As the forest products industry began selling off its land base, fiber supply agreements between the buyer and seller became an increasingly important component of the sales transactions. For the seller,
fiber supply agreements provide a supply wood to their mills and for the buyer,
the agreements provide a guaranteed market for some of the timber harvested. In response to this need, the AFM Wood Flow Group was formed. AFM currently works with various TIMOs and private landowners to manage the process of fiber supply agreement associated with their holdings. For other clients, the Wood Flow group provides access to quality loggers and established wood markets and the ability to respond quickly to changing markets for particular timber products.
Wood Flow Services include:
- Market analysis
- Coordinating the flow of wood to the best markets
- Merchandizing logs into higher value products
- Matching wood orders with suppliers
- Allocating wood orders to minimize freight costs and maximize net returns to the landowner
- Tracking deliveries to provide timber sale security
- Negotiating cut and haul rates with loggers and delivered log sales with buyers
- Log yard management
- Timber sale security systems
- Wood settlement system for reconciliation of payments to landowners and loggers
- Scale tickets, load sheets and mill settlements
