Lumber industry slowly getting back to normal, COVID-19 playing vital role

DuBois, PA — Josh Ritchie, manager of Lezzer Lumber in DuBois, said the pandemic has played a huge role on his business.

"The biggest thing that's impacted us is by sure is lead times. Things that used to take 1-2 weeks to come in are now 1-3 months depending upon what we are ordering," he said.

Ritchie said lumber prices are constantly fluctuating as trucking has become unavailable.

Since the pandemic last year, he said the price of lumber has increased right around 300%.

Now a year and a half later, that number is slowly declining.

"Lumber is starting to creep down now it’s going to take a little while to get back to levels where we're used to seeing," he said.

But Ritchie said he's been seeing a lot of business in these summer months as homeowners are investing more into "do it yourself projects."

I asked Ritchie if he thinks the Delta variant will send his business ten steps behind.

He said he's not sure just yet, "Crystal ball wise it's hard to say how or when it will or how much it will if it does."

Ritchie said he'll continue to monitor the delta variant and the impact it'll possibly have on his business.

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