International Wood International Wood 2004 | Page 12

Imported
Woods
OFFER UNIQUE ADVANTAGES
in Every Application
T
he use of imported species is on the rise across the
entire spectrum of wood products. Many
advantages, ranging from price, availability, quality
and of course aesthetics, are driving consumers to
choose imported wood first. What follows are the comments
of several IWPA members, who took the time to discuss with
I mported W ood some of the trends and opportunities that
their customers are taking advantage of – and profiting from.
“Since the beginning of the year we’ve seen business
pick up in general, and most all our customers are more
optimistic,” says Stewart Sexton of DLH Nordisk. “There
seems to be growing demand for everything right now.
“I do see our customers becoming more order-specific.
Rather than buying large volumes, they’re buying smaller
quantities and are more specific in what they’re ordering,
thus controlling their inventories better.”
“In many cases, people are choosing imported species
to fill a need that can’t be met with domestic woods,” says
J. Gibson “Gib” McIlvain III, of J. Gibson McIlvain Co. “The
market is getting more sophisticated, and people under-
stand the value of these materials, not just in their beauty,
but in other properties they offer. Some of these woods are
very hard, sometimes twice as hard as the hardest woods
we have in the U.S. The hardest domestic wood we have is
maple; Brazilian cherry, for instance, is about twice as hard
as maple. And on top of that, imported species are compet-
itively priced.”
STRONG GROWTH IN FLOORING
“Over the last 15 years changes in consumer tastes have
driven a rapidly growing acceptance for tropical hardwoods
for flooring,” says Don Thompson of Thompson Mahogany.
“They’re looking for something different. With domestic
woods, you change their appearance by changing the stain.
Tropical woods have colors all their own, and people find it
exotic, foreign, different.”
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IMPORTED WOOD