Impact of curve sawing on southern pine dimension lumber manufacturing: Part 2-Sawtimber requirements and supply

This paper provides valuable insights into the potential impact of curve sawing on the sawtimber requirements and supply of southern pine dimension lumber mills. Specifically, the potential input log volume and delivered cost savings of large (i.e., with annual output of at least 50 million board feet (BF)) southern pine dimension lumber mills that shift from conventional sawing to curve sawing of cants were estimated. Such impact was assessed at the state or regional level by assuming that the existing 150 large southern pine dimension lumber mills in the South could have curve sawing installations similar to that of the mill in Alabama that cooperated in a 2003 case study. It was also assumed that these attain levels of conversion efficiency similar to that of the study mill in processing input logs with the same distribution in terms of size and severity of sweep or crookedness. The results of the study reveal that an average savings in southern pine sawtimber input of about 10.4 percent could be attributed to curve sawing. For a sawmill like the study mill, which was producing about 274,000 BF of lumber per 8-hour workshift, this means log input savings of about 3,830 ft^sup 3^ with an estimated delivered cost savings of about $7,046 (based on 2003 nominal prices) per 8-hour workshift, on average. At the regional level, the aggregate annual input log volume savings of the aforementioned 150 mills operating at capacity could be about 97 to 400 million ft^sup 3^ or about 205 million ft^sup 3^, on average. Based on 2003 nominal prices, the aggregate annual savings in delivered log cost could be from about $177 million to $732 million, or a weighted average of approximately $377 million. Such input log savings increase (or decrease) with the level of lumber production at the average rate of 14 ft^sup 3^ (or $25.69 of delivered cost) per thousand BF of lumber output. Even greater input log savings could be expected if larger proportions (volume-wise) of logs with at least 3-inch sweep were inputted. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]