36 



Harawood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



January 10, 1921 



The Mahogany Situation Today 



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Board Feet 

 Fiscal Year (millions) 



43 



66 



70 



' ' ' .' 42 



40 



43 



][[[,,... 52 



Last 6 mos. 1918 22 



Calendar Year 1919 43 



First 1 Months 1920 39 



From the above statistics it will be seen that our im- 

 portations have hardly kept pace with our widened uses 

 of Mahogany in this country. 



Logging Outlook in Africa 



In the Axim-Ancobra district, which is the most im- 



1912 

 1913 

 1914 

 1915 

 1916 

 1917 

 1918 



portion of this 1921 production will undoubtedly be old 

 logs. 



Logging Outlook in Central America 



Practically all of the Central American Mahogany 

 brought to this country is logged by a number of small, 

 individual contractors. Since American buyers usually 

 contract nearly a year in advance of the arrival of the 

 wood in the United States it is practically impossible to 

 estimate how much timber will be coming in from Central 

 America in the next few months. It is safe to say that 

 many importers may have endeavored to cancel contracts 

 with loggers in the face of present lack of demand for 

 lumber and veneers. 



In the absence of information as to forward contracts 

 which have been made w^ith cutters, the best way to esti- 

 mate probable quantity arriving in the future is to be 

 guided by past importations. 



1 920 figures are not yet available from the Department 

 of Commerce, but during the calendar year 1919, which 

 seems to be a fairly representative year, imports of Ma- 



portant source of African Mahogany, so far as this country hogany from the Central American countries were as fol- 



is concerned, the 1920 summer floods were a disappoint- lows: 



ment. Rains were the lightest in many years and only Board Feet 



a small percentage of the normal quantity of logs came Country (thousands) 



down to the seacoast for shipment. Furthermore, there British Honduras 5,001 



were no fall floods to relieve the situation, failing to bring Costa Rica 266 



out many of the logs left over from the June freshets. Guatemala 32 



The latest cables say that there will be no logs coming Spanish Honduras 784 



Nicaragua 1 1 ,050 



down before the floods of next June. Since there have 

 seldom, or never, been two successive years of very light 

 summer rains, it is to be expected that West Africa will 

 have good floods next summer, bringing down the logs 

 cut during the past year and such logs as will be cut during 

 the next six months. 



Today the Gold Coast shipping ports are cleaner of 

 logs than they have been for fifteen years. Even old logs, 

 w^hich had lain on the beach for some years on account of 

 their not being considered good enough quality to ship, 

 were shipped to this market, England and France to meet 

 the unusual demand. Everything has been shipped. 



From the other important West African logging dis- 

 trict. Grand Bassam, on the French Ivory Coast, we may 

 expect some shipments of logs, since some of the com- 

 panies operating there are not wholly dependent upon 

 floods, using logging railroads from the jungle to the large 

 lagoon there and floating the timber down via this lagoon 

 to the coast. But the light floods of 1920 had a cor- 

 responding effect upon the output of the Ivory Coast as 

 well. 



This situation may be expected to have the effect of 

 cutting down the production of fresh timber by the na- 

 tives, as they will be inclined to endeavor to get out the 

 old logs before cutting any large quantity of new timber. 

 Furthermore, log values have of course declined in Africa, 

 in sympathy with the declines in this country and abroad, 

 and this again will have its influence on the expected 1 92 1 

 output. We cannot, therefore, expect an output next sea- 

 son greatly in excess of a normal year, and a considerable 



Panama 5,004 



Mexico 5,610 



Total 27,747 



Speaking generally, it is fairly safe to say that during 

 the next few years each of the above countries will con- 

 tinue to send over about the same amount of wood as in 

 the past. There are still vast forests of Mahogany in 

 Central America, but most of it is in the interior and con- 

 siderable distance from waterways and other means of 

 easy transportation, the closer wood having been logged 

 off. However, whenever there is a demand for Mahogany 

 sufficient to justify the expense, means will be found, no 

 doubt, to bring it to the coast. 



Tendency in Ocean Freights 



This item is of course an important factor in Mahogany 

 costs, particularly African and Philippine. At the be- 

 ginning of this year, 1920, ocean rates which prevailed 

 at excessive levels during the war began a downward 

 movement and only in the past few weeks have reached 

 a level which may be regarded as firm and stable. Al- 

 though still lower rates are not impossible, the general 

 tendency is towards firmness. 



This continued depression in freights has been most 



largely due to the release of the many vessels requisitioned 



by the various governments and the slump in foreign trade 



which characterized the year — the supply of ships being 



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