In 2012, things were pretty good for southern yellow pine (SYP) sawmills. Those that survived the US housing crisis and the Great Recession were making decent profits for the first time in years, most had their pick of the abundant timber supply, and the future looked pretty good. In that year, the average mill was producing about 125 million board feet and they were doing it in only about 60 hours per week, which was more volume than they had produced before, and in fewer hours. Many were bumping up against kiln drying constraints and couldn’t produce more lumber even if they were to run the standard 80 hour week. At that time, only a few mills in the US South were capable of producing more than 200 million board feet in a year.