Timber Operations

The $30 billion US timber industry includes about 300 companies that are involved mainly in timber management, and close to 12,000 firms involved in logging operations. Large companies include Weyerhaeuser, Plum Creek Timber, Rayonier, and Potlatch. The industry is highly fragmented. A large number of companies and individuals are passive owners of timberlands. Some large companies have vertically integrated operations that may combine land ownership, land management, logging, sawmills, and the production of wood or paper products.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Timber is harvested to make paper or wood products (mainly lumber and plywood). Residential construction and repair/remodeling account for nearly 70 percent of all lumber used in the US. Demand for paper is driven partly by the general health of the economy, which influences demand for office papers, cardboard boxes, newspapers, magazines, and tissue papers. Large logging companies can have a cost advantage over smaller ones through the use of more efficient (and more expensive) machinery, but logging is a very local activity, often without significant economies of scale.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

The US contains about 750 million acres of forest land, including 500 million acres of timberlands. About 180 million acres are considered highly productive, of which half are located in the South and a quarter in the Pacific Northwest. Timberlands in the South contain softwoods like loblolly-shortleaf pines and longleaf-slash pines. Timberlands in the West contain mainly Douglas-fir, fir-spruce, and ponderosa pine. Hardwood timberlands are located ...