American Timber Prices Fall.

Progress, Volume XVI, Issue 9, 1 May 1921, Page 211

American Timber Prices Fall.

The downward march of prices (in the ITS.A. which seem to dominate prices) has reached hard wood, and most items show quite drastic reduction. Quartered oak, plain oak, gum, hickory and ash, and all Southern woods have dropped from 30Q dollars to in some cases 75 dollars per M. The Northern woods, such as birch and maple, have not had such sweeping cuts, but they have eased off to quite a degree. Flooring in oak and maple is now quoted at comparatively reasonable rates, and the declines in these commodities should have its effects on buildings. It is hardly possible that prices of hard woods can ever go to the pre-war level. Few people have ever expected this. Many producers of hard wood claim that the present prices are below their cost of production. This is in a measure substantiated by the fact that a number of sawmills are closing down, their owners stating that they cannot run their plants at a profit on the prevailing wholesale prices. Be this as it may, the reductions are apparently very welcome to all concerned. They place the hard wood business on a more solid foundation. The high crest of prices to which all building commodities had surged was bound to cause a corresponding reaction,, and now that this has taken place, general business should flow along in more even and conservative channels. The inflated prices have been deflated. The wise wholesalers are making corresponding reductions to their , customers in the prices of the goods they have on hand, and are striving to take the greater part of their losses this year. The excellent business enjoyed in all lines at high prices for the first nine or ten months of 1920 has placed most business concerns in a position to stand the very considerable loss entailed by the drop in the prices of stock on hand. By taking this loss this year—that is, by selling their stocks on the basis of the present low prices and not on the basis of the high prices which they paid for them—they will still have a profitable year and be ready to do business next year on the new levels with a clean sheet to work on. In other words, by cleaning house now, prices and everything else connected with business should become stabilised by the commencement of the new year. All of which would seem to bring out the idea that now is a good time to buy or build, manufacture or make repairs,