The U.S. softwood sawmill industry, including Minnesota, has reversed a decline in capacity in the early 1990s and grown over the past decade, according to a study by U.S. Forest Service economists.
Employment, however, has declined even as the industry's productivity increased 45 percent in the United States and 50 percent in Canada.
The report, "Profile 2005: Softwood Sawmills in the United States and Canada," was written by Henry Spelter and Matthew Alderman, economists at the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory in Madison.
They estimated that the North American softwood sawmill industry has grown about 2.4 percent per year since 1995.
Minnesota's estimated capacity, according to the report, was 437,000 cubic meters in 2000, but fell to 387,000 cubic meters the next year. It has steadily increased to 444,000 cubic meters in 2005. Potlatch Corp.'s Bemidji stud mill accounts for the growth, the authors' data indicates. Capacity there grew from 186,000 cubic meters in 2000 to 283,000 cubic meters in 2005. Some other mills reduced capacity or closed.
Employment in the industry in Minnesota fell from about 5,000 to approximately 4,000 during the same period. Nationwide, softwood sawmill employment declined 16 percent, the authors estimated.Duluth News Tribune
