U.S. timber production, trade, consumption, and price statistics 1965 to 2005

Abstract

This report presents annual data but is published every 2 years. The data present current and historical information on the production, trade, consumption, and prices of timber products in the United States. The report focuses on national statistics, but includes some data for individual states and regions and for Canada. The data were collected from industry trade associations and government agencies. They are intended for use by forest land managers, forest industries, trade associations, forestry schools, renewable resource organizations, individuals in the major timber producing and consuming countries of the world, and the general public. A major use of the data is tracking industry production and consumption trends over time. One of the major shifts that occurred in the wood-using industry over the past 5 years is that both production and consumption of roundwood per capita decreased. The consumption of products per capita has also undergone a gradual decrease over the past 5 years. Because of increased paper recycling and increased processing efficiency, the consumption per capita in roundwood equivalent has decreased since about 1987 from 83 ft3 to 72 ft3 per capita. But over the most recent time period, the decline in production per capita is due to the U.S. economic weakness that severely impacted wood markets. In the 1960s and 1970s, consumption averaged 65 ft3 per capita before increasing and peaking in 1986 to 83 ft3 per capita. Since 2005, consumption per capita has continued to steadily decrease and reached 41 ft3 in 2009 remaining unchanged in 2010. Per capita consumption in 2011 increased to 47 ft3 the first increase since 2005. Since 2005, paper consumption fell from 41 thousand tons to 34 thousand tons in 2011. Since 2005, newsprint declined from 5.4 million tons to 3.3 million tons and printing and writing paper fell from 24.5 million tons to 19.3 million tons. Another shift occurring over the past several years is increased emphasis on wood energy use, which has shown wide fluctuations over the last decade and into 2011.