THE CALIFOR}.IIA LUMBERMERCHANT

W. T. BTACK

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How Lrumber Lrooks

There is a rail car shortage in the Pacific Northwest which is holding up lumber shipments. This year, lumbermen say, it is worse than last year due to the heavy grain crops. Some small mills are closing, especially those that saw two or three cars of lumber daily; they have to ship it right out as they have no storing facilities.

Lumber shipments of. 420 mills reporting to the National Lumber Trade Barometer. National Lumber Manufacturers Association, were 5.3/o below production for the week ended August 13, 1949. In the same week new orders of these mills were 3.5/o below production. Unfilled order files of the reporting mills amount to 3O/o of stocks. For reporting softwood mills, unfilled orders are equivalent to 22 days'production at the current rate, and gross stocks are equivalent to 68 days'production.

For the year to date, shipments of reporting mills were 2.3/o above production; orders were 3.1/o above production.

Compared to the corresponding week of 1935-1939, production of reporting mills was 32.4/o above; 'shipments were 35.2/o above, and orders were 35.9/o above. Compared to the corresponding week in 1948, production of reporting mills was 7.8/o below; shipments were 5-7/o below; and new orders were 5.7/o below.

Portland,

Oregon, August l8-Demand for Douglas fir

lumber during July forced orders 25 million feet a week above production, according to H. V. Simpson, executive vice president of West Coast Lumbermen's Association' The lumber official said there was a general strengthening of demand as mid-summer home and construction building hit its stride.

Orders for July averaged 149,926,000 board feet weekly, Simpson stated, while production lagged behind, due to vacations and shutdowns for repairs, averaging only 125,090,000 board feet a week. Shipments bettered production slightly, averaging 129,845,000 board feet weekly.

Simpson said that lumber orders for the first thirty weeks of 1949 totaled 4,688,554,000 board feet, topping total pro-

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