“the culprit is the decade of instability and low prices that followed the Great Recession, when America stopped building homes, leaving the lumber trade out to dry. The stunted recovery stripped the industry’s crucial middlemen—the mills themselves—to the bone.”
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That is just crazy… mills can’t keep inventory because there’s lots of buyers but loggers are cutting hours because they can’t sell product and are being underpaid? And yes there’s a drop in paper usage but there must be a huge increase in cardboard and seriously, that toilet paper which is still sometimes hard to find on store shelves.
Supply chain is messed up but what is causing these inequalities? Who’s taking so much money out of the system so it’s not making down to the loggers? Same types who bash Tesla from here to Sunday just so they can make profits on shorting the company on the stock market?
Nuts
But here’s an article which hits on many industries having supply issues the common thread is the 2020 pandemic and recovery is ongoing. Shortages are popping up across the supply chain as the pandemic messes with the economy - CNN
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Same in Steel Prices. Up 3x since November.
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@claude.kane and what’s a bit odd about the steel industry is that it was starting its recovery LAST SUMMER. According to this article that recovery started when people started purchasing new cars again.
But maybe the industry, like many others, failed to protect the workers they let go when they shut down and now restarting is painfully slow? I don’t see lots of these industries with workers working face-to-face and side-by-side like meat processing plants… So it can’t be Covid outbreaks at the businesses stalling things.
I’m wondering what’s going on with the workforce around the country… even restaurants who hire unskilled labor are having a tough time finding workers to support increased business. Seems like it’s going to be a few years of recovery…
My steel supplier does not see an end yet. Prices went up 10 cents per pound on Friday. He does think there will be a bubble, just not sure when. The steel companies are going to make big money when they can.
His supplier has a minimum order of $20k per item. So he needs to buy 20k of 10 ga, 20k of 12 ga, etc.
The unskilled worker can make more on the enhanced unemployment benefits instead of working. Many are making $900 per week, doing nothing.
All I can say, I am so glad I am retired.
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wow, indeed that would explain where those workers are.
Understandable that ramping up is a long tail since it take capital to ramp up and nobody wants to get caught with capital in unfinished goods should another shutdown occur. Treading lightly and enjoying the rewards of low volume with higher returns due to high prices.
I still think it would have been far better to have frozen all mortgages, rents and utilities(public anyways) instead of having to send $$ into peoples pockets and then send lots of $$ into businesses who claim they need it. We’ve seen millions and millions taken by big businesses who were not even effected by the pandemic. Just not handled well from the get-go and the results are showing it’ll be a long road out of this.
Not only did she quote Donald Trump, she’s got a Creality Ender 3 so she’s obviously not trustworthy. 
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Yay but they still have a long way to go and are still well over 100% higher than the 2015-2019 avg.
Hopefully the trend continues.