Softwood traders meeting in London have been given the lowdown on the “hard facts” confronting Finland’s timber industry.
Lasse Henttu, sales director of Finnforest’s woodworking industry division, told the London Softwood Club’s April meeting that the country’s combined sawn whitewood and redwood production was 7.6 million m³ in 2009 – 22% less than in 2008 and down from 13 million m³ in 2003.
Mr Henttu said permanent closures had removed 1.2 million m³ of sawn production capacity from the industry.
He also said Finland now exported 50% of its sawn production outside of Europe. “This would not have happened 15 year ago,” he said.
The UK now accounts for 14% of Finland’s sawn exports, less than Egypt (17%).
“For the time being we are in a situation where there are no logs available,” he said. “It is an awful situation. If there was no lack of logs the timber prices would come down very quickly.”
Mr Henttu said Finland’s sawmills had the potential to increase production greatly if raw material became available.
“There is enormous potential – we could quickly produce 3 million m³ more.”
He said sawn redwood stocks were at a “reasonable” level today but spruce stocks were low.
(For more on this story see the next issue of TTJ)
