Market Report: Long-Length Veneer Supply Tightens as Demand Improves

Veneer sales have picked up significantly for us in the last month. This is likely supply-side changes in the market as RFP moves out of 10’ and 9’ panel production and focuses on LVL production.

We remain one of the largest volume and highest quality 10’ and 9’ veneer producers on the West Coast, so it is welcoming to see that our veneer customers are covering additional long length orders now. Our customers produce a wide range of siding, sanded, and sheathing panels, so our wood is hitting quite a few markets.

Commodity sheathing panels have still been a bit slow the last couple of weeks with winter weather continuing to impact NE markets. We have been selling decent volumes via truckload on the West Coast and look forward to that improving as we enter the Spring building season.

The Supreme Court threw a wrench in the markets when they overturned President Trump’s tariffs. While he immediately put tariffs into place under a different authority than IEEPA, which in most instances were equivalent to the tariffs in place prior, the biggest impact will come from the reduction of the Brazilian tariffs from 50% to 20%. I don’t think that a 20% tariff will keep South American producers from targeting the US as the destination for their production.

Brazilian import volumes fell by 54% in the first two months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. I hope that the tariff turbulence has at least given US distributors an idea that they need to look at home for their supply instead of relying on foreign producers.

In other good domestic news, the Department of the Interior is revising Resource Management Plans for the Western Oregon O&C timberlands. These lands have historically supported family wage jobs, local mills, and all the public services that are often taken for granted. You wonder why our schools lack funding? It is largely because we have denied our rural counties the direct funding provided by timber harvest. Restoring sustained yield management can keep our forests healthy, restore funding to our rural communities, and provide countless well-paying jobs. Please support this on the local level.

The mass timber side of business is really picking up steam. We are starting 4 large projects this month that will drive production levels into overtime hours for the next few months. This is very welcome as it pulls additional panel production from our commodity products towards additional LVL and mass timber production. While we always dream of the time when all portions of our business are booming at the same time, that type of trifecta rarely happens.

We are grateful that there are green shoots indicating that building activity is picking up and I think it bodes well for the rest of our product lines going into 2026. The markets might surprise to the upside this year. We would love to prove market pessimists wrong.