With the Nordic Timber Council finally set to close its doors at the end of October, Finnish forest industry companies are currently looking at marketing campaigns and ways to promote their wood and wood products Europe-wide.
It was members of the Finnish forest industry that proposed the formation of the NTC in 1993 to increase the consumption of wood products manufactured in the Nordic region. And it has been the Finns who have now started the winding up of the organisation, which has been agreed to by the Swedish and Norwegian representatives.
“We felt the time had come to change co-operation on wood promotion from Nordic to European,” explained Pekka Hukkanen, of Stora Enso Timber and chairman of Wood Focus Oy which represents the Finnish owners in the NTC.
Improved efficiency
“Because of this we did not see any role in the future for the NTC since the countries and companies involved can approach the European organisations and projects directly,” he said. “We felt that by dealing direct we would have lighter organisational structures and achieve better efficiency.”
“From a Finnish point of view, projects such as the British Wood for Good and the French Le bois, c’est essentiel campaigns will be seen as European projects from now on,” added Mr Hukkanen. “Whether there will be a combined Finnish approach to these, or whether the Finnish companies will act independently, is currently under discussion, so the final organisation remains to be seen.”
Meanwhile, the latest figures from the Finnish Forest Industries Federation show that production of sawn wood dropped last year by nearly 10% to a total of 12.2 million m3, or 1.3 million m3 less than the year before.
Most of this drop – or approximately 900,000m3 – was due to last year’s labour dispute in the paper industry. Production of sawn wood was still down in the first quarter of this year, by 2% compared with the year before. However, in this case the drop was partly due to difficulties in obtaining roundwood for sawmills. During the first 10 weeks of 2006, forest owners sold one-third less wood to industry than the year before. There are signs of a slight upturn on the roundwood market, but sawmills face a shortage unless the supply of roundwood and autumn deliveries can be ensured.
Plywood production was also down in 2005 at a total of 1.3 million m3, which was over 3% and 50,000m3 less than in 2004. However, production levels rose in the fourth quarter to almost the equivalent of the year before and have continued to rise in the first quarter of 2006 to reach a record level for Finland. Growth in production is due both to the improved market situation and new capacity.
Russian housing construction is picking up pace and this has opened an opportunity for the Finnish wood products industry. Russian consumers consider wood products stylish and elegant, with pine, birch and spruce being the most popular species: they are particularly keen on Scandinavian colour schemes and clean-cut lines. As a result, building supplies retailers and chainstores have turned their eyes to Finland.
Despite the geographical proximity of the two countries, co-operation has been quite rare up to now. But a joint effort by the wood sector is under way to promote co-operation between Finnish manufacturers of wood interior decoration products and Russian building supplies retailers. In addition to interior decoration products, Russian building supplies stores are interested in Finnish wood construction expertise, demand for which exists in the growing Russian market for small-scale houses and holiday homes.
UPM is to invest €5m in wood products manufacturing at its Chudovo plywood mill in Russia and €1m at its Heinola plywood mill in Finland. A third rotary line will be installed at the Chudovo mill to increase its annual birch plywood production capacity by 20,000m3, and, at the Heinola mill, the sorting and machining line will be modernised. This line will produce panels especially for formwork systems and concrete production.
Architectural focus
Finnforest is supporting a group of second year Architectural Association (AA) students who are constructing an ultra-modern timber pavilion. The structure is due to go on display in July outside the AA school building in Bedford Square, London. Finnforest recently organised a trip to Finland for 10 of the students participating in the design, planning and building of the pavilion. The aim of the trip was to equip them with a wide knowledge of timber, and in particular Kerto, as a sustainable material, by exposing them to the entire process of tree harvesting, mill operations, packaging and distribution.
As the result of a three-year research project, glulam beams made from birch have been developed by Norwegian researchers and these are being manufactured by Moelven Limtre in Norway. The beams have up to 30% more strength and 20% more stiffness than spruce beams. Birch glulam beams have been used to support the roof of St Laurentsius church in Drammen and a bank and insurance office in Mysen has a load-bearing structure of visible birch.