Softwood traders meeting in London were 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 recession had resulted in a 22% fall in Finnish sawn whitewood and redwood output in 2009, and mill closures had removed 1.2 million m³ of capacity.
He also said Finland now exported 50% of its sawn production outside Europe, with the UK accounting for only 14% of the total, less than Egypt, which accounted for 17%.
Mr Henttu said Finland’s mills did have the potential to increase production greatly.
“We could quickly produce 3 million m³ more,” he said.
However, he added, the industry was additionally being hit by raw material shortages.
“For the time being 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.”
Looking at this year and further ahead, Mr Henttu said sawn redwood stocks were now recovering to a “reasonable” level, with production up an estimated 10%, but he added that spruce stocks remained low.
He predicted that demand in Europe would pick up, but slowly, due to the sluggish construction recovery, and from a low base.
However, he forecast that North African business would continue to be robust, Asia would grow and “timid growth” in the US would turn into a “big bang” at the year end.
Whether the Finnish log supply would improve, he added, was uncertain.