Atlanta, GA, Oct. 8--An extremely rainy spring in the South has left plywood in short supply and has driven costs through the roof.
Lumber retailers said the plywood manufacturing season was delayed after an unusually rainy spring in the South, leaving supplies low and demand high.
"So producers couldn't go in and harvest the timber," said The Home Depot spokesman John Simley, from company headquarters in Atlanta. "It really hasn't put a dent in the volume. We had to pass it on to our customers like everyone else."
Plywood is used for roofing and flooring. It usually is made in 4-by-8-foot sheets and varying thickness.
The price increase means the 2,100-square-foot home Cindy Chapman and her husband dream of building will cost them more.
"The original bid that we had, the price went up," Chapman said.
Robert Plummer, who owns Edwardsville-based RP Lumber, said surging prices have cut his stock almost in half, while prices have more than doubled. For instance, a year ago, a sheet three-quarters of an inch thick sold at RP Lumber for $12.49. Now, it costs $28.99.
"It's just crazy," Plummer said. "We sure don't like it at this price, because it is harmful to our customers and to our builders, because they had to pass cost on. It certainly is not a good situation."
Columbia Ace Hardware store owner Tim Cotton has run out of plywood and hasn't ordered any more.
"It's kind of difficult to dive into that lumber market," Cotton said.
Some blame the U.S. military. According to USA Today, the Defense Logistics Agency recently ordered more than 20 million feet, $13.3 million worth, of plywood sheeting for U.S. forces' base camps, guard posts and other projects in Iraq. The publication reported the purchase is relatively tiny, because about 300 million feet of plywood sheeting usually is sold each month.
Jack Fuller, the manager at Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse in Fairview Heights, said he believes the U.S. military has tightened demand.
Simley said that is impossible.
"I thought that was a joke," Simley said. "There is no way that the military, specifically in regard to Iraq, could be drawing enough plywood out of the supply chain to have an effect."
Said Plummer: "I think there's a number of rumors, but I've also heard that the government hasn't done that much."
