Show Fir Lumber lumber- Prices Skid Mills Order Cutbacks PORTLAND Ore Oct 20 UPI TV Douglas fir lumber prices were skidding sharply Friday orders were falling and scattered mills began to cut back on production The price break brcak that started when the government imposed re restrictions restrictions restrictions re- re on building loans six weeks ago became a collapse this week weel on green dimension dimension and the like Sales of No 2 green at 50 a thousand board feet feel were reported reported re- re ported Thursday In August some mills were getting as much as 90 and more for or them The hardest hit lumber Is that used in starting new houses Others Drop Some Finishing lumber still in demand to complete houses already under construction has dropped some but not much It is beginning to follow the green lumber collapse though C. C C. C Crow said Friday Crow is editor of oC the Pacific Coast Lumber Digest est which concerns itself with price trends There is every reason to believe that the bottom has yet to be I reached Crow said adding that government credit restrictions had hadI brought the starting of new jobs I almost to a standstill I Lumber prices in late 1949 began beganI I climbing from a brief slump and andI started skyrocketing last spring I Outbreak of the Korean war speeded the climb to what Crow called unheard of levels Forestalls Record H. H V. V Simpson executive vice president of the West Vest Coast Lumbermen's Lumbermen's Lumbermen's Lum Lum- bermen's said it seemed likely now that an time all fir production production pro pro- record would not be set this year On Sept 1 I he said such a record was a cinch There were no reports of mill closures They were exp expected in one to three weeks from marginal operators small operators small concerns whose costs are high high and and some mills this week began eliminating their second shifts There was no early tabulation on the number or how many men were being laid off |