Plywood

Production Close ro Billion Feer Aheod of 1954

Western fir plywood manufacturers are mapping plans to push plywood demand in 1956 past 5 billion feet amid estimates that production this year should be close to a bil- lion feet ahead of 1954. This emerged from the annual subscribers meeting held in Tacoma last month. Some 120 plywood officials from Washington, Oregon and California attended the one-day session from which came the news that 10 new firms had joined the industry's joint promotion program during the past year.

This program, which combines national sales promotion, quality control, research and testing, is administered by the Douglas Fir Plywood Association for members and subscribers under the direction of a top-level management committee made up of industry-elected representatives.

These new firms bring to 84 the number of plywood , mills operating under the program. Together they acI count for close to 90o/o of the industry's total output, which should top 4.8 billion feet by year's end. Current production is already 380/6 ahead of 1954 for Jan- uary through mid-September.

At the meeting, the industry named a new chairman of the management committee for the first time in 17 years. Arnold Koutonen, veteran industry leader and now plywood manager for the Olympia mill of the St. Paul & Tu.o-" Lumber Co., succeeds E. W. Daniels, elder , statesman of plywood promotion and a past president of Harbor Plywood Corp., Aberdeen, Wash', who has served in that office since 1938.

W. E. Difiord, managing director of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, outlined promotion plans for 1956. He told industry leaders that an estimated production level of 5.3 billion feet for 1956 would require even greater sales promotion efforts than ever before.

Uppermost in the planning, Difford said, is emphasis on the development of new markets for special construction panels that would ut\lize western softwood species other than fir, such as hemlock and billions of feet o{ low-grade logs previously unmarketable in the form of plywood.

F'or example, Difford announced that the association is developing a low-cost "work horse" panel to utilize material of this kind in the vast and undeveloped market for plywood in the farm field.

Another new product in the offing is a thick grade of plywood for use over long spans that will combine subflooring and underlayment in one application. This feature promises to open a big market in both residential and commercial construction.

Other aspects of the coming year's program include plans for five new boats ranging in size and design from an 8-foot pram to a stylish 20-foot outboard cruiser; heavy emphasis on consumer promotion keyed to remodeling to add more space to the home-one of plywood's largest outlets, and agreement with a large national news company for newsstand distribution of the association's recently published 95-page "52 Plans for Fir Plywood Projects'" New subscribers to the plywood association's promotion