THE TIMBER MARKET

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 165, 8 April 1921, Page 6

THE TIMBER MARKET

AMERICAN “DUMPING” ALLEGED

A SERIOUS OUTLOOK Reports' are current locally Hint shipments of American tiinbei —second-grade Oregon pine—are being offered for early delivery in the main ports of the Dominion at, extremely low prices. A statement made on behalf of New Zealand sawmillers declares that serious prospects are thus raised, and that any immediate benefit to tho public from a reduction in the price of low-grade timber will be far outweighed by the dislocation of the local timber industry. The statement affirms that the American timber is being offered at prices below its cost of production, and also below the cost of production of ordinary building rimu, with wjtich it will come into direct competition, and is being "dumped” info this country merely in order that American timber companies may Hide over a period of adverse trade. It is urged that unless action is promptly taken by the Government to prevent this "dumping,” New Zealand millers will find it impossible to market', the lower grades of local timbers and that as a result "conditions of widespread unemployment will arise similar to those experienced by bush workers in 1907. As soon as American exporters have tided over their temporary financial difficulties,. i'he statement goes on to observe, the prices of Oregon pine will again soar to their former'level. "Meantifne, many millions of feet of available timber in our local forests at present being put to profitable uses will have gone up in smoke; many .sawmillers will have Been forced to the wall, and much unemployment,' and misery will have been caused to employees and their families in far-away corners of the bush, where transport is difficult and the costs of moving families now comfortably sets tied greater than can be met at short notice by the workers concerned.” . It is emphasised that in these conditions the efforts of the lately established Forestry Department; to secure the economical working of New Zealand forests will be very seriously hampered, and that this will mean ultimately a heavy loss to the whole country. A well-informed authority, who is not engaged in tho local timber industry, stated, on being approached by a Dominion reporter, that the apprehensions with which sawmillers regarded the prospects of American "dumping’’ were well founded. The American timber, he said, was undoubtedly being offered at less than its cost of production. A' a very moderate estimate i’he price# quoted were short: of the cost of production by five dollars per thousand feet. Cost of production, of course, includes other items than working and transport charges. The position is that in order to obtain present revenue and also with an eye: to maintaining high prices in their borne market for the better grades of timber, the American exporters are content to export low-grade timber at prices which are not profitable if account is taken of the whole cost of production. The Australian timber market is already flooded with low-grade American and Baltic timbers, and a similar state of affairs is now threatened in tKTs country. The authority ment.ion ed was emphatic in stating that any benefits experienced by the consuming public, would be transitory. Probably the reduction in i>rice ß would apply only do the "dumpings” of a single season. On the other hand, he added, if millions of i«et of low-grade American timber were admitted to the Dominion the adverse would be lasting and serious. Widespread unemployment in tffe sawmilling industry would be inevitable, and a great.' deal of waste would olso lie occasioned since millers would only lie able to market the cream of such timber as it was found possible to work. The ultimate effect of Amen • can "dumping,” once its temporary effects had subsided, would be to raise the cost of local timber to a higher level than it need otherwise attain. Pro teclive measures by the Government, the authority remarked in conclusion, need not necessarily mean that: the prices of local timber must remain as high as at present, but a bedrock price for the lower grades of New Zealand timber would be at least one-third higher than the prices at which second-grade Oregon was now being offered.