Products Overview 
During the 1960’s, a new southern pine plywood industry 
also developed in the South through joint efforts of plywood 
producers and researchers at the Forest Products Laboratory 
in developing efficient techniques for producing plywood 
from second-growth southern pines. In 1963, a plant of the 
Georgia Pacific Company in Fordyce, AR, produced the first 
rotary-peeled, exterior-glued structural plywood from south- 
ern pine. 
Over the next two decades, southern pine plywood produc- 
tion climbed steeply (fig. 2.12, app. table 2.28). After 
1982, new plants built to produce waferboard and oriented 
strand board added to the growing softwood structural 
‘“‘panel board’’ industry. In 1984, production of softwood 
plywood in the South reached 9.7 billion square feet (3/8- 
inch basis), or nearly half of total production in the United 
States. Some of the increase in southern production was at 
the expense of production of Douglas-fir and other western 
species that had long dominated softwood plywood markets. 
During the 1960’s, a new industry was 
started in the South through joint efforts of 
plywood producers and researchers at the 
Forest Products Laboratory. They developed 
efficient techniques for producing softwood 
plywood from second-growth southern pine. 
In 1984, production of softwood plywood 
in the South was 9.7 billion square feet 
(3/8-inch basis), nearly half of the total 
production in the United States. 
The lumber industry has also shown a strong upward trend 
since the 1930’s, with production reaching about 13.4 bil- 
lion board feet in 1984 (app. table 2.3). Softwoods made 
up about 80 percent of this total and hardwoods, the 
remainder. 
Southern forest industries also have long been a principal 
source of other forest products such as poles, piling, 
cooperage, hardwood plywood and veneer, as well as fuel- 
wood for both domestic and industrial uses. Numerous 
wood-preserving plants have operated in the South for many 
decades to provide consumers with treated poles, piling, rail- 
road ties, and various construction items. 
As described at the beginning of this chapter, the southern 
pulp and paper industry also has become the source of 
most turpentine and rosin, displacing both gum and steam- 
distilled wood. The first plant to produce high-quality rosin 
and fatty acids from tall oil by skimming off spent cooking 
liquors in the sulfate process was opened in 1949 by the 
International Paper Company. Recovery of turpentine from 
gases generated in the sulfate pulping process began in 
1944 and also expanded steadily. By 1984, tall oil repre- 
sented 76 percent of the total production of rosin, and sul- 
fate turpentine made up 93 percent of the total production 
of turpentine (figs. 2.1 and 2.2, app. tables 2.1 and 2.2). 
Changes in the output of southern forest industries have radi- 
cally altered the relative importance of different products and 
corresponding requirements for timber resources. Up to the 
1930’s, the lumber industry was by far the dominant user 
of both pines and hardwoods. Though lumber production 
in the South increased considerably after the low point of the 
1930’s, by 1954 the rapidly expanding pulp and paper in- 
dustry was using more wood fiber than sawmills. Pulpwood 
use also continued to climb rapidly thereafter, to some 3.2 
billion cubic feet of roundwood in 1984, or about 42 per- 
cent of the total volume of roundwood harvested in the re- 
gion (fig. 1.3, app. table 1.2). 
Sawlogs produced in the South in 1984 comprised some 2.8 
billion cubic feet, or 37 percent, of the total roundwood 
produced; however, a substantial portion of these sawlogs 
ended up in the pulp and paper industry in the form of 
chips. By 1984, use of logs for veneer and plywood had 
climbed to nearly 0.7 billion cubic feet, or 9 percent of the 
total. Other roundwood industrial products amounted to 0.1 
billion cubic feet. Use of fuelwood dropped to low levels 
in the post-World War II years but by 1984 had risen to 
over 0.7 billion cubic feet, or nearly 10 percent of the to- 
tal timber harvest in the South. 
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