Here's my thoughts on this....
The price of lumber/timber has jumped a great deal in the last year. I've been doing a lot of work around my property in the last year, so have been to Lowes and Home depot quite often. Covid does not seem to have slowed down contractors and people making home repairs. These stores have been packed with people going out the door with loads of wood. Every day is like a weekend.....
And they haven't slowed down building of houses in developments here in Texas. Just in my small town area, they have built a number of huge developments in the last year. Thats a lot of lumber. And that is just in this area. Imagine the entire state....Couple that with the trouble they are having with getting things shipped on time, the shortages, the demand, and that is going to make the price go up quickly.
Also, the "Dead tree" timber that was readily available for bio mass companies to processed is now in the sights of Lumber companies who want to harvest it to keep up with demand for housing construction. Standing lumber that is dead is still good for lumber for a year or two if it drys properly. After that, not so good. A lot of log home companies are harvesting dead trees to build their homes for customers. So that is going to take away some timber that biomass companies were counting on. And that will also drive up the price even more.
A few years ago, you could get your dead timber for a little bit of nothing, since you were just doing a good deed and clean out the under brush. Now you have to pay for it, or beat the lumber companies to it. So all of this will definitely affect the Biomass companies in one way or another.
But, Im still here. LOL
Best to all,
WW
