Laminated Veneer Lumber: A United States Market Overview

Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is an all-veneer engineered wood product that has appeared in the marketplace as a replacement for increasingly scarce high quality solid-sawn lumber in structural applications. As one possible response to increasing environmental pressures, LVL is considered to be superior to recycled steel and plastic, concrete, stone, and brick in terms of energy requirements to produce. Because this product is a relatively new entrant in the family of engineered wood products, its rapid technological changes and/or new product-market development opportunities are discussed in the context of the product life cycle (PLC). Market growth for LVL is expected to increase, resulting from increased product awareness and acceptance and increasingly attractive in-use price/performance factors.