Consumption of lumber in the United States has grown at a lower rate than housing starts, indicating some substitution away from lumber as a building material.
Both nonwood and engineered wood products have substituted for lumber in many applications. For example, the share of floors, walls, and roofs made with wood is about constant but there is a shift toward greater use of engineered wood products.
Electronic media are substituting for paper.
A majority of pulping capacity in the United States is located in the South, but this share has declined since the mid-1990s.
Pulping capacity in the South, an indicator of long-term demand, has declined by 16 percent since 1998.
Increasing world demand for paper products is leading to expansion in paper production capacity in countries other than the United States.
Shifts in capacity indicate that the United States has lost some of its comparative advantage for producing paper for the world market. Possible causes of this decrease in comparative advantage are disadvantageous resource and labor costs and location of the United States relative to major world demand centers.
Overall, there is no indication that domestic demand for southern pulpwood will increase.
Softwood lumber production capacity in the South has increased steadily in recent years (1997–2003).
Softwood lumber production capacity in other regions of the United States outside of the South has declined.
There is no indication of declining demand for softwood sawtimber and some indication of increasing demand.
Expansion in panel capacity indicates ongoing strong demand for low-quality hardwood and softwood material for engineered wood panels.
Wood pulp imports are a relatively small portion of wood products consumption in the South (between 2 and 3 percent).
Although small, wood pulp imports to southern customs districts, and especially imports from Brazil, have increased since 1998.
Up to 8 percent of domestic demand for pulpwood has been displaced by changes in trade, the majority (5 percent) by loss of wood chip export markets.
Almost all lumber imports are from Canada, with a small but increasing share from South America.
Imports from Canada do not displace demand for treated southern pine lumber.
Exports of southern pine lumber are very small and have declined substantially since 1998.
