Industry Profiles

Wood Products

In 2007, the Upper East Texas region was home to 220 businesses and 6,800 jobs associated with the forest industry, including forestry, logging, wood product manufacturing and paper product manufacturing. These firms paid nearly $294 million in wages in that year (Exhibit 9).

The region is home to more than a fourth of Texas’ forestry and logging jobs. Eighty-eight firms accounted for 550 forestry and logging jobs and paid $22 million in wages in 2007.¹⁹ Jobs in the forestry and logging industry are divided between different stages in the production cycle, including timber tract operations that require specialized machinery, facilities for gathering forest products and logging. Logging accounts for most of the industry’s jobs.

Paper manufacturing is a vertically integrated industry, meaning that individual companies account for multiple parts of the manufacturing process. The Upper East Texas region is home to two of Texas’ largest paper manufacturing companies, International Paper in Queen City and Kimberly-Clark in Paris. International Paper is a global leader in paper and packaging products, and Kimberly-Clark is a manufacturer of paper products, including Kleenex brand tissues.

Texas paper exports totaled nearly $1.6 billion in 2007, making it the fifteenth largest export market in the state.²⁰

Exhibit 10 shows companies in the Upper East Texas region associated with the forest industry.