Douglas County, Oregon: Lumber mills curtailed due to housing slump
Posted by ecoshift on March 10, 2008
No mention of onerous regulations here…
KDRV 12 -
Hundreds lose mill jobs
BY RON BROWN
February 29, 2008
GLENDALE, Ore. — The slump in the housing market is starting to hurt to families in southern Douglas County. Swanson Group has closed its mills in several Oregon communities for the next couple weeks.
The Swanson Group Sawmill at Glendale was quiet Friday. It’ll be that way for at least the next couple weeks. The company says it’s being squeezed between high log prices, low demand for lumber, a shortage of rail cars to ship products, and competition from Canadian suppliers.
“Ya know, prices today are at levels that they’re lower than the levels that I saw when I joined this company in 1977. We haven’t seen ‘em this low frankly since the early 80’s and that’s unadjusted for inflation. So, it’s horrible economic conditions,” said CEO Steve Swanson.
