Economic Contributions of West Virginia's Forest Products Industry Over Time: A Look at 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2017 Data

Abstract

West Virginia's forest products industry (FPI) has long been viewed as an important industry to the state. However, there is a lack of recent data regarding the economic contribution of the industry to the state's economy. The housing market collapse of the mid-2000s, subsequent recession, continued increasing global competition, natural gas boom, and other macroeconomic trends have affected the FPI in the state. The continuing evolution of the state economy necessitates a reexamination of the role the FPI plays in the state. Thus, this article examines the historical contribution of the FPI to West Virginia's economy using 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2017 data. Both the direct and total economic contributions of the industry substantially declined from 2006 to 2010. The largest declines were experienced in the secondary solid-wood products and wood furniture sectors. Between 2010 and 2015, the industry's direct and total contributions rose for all measures evaluated. Between 2015 and 2017, all measures of direct and total contributions of the industry also increased but at a much slower pace and remained lower than 2006 levels. The inability of the FPI in the state to return to 2006 levels of direct contributions suggests that long-term industry trends such as the continued offshoring of value-added forest products sectors and increased industry automation are still putting negative pressure on direct industry growth. Additionally, the industry is facing new challenges such as uncertainty about the future availability of the foreign markets and competition for resources from emerging industries.

Trafficability Prediction Using Depth-to-Water Maps: the Status of Application in Northern and Central European Forestry

“…Historically, the primary timber logging season was scheduled for the winter periods when the soils are frozen [8,9], making them relatively resilient to impacts due to their increased bearing strength [10]. Yet, the high ownership costs of modern logging equipment and involving supply chains require these machines to work year-round with the capability to increase their loads for cost reduction in an increasingly complex business environment with global competition [11]. Moreover, time periods of favourable operational conditions, in terms of frozen and thus stable soils, are getting shorter and less frequent [5,12].…”

A Methodological Framework for Decomposing the Value-Chain Economic Contribution: A Case of Forest Resource Industries of the Lake States in the United States

“…Past economic contribution analysis studies have not been consistent in their choice of industry sectors to include and aggregate to analyze the economic contribution of forest product industries nor the methods of studying economic contribution analysis [2,3,25,[30][31][32]. This is most likely due to the variation in the relative importance of different forestryrelated sectors across the country.…”

“…Past literature suggests that these value-chain industries are facing critical challenges to remain in business and operate profitably given the changing market conditions, increasing operating costs, and declining profit margins [20][21][22]35]. Additionally, the aging logging workforce and difficulty in retaining and recruiting young workforce members in both the logging and trucking industries have led some to view these sectors as the weakest link in the forest product industry supply chain [22,25,36]. Given this, emphasizing the economic importance of such value-chain industries is useful for attracting much-needed attention to these industries and our decomposition of valuechain economic contribution analysis method aids in doing that.…”

“…Baker et al [21] concluded a shrinking gap between the prices paid for logging services and logging costs in recent times, suggesting reduced profit margins for logging businesses in the South of the United States [23]. Declining profit levels have also been reported by logging businesses in other parts of the country, affecting the economic viability of value-chain industries and the overall forest product industry [23][24][25]. Additionally, the shortage of truck drivers to transport harvested logs from forests to mills threatens the smooth functioning of forest product industries throughout the country [26].…”