Raw logs are an input; it drives up the price for external industries dependent on lumber and drives them down for domestic industries, sacrificing raw material exports for more competitive intermediate and finished goods exports.
Since for the most part economic development depends on having exports as far toward the finished goods end of the raw material to finished goods spectrum, its not an insane strategy if you can deal with the short-term dislocations.
Shifting competitive advantage is harder than leaning in to your existing competitive advantage, but sometimes your existing competitive advantage is a long-term loser.
Does it feel like we have squeezed a critical part of our infrastructure here allowing it to close down or go bankrupt? This could have lasting affects for decades.
So basically people in the US voted for higher prices, so that they can keep their job that can't compete on international markets, and they got what they voted for.
- WFH people fleeing high COL cities, buying fixer-uppers, and paying whatever to renovate
- Rolling covid shut-downs of companies that make wood products like OSB glue or treated wood chemicals
- Freight costs
- Trailing effects from a bad fire season and the Texas ice storm repairs
- Tariff repercussions
- Russia is planning to stop exporting raw logs next year. They are about 12% of the worlds supply.
- Speculators profiting off the volatility