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West Virginia lumber industry rebounding
By Andrew Brown, Charleston Gazette Staff Writer
The trees that cover the Mountain State and attract visitors with their colorful visuals in the fall are becoming a sought after commodity again.
Spurred on by the recovering housing market in the United States and new export opportunities in foreign countries, West Virginia's lumber and wood-products industries are starting to recover from a six-year slump.
In the past three years, employment and output from sawmills and other wood-product manufacturers in the state have started to come back from the doldrums that followed the financial crisis of 2007, when a national housing bubble burst largely because of sub-prime mortgage loans.
"The hardwood industry took a big hit," said Robbie Morris, president of the West Virginia Hardwood Alliance Zone. "Over the last two or three years, it has really rebounded."
The uptick in the industry comes at a time when other state export commodities, like coal, have begun to decline and as unemployment in the state has grown over the past five months.
Economic forecasts suggest that the industry's growth will continue over the next half decade, making it one of the bright spots in the state's economic outlook.
Industry officials are hopeful that a larger focus on international marketing will help increase exports and lure companies to build flooring and furniture manufacturing facilities in the state in the future ...
READ REST OF STORY West Virginia lumber industry rebounding By Andrew Brown for the Charleston Gazette
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