Solid Wood Timber Products Consumption in Major End Uses in the United States, 1950-2009

Résumé du livre

Solid wood timber products provide important raw materials to the construction, manufacturing, and shipping sectors of the U.S. economy. Nearly all new single-family houses and low-rise multifamily residential structures are wood framed and sheathed. Large amounts of solid wood timber products are also used in the construction of new nonresidential buildings, and in the upkeep and improvement of existing structures. Solid wood is used extensively in various manufactured products, and a large share of manufactured products is shipped on wooden pallets. In 2009, an estimated 3,903 million cubic feet (ft3) of solid wood timber products were consumed in the United States (Howard 2007). This was just about one-half of the 7,735 million ft3 consumed in 2005, the highest level of consumption in the past 60 years. Included is the consumption of lumber, structural panels, nonstructural panels, and engineered lumber products. Much of this decline is directly attributable to record setting low levels of residential construction and continued relocation of manufacturing offshore to take advantage of labor and material cost savings. Residential repair and remodeling and nonresidential construction helped to keep construction as the overall principal market in the United States for solid wood timber products. In 2009, construction accounted for about 60 % of total timber products consumption. Depressed new single-family residential construction severely affected consumption of softwood lumber, and to a lesser extent, structural panels. Hardwood lumber, while also affected, was bolstered by continued vigor in the packaging and shipping sectors of the economy.