Business in brief: Lumber output off 20 percent

Western sawmills weathered a tough year in 2008, with production dropping for the third straight year, according to the Western Wood Products Association.

Softwood lumber production fell to 13 billion board feet in 2008, representing a 20 percent decline from the previous year. Softwood lumber is used to frame new buildings. The Portland-based trade association said the mills’ output was the lowest since it began keeping statistics in the 1950s.

The estimated wholesale value of the lumber produced at Western mills was $3.66 billion last year, a 40 percent decrease from 2007.

Butch Bernhardt, an association spokesman, said difficult market conditions are expected to continue through this year, with a recovery beginning in 2010.

Becky Kramer

Fed report encouraging

Washington – Economic activity is stabilizing or improving in most of the U.S., according to a new government survey, adding to evidence that the worst recession since the 1930s is over.

The Federal Reserve’s snapshot of economic conditions backs predictions by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and most other analysts that the economy has started to grow again in the current quarter.

In the survey released Wednesday, all but one of the Fed’s 12 regions indicated that economic activity was “stable,” showed “signs of stabilization” or had “firmed.” The one exception was the St. Louis region.

Associated Press

Jobs back in public eye

San Francisco – Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs returned Wednesday to the showman role that has helped define his company leadership, taking the stage for the first time since his medical leave to announce such new products as an iPod Nano that records video.

Jobs, who had a liver transplant this spring, got a vigorous standing ovation from many in the audience.

Looking thin and speaking quietly and with a scratchy voice, the 54-year-old CEO urged everyone to become organ donors.

Jobs had not appeared at such a product launch event since last October.

Associated Press

OPEC decides to stand pat

Vienna – OPEC today decided to leave its production quotas unchanged, opting to take a cautious approach in a market awash in crude and a global economy still in the nascent stages of recovery.

The 12-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said “market fundamentals have remained weak,” even though oil prices are roughly double their levels when the group announced in December a record 4.2 million barrel per day cut from September 2008 levels.

Associated Press