The Sun Will Soon Shine

Recently, in the forest products industry there has been a prevailing atmosphere of doom and gloom. Being a commodity based business, ups and downs are a given. However it seems that in the the last five years, we have been  in a downward cycle that doesn't show many signs of reaching bottom. High fuel costs, poor markets for both logs and pulp etc...
Does this mean that the end of the industry is at hand. Does this mean that suddenly your timber is or will become worthless? Not hardly! We are going through  a period of change. This means that the old paradigm is falling apart and a new one is replacing it. Change is inevitable - there is no use fighting it. The key is to see the opportunity throughout the dust kicked up by the chaos.
I would argue that we are on the verge of some of the biggest opportunities ever to be presented to those who own timberland. If you are committed to holding on to your asset for the long term - you will reap great rewards in the not too distant future. The demand for wood is poised to grow. The largest areas of population growth in the world are in Asia. Outside of Indonesia this is a region with very little forestland relative to the overall size of the land base and its population. This means only one thing - as their populations grow so will the demand for lumber,  paper and any other products that are derived  from wood. Where will the wood come from? Some will undoubtedly come from Russia -however this region has huge hurdles to overcome before it ever becomes a steady producer of wood products. South America  is and will continue to be a huge producer. However, the largest producer of all will be North America. Nowhere else in the world do you have such vast of forestland, coupled with the modern infrastructure in place to efficiently get the harvested material to market.  Increasingly  business people are taking note of this and investing accordingly.
I was reading a good article today in the Daily Globe. It was talking about an  investor who just bought an old obsolete pulp and paper mill in Thurso Quebec and is in the process of reconfiguring this mill to begin producing dissolving pulp for export to Asia. This mill used to produce paper used in photographs -however the digital camera destroyed this market and the parent company Fraser closed it in 2007. A substantial volume of pulp for this mill came from private landowners in the northern and western Adirondack Mtns of New York. When this mill closed that clearly had a negative effect on those landowners who had pulp to harvest. One less market translated into that much less income for those with wood to sell. However for those landowners, in this region, who stayed the course and held on to their timberland - the rewards are just around the corner.  Although this is just one illustration  hopefully the point has been made. When the doom and gloom seems greatest we can say with confidence that the sun will soon shine.