Price Trends and Relationships for Red Oak and Yellow-Poplar Stumpage, Sawlogs, and Lumber in Ohio: 1975-1993

Abstract

Abstract The rapidly changing domestic and international hardwood markets of the 1980s had a large impact on the demand and price of hardwood lumber, logs, and stumpage. In this paper we examine inflation adjusted (real)prices for red oak and yellow-poplar stumpage, logs, and lumber. We then relate the observed trends to changes in domestic lumber consumption, lumber and log exports, sawmill technology, and forest inventory trends. Increasing real prices for red oak stumpage, logs, and lumber are the result of expanding domestic and international demand coupled with relatively limited stumpage supplies. Yellow-poplar, a species in relatively abundant supply and lower demand, experienced a decline in real prices for logs and lumber. Gains in stumpage prices have exceeded those for both logs and lumber, indicating that stumpage prices have benefited from transferred efficiencies in harvesting and milling. Although this study focuses on stumpage and log prices in Ohio from 1975 to 1993, the results appear to be relevant to adjacent states. North. J. Appl. For. 12(4):168-173.