Chinese Oak plywood at Home Despot???

Actually, the yuan is tied to a basket of currencies, of which the dollar is only one.

And they realized it, which is why they went with the basket.

Of course, everything is relative. Cost of living is considerably lower.

Just look at the wage differential between, say, San Francisco and Des Moines; looks large, but when cost of living is factored in, the differential almost fades away.....

I think you'd be suprised at how small the shipping cost actually is.

Note that only the surface veneers come from lumber shipped from the US. Intermediate veneers are from native timbers. Leastwise, this was true for the $60 sheets of 3/4 A1 cherry ply I recently purchased.

scott

"From what I understand (and I may not understand all that well), we sell them the logs, which are then shipping to China. They process it and return the plywood and come in about 40% under plywood produced only 3000 miles away--or 500."

I used to watch HUGE Chinese Japanese and Russian freighters dock at Morehead City NC that were essentially floating production plants. The largest building structure near the docks supplies either wood (sawdust or chips usually) or phosphorus (nearby mine) to these huge freighters. I was told that they go offshore into international waters (11 miles out if I remember) and process MDF or whatever, dump the chemicals in the ocean, then return to sell the goods.

Neat, H

Actually, I believe it is prawns. They also produce a large fraction of the canned mandarins. Not to mention some tasty combinations of spices and unusual sauces; pad thai gee anyone?

Per the CIA world factbook, they are considered a minor producer of opium.

The bulk of the worlds opium is produced from poppies grown in Afghanistan (> 70% by some estimates).

scott

Trailer? Trailer?? What kind of scout troop packs stuff in on a trailer?

I suppose you have cots, too?

In our 77 miles/ 7 days at Philmont we packed everything on our backs.

scott (a bit tongue-in-cheek)

I believe the Japanese were processing our lumber aboard ship just outside the international limit before selling it back to us. Perhaps the Chinese are doing the same thing

Thanks for all your input. I think I'd rather pay more to my old, reliable source than to support that kind of off-shore opperation.. Maybe an American can keep his job (or have the mexicans taken over the lumber industry too?)

Thanks, Kevin