THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT

M. ADAMS McncAcr

78-79

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Lumber shipments of 494 mills reporting to the National Lumber Manufacturers Assn. in the week ending June 15 were 7.0/o above production; new orders were 6.1/o above. Orders were 77,6/o above the previous week. National production of lumber totaled 2,950,000,000 board feet during April, reports the NLMA; shipments were up llVo over March and new orders gained 7%. Softwood shipments were 3/o and hardwood shipments 2/o above production.

Orders ot 133,759,705 feet were 12.6/o and. shipments of 136,890,149 - feet were 15.2/o above production of 118,799,964 feet at 164 mills reporting to the West Coast Lumbermen's Assn. in the week ending June 15 . . Orders were ll.3/o and shipments 3.8/o below production of 86,859,000 feet at 121 mills reporting to the Western Pine Asso- ' ciation in the week ended June 8, after both having climbed well dbove in the previous period Orders were 8.66/o and shipments 034% above production of 20,433,000 feet at 105 mills reporting to the Southern Pine Association in the week ending June 15.

The California Redwood Association reports production of 51,371,-was up 3 million from April during the month of May but running behind May 1956, while shipments were slightly below April and farther below May 1956. For the first five months of 1957, both production and shipments of redwood are 17/o below last year. Orders received in May were 4.3 million feet below April, with shipments to southern California and the Rocky Mountain regions showing a slight increase over April. Orders on hand May 3l were 54,903,000 feet; stocks on hand, 406,336,000 feet.

Orders of 99,%5,000.feet fell nearly 15/o below production of 117,530,000 feet in the week ending June 15, reported the Douglas Fir .Plywood Assn. They were \1.4/o below the previous week but 5.5/o above the like 1956 week. The current order backlog of 342.7 million feet compares to a backlog of 300.8 million feet a year ago.

Total retail lumber stocks on April 30 were estimated 5,337 million feet by the National Retail Lumber Dealers Assn.; 0.6% below the same 1956 level. The largest increase in retail yard inventory during