Australia is increasingly under pressure to supply the building trade with an insatiable demand for pine products, including sawn and pine framing for construction. The government stimulus to drive new homes being built is one factor, though the effects of Covid around the world has also seen other major impacts occurring.
Many importers are faced with seeing their supply routed to the USA, where a higher price is achieved, in what they believe Australians would not be prepared to pay. A sad commentary on the state of influence America has over little old Australia. Additionally we continue to have the legacy of the 2020 Bush Fire Crisis, which has taken a phenomenal amount of future supply out of the market.
Fortunately D&R Henderson saw the writing on the wall going back 7 years ago, when they defined between 2018 -2022, that there would less available matured Radiata Pine. A Radiata tree takes 30 years to grow to an optimal yield, and D&R knew there just wasn’t enough trees planted 30 years ago. Fast forward to 2020, compounded with Bush Fires and low imports, we are simply stretched to our capacity. Rest assured long serving loyal customers will be maintained, unlike some of our opposition.
That all said there is still a finite amount of log available, so we can expect for several months ahead where demand will outplay supply. Henderson’s are stepping up production to fill some of the increased demand, though ultimately it will come back to having enough log. Seven years back we started acquiring privately owned forestry, to back fill from our usual supply chain. Though is it enough?
It is refreshing to see the industry perk up after a disastrous year, though the road will be rocky for some time to come. We would like to finish with a big shout out to our loyal customers, who know they are getting a great product at a competitive rate.