4 thoughts on “Let’s All Just Take a Breath or Three”

    • Good point Dave. Likely because it doesn’t fit the narrative of some of the people on this blog. If you put something together on the $23 billion Weyco/Plum Creek REIT-fest merger it I’ll happily post it here as a featured post. Just email it to me privately. Thanks.

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        • Thanks for the pointer, Steve. Its thesis, for those who want to cut to the chase, is that the merger is like “two brothers splashing around in one bathtub…of a house with nearly 1,000 bathrooms.”

          Lumber is one of the most diversified commodity manufacturing industries in the U.S. The top 20 firms account for only 61% of total production. Compare to autos where the top 10 account for over 80% of the market. Wood products manufacturing has never been threatened by monopoly power. On the other hand, collusion and other anti-trust misbehavior have been a chronic issue.

          It may also come as a surprise to some that although #1 lumber producer Weyerhaeuser is publicly traded, most lumber manufacturers are privately-held companies. #2 Georgia-Pacific (private, owned by the Koch Bros); #3 Sierra-Pacific (private family-owned), #4 West Fraser (public Canadian-based company that owns southern U.S. mills, too), and #5 Hampton (private). Other privately-owned lumber manufacturers include Boise-Cascade, Roseburg Forest Products, Rosboro, and States Industries. In contrast, all 10 of the top auto manufacturers are publicly-traded companies.

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