Thread: Price for timber to drop?

i serious doubt it.

I agree with Bob.

Time to look at other markets, India, Taiwan and Japan for example.

Yes Australia will take a short term hit, but the over dependence on a ideological opposite has resulted in this issue.

Unlikely. Timber is a commodity with a global market like gas and oil, the global price would have to drop before it drops here. Otherwise they'll just sell it to the next highest bidder.

Originally Posted by Pat

I agree with Bob.

Time to look at other markets, India, Taiwan and Japan for example.

Yes Australia will take a short term hit, but the over dependence on a ideological opposite has resulted in this issue.

Pat

The analogy with eggs and baskets looks like it has come home to roost.



Regards
Paul

The news item I saw said the majority of the timber was plantation timber for the production of particle boards of varying descriptions

Originally Posted by Lappa

The news item I saw said the majority of the timber was plantation timber for the production of particle boards of varying descriptions

I don't know what gets exported; my assumption was that it will be all kinds of timber.

China is now refusing to accept timber from South Australia and Tasmania, as well as Queensland and Victoria

It just seems weird that all states would export the very same low value product.

Lobster got allegedly cheaper.

I don’t think it will change much in the hobby industry.
What was being exported, is really not what we buy a lot off.

Cheers Matt.

There is actually a shortage of Australian hardwoods at the moment as the fires has taken much of the stock.
Pretty much all of our house framing timber is imported too.

Originally Posted by Beardy

There is actually a shortage of Australian hardwoods at the moment as the fires has taken much of the stock.
Pretty much all of our house framing timber is imported too.

??? the majority of house framing is now local crapiata pine, the majority of internal fitout timber, mouldings, etc, is imported as is a lot of the decking hwd timbers because our hwd's are too expensive except for the cheap rubbish stuff that is sold as mixed species

If anything, China "helped" keep the prices down. Worst country I have ever had to deal with. No loss in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Beardy

There is actually a shortage of Australian hardwoods at the moment as the fires has taken much of the stock.
Pretty much all of our house framing timber is imported too.

Do they still use hardwood for framing? We did a little extension not long ago and they used beams of (what looked like) good quality laminated plywood. They said it's better for stability etc, which kind of made sense to me. Certainly made sense to them cost-wise.

There are shortages of structural pines at the moment. It pretty much happens each year, and they use the shortage to drive up prices. The mills actively try not to over-produce because that'll drive down prices. This year the story goes, due to Covid, the mills scaled back production expecting the wider industry to slow down also. But with the money that the government was throwing around, the wider industry continued to work pretty much unaffected. So the demand for the timber remained, while the supply cut back. Now at work, we have to call the wholesalers and ask what they have, and how much (if any) of what they have is what we can have, because they are trying to keep everyone working, but the timber just isn't there.

Late last year, the mills were negotiating with the unions, hoping they could work through the XMAS period in an attempt to catch up with the backlog. Unions being what they are, that didn't go ahead. The mills are going back to work on the 11th Jan, much the same as the wider industry. The unions (being as nice as they are), allowed the mills to have a few people come back early to do 'maintenance'. So when I go back to work on the 11th Jan, I get to play with about 3 packs of pine, which is not a lot. With a bit of luck, my holidays will be extended while we wait for more timber to arrive.

Originally Posted by AndyJ

....According to some news articles, China used to buy 95% of Australia's timber....

Look at ABARE figures and you will see that this figure is waffle.

Australia imports almost twice as much timber products, by value, than we export.

Exports to China are dominated by two very low value products:

• Hardwood wood chips, mainly plantation sourced, and
• Unpruned softwood logs destined for chipboard.

Neither of these are suitable for milling into sawn timber.

Slow down or demise of this trade is unlikely to impact on the type of timber that woodworkers use.

Originally Posted by rwbuild

??? the majority of house framing is now local crapiata pine, the majority of internal fitout timber, mouldings, etc, is imported as is a lot of the decking hwd timbers because our hwd's are too expensive except for the cheap rubbish stuff that is sold as mixed species

I have been buying packs of stick pine for framing and it has come from Europe