Around 150 persons attended the first Lignum’s Market Meeting hosted by Sam Sherrill, Crow Publications executive editor. This event, organized by Lignum Magazine, was held during the Chilean forestry fair Expocorma 2005, and in just over an hour, the next year U.S. market outlook for forest products  was presented. 
According to Dr. Sherrill (Crow Publications executive editor), year 2006 will be positive in general terms for the U.S. wood products industry, with a demand well supplied by the industry and stable prices. Although, he pointed out that market should be cautious, as there might be a hard pressure to curb down prices and reduced industrial wood products profitability.
Dr. Sherrill said that there are several signs that point out to a mild optimism, starting by a product oversupply and a moderate demand. He pointed out that  wood products imports  will play an increasing role in the U.S. market in the years to come. “Its market share, although yet uncertain, will be determinant in some regional markets and product lines”, he pointed out.
The US structural panels industry has kept a high internal production level in the U.S. Its supply during 2005 has been expanded by imports, therefore it will be forced to increase its profitability. He thinks that plywood and OSB will suffer losses in the next months. Similarly FJ mouldings prices, that have been at low levels, would rise moderately by imports from Chile and Brazil, despite the aggressive MDF mouldings competition. Its imports from Chile took a 25% rise over 2005. 
“Present trend in wood industrial products call for some instability. It might be possible that distributors reach 2006 with lower inventories, after working for a year long in trying to reduce the large stocks, that they had at the end of 2004. But with balanced  inventories, they will be better positioned to order mouldings in a regular basis. Although, MDF mouldings will continue to force prices”, Sherrill said.
According to the expert, the basis for this industry confidence is the large demand foreseen in wooden house construction, repairs and remodelling, a strong and well developed sector in the U.S. representing almost an 80% of wood consumption. In 2005,  2.05 million new wooden houses were built, and it is estimated that during 2006 a mild slowdown will take place, with fluctuations between 1.92 and 1.95 million units. Therefore, it is estimated that repairs and remodelling will be the large substrate for wood consumption over 2006. “In the past ten years, house repair and remodelling has been growing constantly, reflecting the same growth model of new houses construction”, he said in his talk.  
   
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