlance

Gain of '16.5o/o in furniture shipments seen for '78 . . crosstie market is excellent due to $6.3 billion in subsidies, loan guarantees export hardwood market extremely good. consump- tion of 7.1 billionb.f. of hardwood in'78.

hardwood lumber. This marked the end of two years of negotiating with the weights and measures people at two national conferences, five regional conferences, and three meetings with their Laws and Regulations Committee. Under the new regulation, adding back footage to known net kiln dried measurement to reflect kiln shrinkage is prohibited, although kiln dried lumber last inspected and measured in its green or air dried state may be invoiced on that basis if this fact is made clear.

At our convention, metric rules for the definitions, general instructions and standard grades of the Rules Book were presented. These were the result of three years of skilled technical work on the part of the NHLA Metric Task Force. Metric rules will not be submitted to the membership for adoption until the remainder of the Rules Book has been metricated and the Metric System has come into wider acceDtance.

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