Cheaper to buy in split wood

[StephF]

I've been quoted anything from £1,500 to £1,800 for a trailer load of cord. This is substantially more expensive than any purchased in the past that has peaked at £1,350 for a load.

 

Taking £1,500 as the best offer we usually yield 45m3 per load.

 

Cost of wood per m3 = £35.56

Labour to handle, split, load & deliver = £20

Fuel to handle and process = £3

Fuel to deliver = £2

 

So here we are over £60 a cube before plant maintenance, oils, filters, chains and depreciation is taken into account.

 

Looking at imported wood seriously for the first time. Available at £85/m3 stacked kiln dried hardwood delivered duty paid. 2m3 stacked equals 3m3 loose bagged. So a delivered price equivalent for loose logs is £60 a cube.

 

What is the point of buying in and sweating? Having to maintain equipment solely used for splitting and moving logs around? Something isn't quite right when its cheaper to import wood over 1,500 miles.

 

I presume you are talking about hardwoods here?

One local Firewood supplier has told me it was cheaper for him to buy in imported kiln dried hardwood logs now. I'm not finding that to be true just yet .. but there are no mega bucks to be made! The Firewood business is in a state of constant change right now, especially with the threat of feed in tarrifs for domestic log/pellet/woodchip boilers coming soon and Wood burner shops opening everywhere, UK will have to import Firewood over next few years to sustain the demand.

[baz]

Yes, we are talking hardwood cord. But even hardwood cord these days is being offered as a mixed load with a few larch or poplar thrown in.

 

An option would be to move to softwoods. Easier to process and lower cost. Only problem is the domestic demand is firmly for harwood logs.

[cabane77]

hi dan

can you pm your prices too, delivered to cb24?

thanks

[StephF]

Yes, we are talking hardwood cord. But even hardwood cord these days is being offered as a mixed load with a few larch or poplar thrown in.

 

An option would be to move to softwoods. Easier to process and lower cost. Only problem is the domestic demand is firmly for harwood logs.

 

With marketing etc, softwood logs are our biggest seller now, almost 100% of my customers prefer them on a wood burner, or a 50/50 mix. Only sold around 6-7 hardwood loads last winter in comparison to over 600 softwood or mixed loads! Maybe it is because softwood is cheaper,& hardwoods burn better mixed with softwood than just hardwood on a stove any day. Some customers switch to softwood after using mixed loads once they realise it is cheaper.. I have no problem convincing customers to try softwood, once they use it, often are happy to keep buying, often with the comment 'my stove has never worked so well', could be because the logs are dry though, and they have bought wet logs before, think I have wondered off the thread topic here (sorry!).

[Joy Yeomans]

we too find selling mixed loads are our best sellers, cheaper for the customer and spins out our suppy of hardwood

its the way to go, softwood is not a dirty word!

joy

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

we too find selling mixed loads are our best sellers, cheaper for the customer and spins out our suppy of hardwood

its the way to go, softwood is not a dirty word!

joy

 

Totally. Only do hard/soft mix now using larch / douglas. I would do only softwood if the plonkers would take it.

 

Is this offer still on btw?

 

Special offer - PremiumWood

[County 764]

Totally. Only do hard/soft mix now using larch / douglas. I would do only softwood if the plonkers would take it.

 

Is this offer still on btw?

 

Special offer - PremiumWood

 

And I thought I was cheap at £65/m3 for semi seasoned hardwood

[ash_smith123]

Has anyone actualy had a load of imported kiln dried?!

Im interested how many loose cubic metres you get out of 28 x 2 cubic metres stacked?!

From abit of reading around it looks like 40% more than stacked so im guessing around 2.8 loose cube from 2 cube stacked?!

[baz]

Just shy of 3m3 from 2m3 neatly stacked is the same figure I researched. Sounds about right.

 

I upped my costing estimate to 3m3 equivalent because every 6th bag of logs is used as a top up bag to top off the bags being shipped out to customers. You'd assume a neatly stacked crate wouldn't experience the settling effect that occurs when lifting loose bagged logs.

[StephF]

we too find selling mixed loads are our best sellers, cheaper for the customer and spins out our suppy of hardwood

its the way to go, softwood is not a dirty word!

joy

 

! Agree