Page 12 - Georgia Forestry - Summer 2018

can weigh 4,000 to 8,000 pounds. “Demand is certainly up on boxes and e-commerce has definitely been a boon to anybody making boxes,” said Dr. Chris Luettgen, associate director of the Pulp and Paper Renewable BiProducts Insti- tute (RBI) at Georgia Tech. “International Paper, Graphic Packaging and WestRock and on to Amazon and Walmart, these people are increasing demand for mate- rial for boxes. We know that these paper companies are increasing capacity and trying to de-bottleneck their operations.
They are running full.
“These are aging assets, so you see
reinvestment going on. There is a swing up with people making boxes out of recy- cled fiber or virgin kraft pulp. The big players are making good margins.”
That’s what bothers Hopkins. He is having to thread a needle with his operation at Toledo, being precise with every timber tract and how to manage it and monetize it. Hopkins is delighted with the uptick in e-commerce, but he said the market needs to be kinder to the forest landowner.
“This is the first time I have seen us not track with the markets,” said Hopkins, who was named Landowner of the Year
COURTESY OF SMURFIT-KAPPA
Linerboard reels serve as the “facings,” or the outside and inside surfaces, of the corrugated panel. This product is generally manufactured from a mixture of kraft (or pure wood pulp) and recycled pulps.
in 2017 by the Forest Landowners Asso- ciation. “That’s a real concern to me. If lumber prices are down, I expect my stumpage prices to go down. But every- body is making money, but I’m not. I’m back in the old depressed prices. We’ve got too many trees.”
The e-commerce economy cannot grow fast enough for forest landowners.
Always, they are looking for competitive markets for their wood to try and get a raise in prices.
“Our wood is worth less money now than it was 30 years ago. Site prep rates have [more than] doubled. Logging rates have [more than] doubled. Taxes have gone up,” Hopkins said. “Everything has gone up with the exception of what we get
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