The past few months were thankfully quite good for us.  More and more customers are relying on just-in-time shipments to meet their needs, so we are shipping a lot of truckloads with mixed species- both imported and domestic hardwoods. November and December are typically pretty good months for retail stores, as well as the 1st quarter of the year as hobby workers are busy working on projects with the colder temperatures outside, so we expect that will help us stay busy on the more exotic items for a while.

Like everyone else, we are being cautious with our inventory in these uncertain times, while still trying to keep a good balance of items available. The higher numbers of COVID reported here in November could lead to some more shutdowns in certain areas or states for sure, but hopefully, as an essential business, we will remain open as we did in the spring.

Our African partners are producing orders in a very timely manner still, the main issue there remains transportation. There is a lack of capacity going from Africa to Europe, where are containers are transferred (transshipped) to another vessel taking it to the US. Europe to US lanes are also showing a lack of capacity, so we are experiencing some rather big delays on shipments out of Africa as a result of this. We are still carrying 1.5-2.0 million boardfeet of KD inventory, but that for sure will dip a little here in Nov/Dec/Jan, so we do expect that some species will become just a little tight in supply on the African woods.

From South America things are moving pretty good still, orders are being produced and shipping quite fast. There are a few countries still where lockdowns in regions are affecting either production or logging, but so far that hasn’t been too bad.

We would like to thank all of our loyal customers for their support in this unusual year and take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Jesper Bach
Baillie Lumber Co.
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