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Log boom?
Authors: Piers MaclarenPublication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2011, Issue N.Z.J.For. 56(1) 2011, pp 2, May 2011
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry
Abstract: A log boom may be something that Canadian loggers use for floating wood downstream after chasing grizzlies away from virgin old-growth forests. It is not something that is currently occurring in New Zealand. They say that export prices are fantastic. Well, we currently earn perhaps $130/m3 for a top quality (P1) log, whereas a relatively inferior P2 log fetched $190 – in December 1992. Export A grade logs? Perhaps $120/JASm3 now, but about $260 in September 1993. And there’s been some inflation in the meantime. Of course, the halcyon prices of the early 90s were unsustainable, but so, I suggest is our current operation. Our Third-World policy of shipping unprocessed fibre to industrial countries such as India and China is not going to automatically invite us to a garden party at the Raffles Club, except maybe as a waiter. Another log of wood, Sahib?