The Fast-Growing Sandwich

Plywood, that prosaic sandwich of wood and glue, was long a low-prestige commodity used chiefly in such things as panel doors, ping-pong tables and bureau-drawer bottoms. No longer. Glamorized almost beyond recognition, it has taken on fancy surfaces, been merged with other materials and found its way into such diverse places as giant freeway signs, the stands for Lyndon Johnson's Inauguration and the outside walls of a 24-story building in San Francisco. Demand for plywood has doubled in the past seven years, and this year the $1 billion industry expects to sell a record 13 billion sq. ft. To keep up, the two biggest U.S. plywood companies are launching major expansions. Georgia-Pacific Corp. has just announced plans to build new plants at Crossett, Ark., and Emporia, Va., and U.S. Plywood Corp. has broken ground for a new $3,000,000 mill at Hammond, La.

To the South. The location of the three new plants reflects a significant trend. Plywood makers have begun to move into the South in force, ending a regional monopoly in softwood plywood that the Douglas-fir-growing Pacific Northwest has enjoyed for decades. In the past year, three new mills have opened in Texas and Arkansas to make plywood from the faster-growing Southern pine. Weyerhaeuser Co., the world's biggest producer of timber products, is building a plant at Plymouth, N.C. Vancouver Plywood is at work on two plants in Louisiana, and at least eleven other firms are planning or building Southern plants and scrambling to tie up timber stands. Their total investment will come close to $100 million. Says U.S. Plywood President Gene C. Brewer: "I can see the day coming when the South might produce 25% of the nation's plywood."

Plywood is migrating South partly to save freight (the South is nearer to most markets than the Northwest) and partly to take advantage of the South's rising supply of available timber, but it is a new technology that makes the move possible. New glues and dryers developed by the industry have overcome Southern pine's high moisture and pitch content, which made its wood difficult to stick together. Automated loaders and lathes can now handle pine logs, which are much smaller than fir, and peel off layers of veneer.

Russians First. Though the Russians were the first commercial makers of plywood (they began packing tea in plywood boxes in the 1870s), American manufacturers have long since grabbed the world-production lead. The growing do-it-yourself market absorbs 8% of their output, and industrial uses account for another 15%, but half of the nation's plywood now goes into housing. By aggressive promotion, self-imposed quality control and imaginative research to develop new uses for plywood, the industry has boosted the amount built into the average new home from 500 sq. ft. in 1950 to 2,700 sq. ft. last year. Even more remarkable, the cost of plywood has dropped 30% in a decade. Because recent floods in the Northwest did $50 million damage to the lumber and plywood industries, plywood prices have climbed $12 per thousand sq. ft. this month,.including a jump last week from $70 to $72. But the industry expects this rise to be shortlived as it cleans up the damage--and its move to the South speeds up.

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