Timber Operations Industry Profile

The US timber operations industry includes about 10,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $10 billion. Major companies include Weyerhaeuser, Plum Creek Timber, Rayonier, and Potlatch. The industry is highly fragmented.

The global forest products industry, which includes timber operations, generates more than $450 billion in annual revenue. Top sources for timber include the Brazil, Canada, China, India, and the US. Leading companies include Svenska Cellulosa (Sweden), Stora Enso Oyj (Finland), and AbitibiBowater (Canada).

The industry includes companies that own timberlands and that grow and harvest timber on production cycles of 10 years or more, primarily for use as lumber. Companies that grow Christmas trees and other trees (woody crops) on production cycles of less than 10 years, primarily for use by the paper and pulp industries or as raw materials for engineered wood products, are not included in the industry. Some large companies have vertically integrated operations that may combine land ownership, land management, logging, sawmills, and manufacturing of wood or paper products. Sawmills and plywood mills and pulp and paper mills are covered in separate industry profiles.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for timber used to make lumber is driven primarily by residential construction activity. Residential construction accounts for about 45 percent of all lumber used in the US; home repair and remodeling projects account for about 30 percent. Large logging companies can have a cost advantage over smaller ones through ...