Causes and costs of unused logging production capacity in the southern United States and Maine

Based on a 20-month study in 2000 and 2001 of 83 logging crews and 152 forest products mills, we estimate that the wood supply system in Maine and the southern United States is using only 65 percent of its production capacity. This unused capacity costs an average of $1.66 per ton of delivered wood, representing an annual cost of approximately $430 million to the system. The primary causes of unused capacity during the study were market causes (quotas, mill handling, mill closed), weather, and planning. Of the three market causes, production quotas were cited twice as often as either mill handling or mill closures and caused two to three times the missed production when they did occur. Logging crews that were preferred suppliers to mills had the lowest level of unused capacity and had the lowest and least variable costs per ton.