Price index (1967 = 100) 
200 
175 
150 
125 
100 
75 
50 Total 
_ 
25 
0 
1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 
Softwoods V4 = «ap 
f 
~\ - ; 
¢ 
Hardwoods 
1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 
Figure 4.4—Average relative producer price index for lumber, 1800-1984, with base projections for softwood and hardwood 
lumber price indexes for selected years 1990-2030 
From an economic point of view, consumers 
will sustain the greatest losses from rising 
real prices of stumpage. Everybody uses 
wood in some form—such as housing, 
furniture, containers, writing paper, books 
and newspapers, fuel, and hundreds of 
other ways—and everybody will be 
adversely affected. 
202 
Lumber and Plywood Production and Pulpwood 
Consumption 
In the highly competitive markets in which nearly all tim- 
ber products are sold, rising product prices act to reduce 
demand. This is one of the contributing causes to the slow- 
ing of the growth in total projected demands for softwood 
lumber shown in table 3.4. However, largely because of 
comparative cost advantages over other lumber-producing 
sections in the United States (due in part to timber supplies), 
there are substantial increases in softwood lumber produc- 
tion in both regions in the South. The largest increase is in 
the South Central region (app. tables 4.1 and 4.2). There 
are also substantial increases in the Pacific Southwest and 
in the North. In contrast, production in the Pacific 
Northwest, the Nation’s other major softwood lumber- 
producing section, shows little change over most of the 
projection period. There is also little change in projected 
production in the Rocky Mountain section. 
Hardwood lumber production increases in both regions in 
the South, with the largest rise in the Southeast (app. ta- 
