Wood-Based Panel Plant Locations and Timber Availability in Selected U.S
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United States Department of Agriculture Wood-Based Panel Plant Forest Service Locations and Timber Forest Products Laboratory Availability in Selected General Technical Report U.S. States FPL–GTR–103 Tim McKeever Henry Spelter ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★★ ★ ★ ★★ ★★ ★ ★ ★★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Abstract Contents This report lists wood-based panel industry plant locations, Page production capacities, timber inventories, and wood costs for 24 U.S. states. Industry sectors covered include medium- Introduction................................................................1 density fiberboard, particleboard, softwood plywood, and oriented strandboard. Maps of major forest producing states show plant locations and the underlying density of timber Methods ....................................................................1 stocking by county. The study relates physical measures of timber availability to market measures of timber scarcity Results and Discussion.................................................2 and draws inferences about the potential of selected states to increase timber output at their present rate of forest productivity. Summary of Timber Availability and Costs .....................4 Keywords: Oriented strandboard, plywood, particleboard, medium-density fiberboard, capacity References..................................................................5 Appendix—Panel Plant Capacity and Timber Inventory by State ...................................................5 February 1998 McKeever, Tim; Spelter, Henry. 1998. Wood-based panel plant locations and timber availability in selected U.S. States. Gen. Tech. Rep. FPL–GTR–103. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 53 p. A limited number of free copies of this publication are available to the public from the Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, WI 53705–2398. Laboratory publications are sent to hundreds of libraries in the United States and elsewhere. The Forest Products Laboratory is maintained in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. The use of trade or firm names is for information only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product or service. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimi- nation in its programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, and marital or familial status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact the USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720–2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint, write the Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250, or call 1–800–245–6340 (voice), or (202) 720–1127 (TDD). USDA is an equal employment opportunity employer. Wood-Based Panel Plant Locations and Timber Availability in Selected U.S. States Tim McKeever, Intern Henry Spelter, Economist Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin Introduction inventory of growing stock, which is defined by the USDA Forest Service as live trees of commercial species, meeting The data for this study were compiled with the U.S. wood- specified standards of quality and vigor, and at least 12.7 cm based panel industry in mind, but the study has relevance to in diameter. For Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, and Wis- the entire spectrum of industrial wood-using activities. Our consin, values for live cull trees were added because this primary intent was to show visually the dispersion of panel resource forms a significant part of the overall stock. A cull plants, to accompany a recently released report (Spelter and tree is defined as at least 12.7 cm in diameter and unmer- others 1997). But we also wanted to superimpose the loca- chantable for saw logs because of rot, roughness, or species. tion of plants from that report on a visual representation of But such trees are a potential fiber source for composites. timber availability in each selected state. To complete the connection between timber use and inventory, we also in- The maps were produced with the Atlas Geographic Informa- cluded tables that summarize overall industrial activity and tion System software package (Atlas GIS) (Environmental timber prices. Included in these tables are lumber production Systems Research Inst., Inc., Redlands, CA). The various and pulpwood receipts that allow for simple comparisons of mills were located on each map according to their zip codes. the magnitude of the panel industries relative to lumber and In certain locales, such as eastern Texas, different types of pulp. From these data, it is possible to obtain a general mills are often contained within the same complex. In some overview of the location of panel plants and a sense for of these cases, we compromised location accuracy for clarity whether plants of a given type are many or few in relation to by shifting their positions to nearby zip codes to distinguish each other and to the available timber. one from another. Similarly, if two mills belonging to the same company produced the same product in the same Methods location, we combined them into a single entity. This publication contains maps of 24 major forest producing On the maps, different symbols are used for plywood states, primarily from the eastern United States. West Coast (circles), for oriented strandboard (OSB) (triangles), and for states were not included because of the unavailability at this particleboard/medium-density fiberboard (MDF) plants time of county-by-county timber inventory. (stars). The sizes of the symbols, which denote locations of the mills, are proportional to the mills’ capacities and are For every state, the density of timber by county is repre- consistent across maps, even though the map scales fluctuate sented on a shaded gradient, with the darkest shading repre- according to state size. Each map is designed by the software senting the highest stocking. The boundaries of the stocking to fit onto a single page, and consequently, scale will vary density classes were made broad to reflect the heightened from map to map. The legends to the right of most maps uncertainty when the sample data upon which these inven- show three sample sizes that are intended to help visualize tory estimates are made are disaggregated to the county level. the amount of capacity indicated at each site. Although some states, such as Missouri, lack panel produc- Accompanying each map is a table containing key industry ers, they are included because of the abundance of timber data consisting of panel sector capacities, softwood lumber therein. In general, the timber resource represented is the production, pulpwood receipts, timber prices, and the ratio 1 of estimated removals to timber inventory for each state. 80 These data were obtained from a variety of sources. Capaci- ) ties were derived from Spelter and others (1997) and were 3 modified to reflect changes that have occurred since that 60 report was published. The USDA Forest Service was the source of timber inven- tory data (USDA 1996). Values for timber costs were ob- 40 tained from a southern price reporting concern (University of Georgia, 1980–1997), McLaren (1995–1997), and various Sawtimber price ($/m State Department of Natural Resources stumpage price 20 reports. 0 2 3 4 5 6 The stumpage prices are statewide averages. Values can vary Drain (%) significantly within a given state based on local market conditions. The U.S. census served as a source for the Figure 1—Timber drain compared with sawtimber lumber production and pulpwood receipts. prices in 14 eastern states. Results and Discussion 20 One key item in the tables is the ratio of timber drain to ) timber inventory. In plant siting studies, this is used as a 3 15 gauge of physical timber availability, whereas in economic studies (Adams and Haynes 1980), this ratio is often a pre- dictor of timber costs. Another key item is the stumpage 10 price of timber, which is an economic measure of timber scarcity. We contrasted these two items to determine the degree in which the former can be used as a predictor of the 5 latter and what, if anything, these variables imply about Pulpwood price ($/m relative timber market conditions and timber availability in the various regions. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 To obtain a measure of timber drain, we combined plywood, Drain (%) OSB, particleboard, and MDF capacities with lumber pro- Figure 2—Timber drain compared with pulpwood duction and pulpwood receipts. These categories constitute prices in 17 eastern states. the bulk of removal except for timber exported from a state in roundwood or chip form or used for miscellaneous products Tennessee, and Michigan, have the lowest. For pulpwood, such as fuelwood, posts, poles, pilings, laminated veneer the relationship is less exact, but a link between drain and lumber, and hardwood plywood. Residues generated in costs is still evident. In states where the drain ratio is greater making plywood and lumber and not accounted for by their capacities or production are picked up in pulpwood receipts than 3%, prices for pulpwood tend to be greater than in those and particleboard capacity. These estimates have the advan- where the ratio is less. tage of being more current than the periodic timber product The drain/inventory ratio is one of several physical measures utilization estimates made by the Forest