414 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FDTTTRE 



Several current trends favor the wooden box. 

 The most notable is the widespread adoption of 

 fork-lift equipment for moving goods into and 

 out of storage and for loading and unloading 

 freight cars and trucks. Such labor-saving equip- 

 ment can be used most efficiently for goods packed 

 in palletized units. Such a unit normally consists 

 either of a pallet-mounted wooden box or of a pack 

 of filled containers firmly fastened to a pallet with 

 metal strapping. In either case the box or con- 

 tainer-pack must be strong enough to permit pal- 

 let loads to be superimposed on each other. Where 

 palletized units can be stacked on top of each 

 other by lift truck, there is likely to be an impor- 

 tant saving of warehouse space in addition to 

 saving of labor. 



While these new methods of materials handling 

 will certainly not restore the wooden box to its 

 former dominant position among shipping con- 

 tainers, the substitution of fiber cartons for wooden 

 containers will probablj^ be retarded. With the 

 expected increase in national output of goods to 

 be transported — both in domestic and in overseas 

 trade — ^the demand for wooden containers can be 

 expected to expand at least to a moderate extent, 

 during the next 20 and the next 45 years. 



Estimates of 1940-47 annual quantities of lum- 

 ber consumed in fabrication of wooden boxes, 

 cases, and crates (those made in box factories and 

 also those made by container users) have been ex- 

 tended to 1954 on the supposition that total con- 

 sumption of lumber for use in fabrication of all 

 wooden containers, other than cooperage, has 

 probably followed about the same trend as that 

 reported by the box factories (table 241). This 

 method of estimation indicated that 1952 total 

 lumber consumption may have been in the neigh- 

 borhood of 4,300 million board-feet. 



Estimation of future demand for wooden- 

 container lumber by statistical methods does not 

 appear practicable — partly because the influence 

 of World War II is so strongly reflected in the 

 data available, and partly because the prospec- 

 tive influence of new material -handling technology 

 is such an imponderable factor. 



The medium projection of 1975 demand for 

 lumber in wooden containers is estimated at 

 5,800 million board-feet. That amount would 

 be about 35 percent above the estimated 1952 

 consumption but somewhat below estimated 1946 

 consumption. Medium projected demand in 2000 

 is estimated at 7,000 million board-feet and upper 

 projected demand at 7,500 million. These latter 

 figures imply increases of about 20 and 30 percent 

 over the 1975 estimate. 



More Pallets Required as Materials 

 Handling Becomes Mechanized 



The pallet is an offshoot from the invention and 

 successful operation of the fork-lift truck. Large- 



scale use of these trucks and other equipment for 

 mechanized handling of materials started in 1938 

 when the Navy began experiments in connection 

 with its program to expand warehouse and port- 

 terminal facilities. Success of the experiment 

 quickly led to adoption of the sj^stem by the 

 whole military establishment. An estimated 90 

 million pallets were acquired by the military 

 services during the period 1941 through 1945. 



Since the end of World War II use of pallets b}' 

 private industry has increased very rapidly. 

 The trend has been greatly stimulated by im- 

 provements in fork-lift trucks and other equip- 

 ment for handling materials. It is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that materials-handling technology in 

 factories and in warehouses has virtually been 

 revolutionized during the past decade. The sys- 

 tem is now rapidly expanding to include handling 

 of materials in transportation. 



Pallets vary considerably both in size and 

 design. The National Wooden Pallet Manufac- 

 turers Association has estimated that, on the 

 average, about 25 board-feet of lumber is used 

 per pallet and that annual production, chiefly for 

 use in private industrj^, has increased from 23 

 million in 1950 to 43 million in 1955: 



Lumber 

 consumed 

 Palkts (million 



produced hoard- 

 (million) feet) 



1950 23 575 



1951 27 675 



1952 33 825 



1953 40 1,000 



1954 36 900 



1955 43 1,075 



Because the palletized handling of materials is 

 so new and has been expanding so rapidly, esti- 

 mates of wood-pallet production in 1975 and by 

 2000 must rest almost entirely on judgment. As 

 the use of pallets extends into transportation, 

 demand can be expected to increase. Once a 

 saturation point is reached, pallet output would 

 be expected generally to keep pace with the in- 

 creases in output of merchandise, and to supply 

 the necessary replacements for wornout pallets. 

 Little is known, however, about what the average 

 service life of pallets will be. 



In view of these considerations, demand for 

 pallets may increase to around 70 million per year 

 by 1975. With the anticipated further large in- 

 crease in output of merchandise, and a larger stock 

 of pallets to maintain, output by 2000 may be in 

 the neighborhood of 150 million or 175 million 

 per year. Since the material used in pallet manu- 

 facture is chiefly the lower grades of hardwood, 

 lumber should have no great difficulty in main- 

 taining its present position as the principal paflet 

 material. 



Based on the foregoing line of reasoning, the 

 medium projections of demand for pallet lumber 

 (allowing for some reduction in lumber used 



