lumber growthEngineered

IIEFYING recession, a weak housUing industry and restrictions on timb€r harvests, the use of engineered lumber products continues to grow.

consumption of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) has grown 87o in Oe last two years; parallel srand lumber (PSL), 44%oi wood I-bearns, 47Vo, and parallel chord trusses, 104o, George Carter & Affiliates (GC&A) points out in its second and latest major study of market size and growth for engineered lumber products. Only glulam beams felt the effects of the recession, falling l9%o in usage.

Story at a Glance

Engineered lumber use fonecast to grow from 307o to 140o/o depending on product ... survey finds lack of knowledge is big deterrent to use.

Total consumption has now reached 690 million linear feet (1314'xlT' basis). Since some products are nomrally reported on a cubic foot basis, figures have been converted to linear feet for direct comparisons. "And remember, this (growth) occurred during a period when housing stars in the United States rose less Ihan l%o and starts in Canada actually fell over l0%o," George M. Carter points out.

As the level of environmental consciousness increased steadily during the 1980s and took off in the '90s, the availability of wood resources, primarily large dimension, old-growth timber, continued to shrink, forcing wood product manufacturers !o examine their manufacturing operations. Pressure from the conservation movement has curtailed the cutting of oldgrowth timber in particular, but "even without these pressures, the supply of standing timber capable of producing large dimension lumber is becoming ever more scarce," the Oradell, N.J., researcher notes.

In the slowly recovering new housing market and burgeoning repair and remodeling market, demand for wood building products keeps growing. Bigger, open, airy rooms with large clear spans are clearly the trend in single family construction. Indications are that this will continue into the next century, Carter forecasts.

As the current recovery gains momentum, a strong movement to utilize low interest loans to fix up existing homes is expected to spur the repair and remodeling market.

Recovery from Hurricane Andrew, the "Noreaster of '92" in the Northeast and a variety of tornadoes in the South last year will further the demand for wood building materials. Additional market growth also will be realized as rebuilding begins following the flooding along the Mississippi River and the fires in California this year.

Carter has updated his frst analysis of production and use of engineered lumber products in the United States and Canada with current research. Responses from over 2,500 additional respondents have been used to supplement infonnation gathered from over 3,500 building material retailers, architects, builders, truss manufacturers and producers of mobile homes in the earlier study.

In updating the data base, researchers learned many retailers and builders still have little or no knowledge of engineered lumber products and that distribution is still too limited for them to take advantage of the potential that appears to exist.

Despite these negatives, growth has occurred since the original study was completed three years ago.

Current responses to phone and personal contacts show the following changes:

Retailers

807o selling LVL, up from 55Vo. 877o selling wood I-beams, up from58Vo.

Builders

77.34o using engineered lumber products, up from 37.SVo.

72.8Vo using LVL, up from 43.2Vo. 63.9Vo using wood I-beams, up from49.4Vo.

15.SVo with cost concerns, down ftom26.8Vo.

27.47o lack of knowledge is the biggest deterrent to use of engineered lumber products.

Arciiitects

737o specifying LVL, up from 54Vo.

697o specifying wood I-beams, up from65Vo.

Basing theil outlook for engineered lumber products on a conservative housing forecast averaging about 1.3 million housing starts annually in the U.S. and 155,000 in Canada by the year 2000, GC&A ppdicts:

O L,YL use will grow about l37Vo to 285 million linear feet.

O Glulam beam use will rise about 307o to around 150 million linear feet.

O Wood I-beam use will rise nearly l40%o so 530 million linear feet by the year 2000.

O Parallel chord truss use will edee up amodest32Vo.

The report concludes there are ttrree deterrents !o sales of engineered lumber products: (l) customers not requesting them; (2) lack of knowledge on the part ofretailers, architects and builders, and (3) cosf