What Woodworkers Need to Know About the Longshore Strike

There has been a lot of talk on the news lately about the potential longshoreman strike that may be coming soon. If you’re like me and didn’t have any idea this was a thing until the news came out, let me tell you what I’ve learned about it so far. The longshoremen are a unionized group of workers that basically unload cargo ships from Maine, all the way down the east coast and throughout the gulf into Texas. According to the news they are getting ready to go on strike for a pay raise and a new contract that will protect their jobs from automation. 

Now this article is not about the strike and who’s right or wrong, this is about how this is going to affect those of us in the woodworking and construction industry. As most of you I’m sure are aware the United States imports a lot of wood products; from lumber to plywood, and other commonly used products like mdf and melamine. I know personally I typically use and import birch plywood for my custom cabinets and an mdf panel for my paint grade shaker style doors. There are a lot of things that we need to look at when it comes to the strike and how it actually is going to effect the goods we will need. 

The first thing we need to look at is how much do we actually produce here domestically and how much is actually imported. According to the United States International Trade Commision (https://www.usitc.gov/system/files/research_and_analysis/tradeshifts/files/forest_products_2022.pdf) the United States imported $67,024,000,000 worth of forestry products in 2022. Clearly we bring in a lot of wood products, but the real questions is how much of this is going to be affected by the strike? Don’t forget the strike is only the east coast and the gulf of Mexico, this does not include the west coast, which has its own union. Of the 67 billion, 27.547 billion comes from Canada. Now I’m sure there are occasions where they will throw some of this lumber on a ship in Newfoundland and ship it down the east coast for a quicker shipment, but I would be willing to bet the majority of that is coming across the border on a truck. Canada is one of the worlds largest producers of forestry products, depending on the year they are sometimes #1. 

Looking at the other top producers that the US buys from there are several that will not be affected by the potential strike; China (8.951 bil), Mexico (3.064 bil), Vietnam (1.924 bil), Chile (1.812 bil), and Indonesia (1.658 bil). These are primarily going to be entering the US through the west coast and shouldn’t see much disruption in price or supply. The countries that will be sending the products that would be impacted by the strike are; Brazil (4.654 bil) and Germany (2.690). These countries send us many different products, but some of the most popular are beech, spruce, particle board, plywood (from Germany) and Brazilian walnut, ipe, and cedar (from Brazil). These are the products you’ll want to keep an eye on as this strike becomes a reality. 

Another thing to keep in mind is larger companies have heard about this long before it hit the news and they have been preparing, buying more products in anticipation of this event. Because of this we shouldn’t see price hikes or supply shortages until after the holidays. If you are in a business that uses products that are produced in Germany or Brazil or any other country that would be shipping things through the east coast I would look into stocking up on your supplies. If you use products from Canada, China, Indonesia there should not be a large effect on the pricing. I know a large amount of the imported plywood I use is coming from Indonesia. While my lumber is primarily domestic, white oak and maple. 

The biggest thing we can learn from this is that we as woodworkers need to know where our products are coming from. When you buy domestic lumber there are less steps from the forest to your distributor, meaning less chances for disruptions in the supply chain. The further away the product starts the more links in the chain. Hopefully this information will help you as we get ready for this potential disruption. This article should give you some relief to know that most of our industry should not take a huge hit, and if you look into other products in your life you’ll see we do make a lot of stuff here, and many of the things we import come through the west coast. 

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