Prices of Russian wood products continue to rise amid tight supply. Container rates from Russia and The Baltics are up approx 25% for April sailings. Vessels calling on these ports are limited.
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Anyone who thinks there is a future in the continuance of Russian forest products into the US is living in a dreamland. Russia’s actions of war and the threats of a nuclear holocaust will alienate the country for generations to come; to become a pariah amongst nations. Any forest product company who continues their importation under these threats will also be considered a pariah in the context of world opinion.
Threats of nuclear dystopia should change everyone’s mind. Russia is being governed by madmen within a citizenry of followers too chicken to stop their own insane political and expansionist desires reminiscent of their historical past.
It should be a no-brainer for all forest products companies to immediately stop doing business with Russia despite the industry has not been known to be very intellectual and populated with smart people so let’s see what they do in response to threats of armageddon.
Russia’s entire economy is the size of the State of New York and a quarter the size of the country of Italy. It’s up to the forest products industry to wake up, put away its high school diplomas and do what’s right.
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Russia is the largest exporter of softwood lumber in the world. 110+ containers of softwood boards are imported into the ports of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Newark per month. The absence of this production will be a factor. I am not advocating doing business in Russia nor am I promoting Russian wood products. I do believe it’s important for the industry to be aware of what is going on in this part of the world.
I take exception to your comments regarding the intellect of those in the forest products industry. I could not disagree with you more. It must be difficult for you, someone with such extreme intelligence, to communicate with us mere mortals. On the other hand your post speaks volumes of your limited intellect.
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It is difficult to see how this changes in the short to intermediate fun.
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Jeff, regardless of one’s intelligence or lack thereof, Russia is a factor in the supply of wood products to the west. Knowing what is going on there or not going on is important. Do you agree?
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No, The US got by without Russia prior to 2000 and will get by without it from this point on. Their dimensional lumber import volume is inconsequential as well as their Russian birch plywood, all that can easily be replaced by domestic or international supply. The world needs to decouple entirely from Russia and make it permanent until the Russian people can take control of their mobster like government.
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The demand for wood products that we are faced with today warrants solidifying sources of offshore supply. A change is coming to Russia. Opportunities will arise.
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Lol Lol
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Yes, and the US government is today revisiting the US/Canadian tariffs in place and should do so on every tariff implemented under the Trump administration. Russia’s involvement has always been minor on imports to the US in forest products.
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Most of the problems we had in imports stemmed from the State of Florida where there were many who were smuggling in illegal wood products or legal wood products from SA or Asia using false company fronts, like a chiropractor’s office which I recall that occurred recently and other false idents to circumvent duties by importing to the Caribbean island countries that are free from duty and then barging them up to Florida. These are the morons that have given the industry a bad name and undermined the markets in the US causing much of the issues with the US’s response on antidumping and countervailing duty implementations against nations and one of the causes of inflation.
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