They cannot get the quality or volume anywhere else to replace North American Hardwood timber. Logs will still be bought by China, but at perhaps a lower volume from the US. Where they gonna get Black Walnut is my question? They can plant all they want...40-50 years for yield return. China’s Appetite for Wood Takes a Heavy Toll on Forests
I bough some underwear in Canada while in Quebec last week. Now I am afraid to put them on...... not sure how the exchange rate will affect me.
Off shore brokers . There's a way around everything. Although it will be at a cost to the landowner. I think it will take awhile to shake out but markets will return.
The logger doing work across my property line said he is already being hurt. He said red oak is the most affected. He will buy timber on the stump, and not cut it for a couple years. What it was worth at time of purchase and time of harvesting, can be big.
Looking back at history, often times there was a major market shift based on tariffs. We have great hardwoods, but so does the Amazon and other rain forests. In fact only a few varieties down there are commercially viable, something like 1 species for every 200 have they have. There is a lot of potential. With high tariffs it is easy to conceive the idea that some of these lesser known hardwoods suddenly begin to come into vogue. I am thinking woods like Brazilian Cherry instead of Black cherry. And our paper mills are closed down because spruce and fir took 35 years to grow where as Eucalyptus can grow bigger in 15 years. And my forefathers would never have thought building my Grandmother's House in 1900 that 118 years later its possible to put bamboo flooring in it taken from halfway around the world then to use flooring bought in the State of Maine. There is a reason the law of Supply and Demand is a Law.
Screw China, I have worked with them for many years and many different products. Their products are for the most part inferior to what can be produced in the US. Their Government subsidizes their manufacturing plants and closes them down when they see fit. It's going to cost everybody a little more to buy American, yeah that is right a little more not double. Suck it up it's just not that hard and we don't need them that bad.
