The pine sawtimber market had dropped again since spring, but the hardwood sawtimber market was steady. Hot and dry weather has made logging easier and logs are plentiful.
Most pine mills have loggers on quota, but a few reported mill inventories lower than desired.
Delivered log prices generally dropped in the face of too much lumber chasing too little market. The culprit for soft pine sawtimber markets is the Japanese economic recession, indirectly. Housing starts are a good indicator of softwood lumber demand, because softwood lumber is used for construction framing. Since the Japanese market has slowed, western softwood lumber that would normally be sold in Asia is seeding a market in the U.S. and elsewhere. Hence, in the face of good housing markets, pine lumber prices have fallen.