The Swedish forest industry’s net exports increased by 8% in 2006, totalling SKr91.7bn. Over the past 10 years net exports have increased by 26%. Last year was also yet another record year for exports from Swedish sawmills. At 13 million m3 it was 10% above the figure for 2005. Total production amounted to 18 million m3 of timber, which was over 2% more than the previous record year of 2005. However the risk of sawmills “sawing apart” the market is considered to be less than before since a shortage of raw materials is pushing up prices.
The mild winter has continued to cause problems for the Swedish forest industry with the soft ground making it difficult to transport logs from the forest to the sawmills and increased insect attacks on the logs that are stocked in the forest. “It was previously possible to solve shortage problems by buying timber at short notice from the Baltic states”, pointed out Stefan Wirtén, forest manager for the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, “but this option is now more restricted since suppliers there are now making more long-term plans and, furthermore, competition for Baltic timber has increased.” The problem is not so acute in the south of Sweden since there are still large stocks of storm-felled timber resulting from storm Gudrun two years ago and storm Per earlier this year.
Stefan Wirtén also emphasises the importance of combating noxious insects, making this the most important target for 2007. “To achieve this we must utilise all the weapons in our armoury,” he pointed out.
Improved results
The boom for the Swedish forest industry and the rationalisation measures undertaken by companies has led to improved results for 2006 by companies such as Norrskog, Mellanskog, Rörvik Timber, Setra, Sveaskog, Södra and VIDA. These results were achieved despite reduced delivery volumes in some cases, Sveaskog for example.
The current business climate has encouraged investments in increased production. For example, Norrskog is investing SKr220m in its timber industries over the next three years to increase productivity and processing. Södra is investing a total of SKr190m in its sawmills at Långsjö and Torsås, and SCA is investing SKr90m in its sawmills at Tunadal, Bollsta and Vilhelmina. Furthermore, Setra is investing SKr70m in its Nyby and Kvarnåsen plants, plus a further SKr20m to increase production of glulam at its Långshyttan plant.
However, the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen) has suggested that increased production from such investments, in addition to higher tolls on timber exports by Russia, for example, will lead to a shortage of raw material, in particular spruce, and that the supply of timber from Swedish forests will not be enough to meet demand in the coming years up to 2014.
Despite record level production by Swedish sawmills, the competition for wood chips has meant that shortages have arisen in certain areas as a result of the pellet industry growing quickly, while at the same time the chipboard industry is also doing well. This has resulted in increased prices for wood chips and a slowing in the expansion of the pellet industry.
Carbon sinks
According to statistics from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket), the capacity of Swedish forests to absorb carbon dioxide has decreased in recent years. Among the causes of this are seen to be increased harvesting and recent storm damage. In 2005 the forests absorbed 22 million tons of carbon dioxide while forest land released 18 million tons. The net absorption of 4 million tons means that the forests still retained their role as a carbon reducer and a brake on the greenhouse effect, but it was the lowest figure since measurements began in 1990.
Sveaskog has begun work on planting this year’s new trees. It plans to plant 40 million young trees throughout Sweden. One of the ongoing costs that forest owners have to bear is that which results from damage to young trees caused by elk. Sveaskog alone suffers damage to a sum of SKr200m per year due to elk grazing on young trees. To combat this Sveaskog is undertaking a nationwide project by providing food for the elk in the form of plants and bales of fodder in places where they will not damage the forest. If this is successful it will enable the elk population to be increased without causing further damage to the trees.
