Baltic Birch Ply

[Vince Shriver]

The prices for Baltic Birch here in Calif 3/4-5x5 = $189.00 and 3/4-4x8 = $295.00. Yikes! I know lumber got spendy, but never realized to what extent.

[glenn bradley]

Holy cow. That's up $150 from the last time I stocked up. :eek: There are a lot of items that I just stopped buying a couple of years ago. I assume others did as well since the prices are back down quite a bit. As long as we pay $12 for bacon they will continue to sell it for that :D.

[Brian Tymchak]

I can't even order it at any price around here (central OH). There is some speculation st my local sheet good supplier that a company in Canada is building a plant to make BB-like product but no idea when that would be online.

[Andrew Hughes]

The lumber yard I visit said a tax or tariff was put on Russian birch plywood. To help fund the war we aren’t in I guess.
Good Luck

[Jeff Roltgen]

My local supplier had some a few weeks ago and appears to be very reasonably priced compared to what I'm reading here (it was still just under $100 for 18mm 60x60 late June).
They stressed that they are searching for alternates, hinting that they are uncertain when or if they'll be able to re-stock Russian/Baltic Birch.

At the numbers I'm seeing here, glad I stopped making drawers with the stuff a while ago. At $300/sheet, you're talking $12 bd ft. vs 1/3 of that for actual lumber.

Never was furniture grade, regardless how often it's been used as such in contemporary pieces.
At this point, I think we all simply need to figure out something else to build with.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Bonhoff Lumber in East Los Angeles has 12 ply 8x4 baltic birch here for $180. Regular 6 ply baltic birch ply, baltic birch on the outside, doug fir in the center is $120, which is what most of the cabinet makers here have switched to.

[Paul J Kelly]

I purchased a 5x5 sheet of 3/4" Baltic Birch at Reel Lumber in Riverside for $111 two weeks ago.

PK

[Frank Pratt]

I can't even order it at any price around here (central OH). There is some speculation st my local sheet good supplier that a company in Canada is building a plant to make BB-like product but no idea when that would be online.

I sure hope that is so.

[Jim Becker]

I also hope that the industry picks up on this, given there's a very real possibility that the supply of BB from where it used to come from will remain greatly restrained or non-existent. Excellent quality multi-ply is an essential material for both industry and wood-butchers-for-fun alike.

[Brian Tymchak]

It surprises me some that other countries like Finland haven't filled the gap, at least somewhat.

I recently built a prototype product for my employer using the last 6mm BB I had. It won't work with the domestic 1/4" plywood like Purebond which only measures 0.194 in thickness and is also not rigid enough since it is a single ply core. Oh well..

[Jim Becker]

Brian, I suspect that manufacturing in Finland hasn't decreased, but it can't make up for anything close to the volume that's off the market at this point. That's yet another reason that I hope North American and other areas seriously get involved in producing a similar, high quality, multi-core product in the volume necessary to support both industrial and retail markets that want it.

[Gregory King]

Brian, I suspect that manufacturing in Finland hasn't decreased, but it can't make up for anything close to the volume that's off the market at this point. That's yet another reason that I hope North American and other areas seriously get involved in producing a similar, high quality, multi-core product in the volume necessary to support both industrial and retail markets that want it.
Like me Jim on the North American thingy. Got the best trees in the world to make the most stable kind of building product. A real head scratcher why more of our mills don't jump on that product.

[Frank Pratt]

This is too funny. I just called my supplier of choice for some pricing:
1" Medex, $96.48CAD
3/4" Medex, $132.00CAD
18mm BB, 5x5, $177CAD
18mm BB, 4x8, $165CAD

BTW, the 4x8 BB is not technically BB. It has the same multiply construction and is made of the same birch veneer from Russia, but it is made into plywood in China. China and Russia are still playing nice so there is no supply problem with it.

Every shipment they get the prices are different and these prices are for what they have in stock. The thing I dont understand is why these prices are so much lower than a lot of US pricing. It's usually the opposite.

I have some large subwoofer cabinets to make and I think I'll go with the 1" Medex.

[Brian Tymchak]

The thing I dont understand is why these prices are so much lower than a lot of US pricing. It's usually the opposite.


A tariff (25% ?) was applied to imported lumber and the U.S. imports a lot of lumber products from Canada. I was hoping that tariff would have been pulled off by now.

[Pat Germain]

It has the same multiply construction and is made of the same birch veneer from Russia, but it is made into plywood in China.

I'm recalling a thread here years ago where a guy bought some Chinese plywood and found a basketball inside. That's was pretty hilarious and downright sad at the same time.

[Frank Pratt]

A tariff (25% ?) was applied to imported lumber and the U.S. imports a lot of lumber products from Canada. I was hoping that tariff would have been pulled off by now.
That's a softwood tariff and wouldn't affect Baltic birch plywood prices though.

[Derek Meyer]

Our store is selling 5x5 3/4" Baltic birch for $149.95 a sheet. 1/2" is $99.95. Pre-pandemic, 3/4" was about $50.

[John TenEyck]

ApplePly is similar to BB and made in Oregon. Before the pandemic it was substantially more expensive than BB. I looked at their website and it says they are no longer accepting new orders because of high demand. Why would they lower the price if they are out of capacity or supply of raw material? It's going to take a crystal ball to decide if BB is going to be available again in the next year or so or whether the supply is gone for good. No one is going to gear up a new plant w/o knowing the answer.

John

[Warren Lake]

ply story might have been me. Part owner of a company close by said they decided to try a lift from China. Said it stunk so bad they left it outside. Then months later they decided to cut into a sheet and he said they found an underwear band inside. Also a steel company owner told me the same story with steel that it stunk and they only tried it once.

3/4 baltic 4 x 8 for us up here is 160.00 Told its made and shipped from china. missing in that statement is the material comes from?. In an auto shop once guy beside me talked about how much wood leaving here to offshore and also about some silk road thing between russian and china. I thought the silk road was another name for the dark web. People with land here have sold trees which go to a town south of here then to China.