Factors Affecting Lumber Conversion Rate of Sawmill Industry in South Korea

Abstract

This study is conducted to investigate the factors affecting lumber conversion rate of sawmill inductry in South Korea. Data were obtained from the survey of 38 sawmills in all geographis regions of South Korea. The variables examined in this study were region, softwood/hardwood log, domestic/imported/both log, the number of power-driven carriages(PDC)installed, the year when and country where PDCs was manufactured, the horse power of PDC, the number of labors and reuqired to operate eash PDC, the sawing sapacity of maill (mill size), and the types of major product and by-products. The lumber recovery factor (LRF) of sawmills were significantly influenced by the orgin of logs, level of PDC automation, sawmill size, and size of logs (mearued in disneter and length) while not by the location of the mill, types of major product and by-product, log species, and characteristics of PDC. Although these results produce useful information for understanding the thchnological charactersistics of the Korean sawmill inductry, further investigation with larger sample is nescessary to reveal the more reliable characteristics of sawmill industry in South Korea.