Paper still most vital forest industries export product

The value of exported forest industry products totalled about EUR 12 billion in 2017, according to the statistics of Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Finland’s goods exports were nearly EUR 60 billion, showing an increase of 10% from the previous year in real terms, said a press release issued by Luke.

However, the total value of exports in forest industries remained fairly unchanged. Forest industry products accounted for one-fifth of Finland’s total goods exports.

The exports value of pulp and paper industries was slightly over EUR 9 billion. In real terms, the value of exports decreased by 2% from the previous year. Of the export earnings of forest industries, 56% came from paper and paperboard products.

“The total value of paper exports was a little more than EUR 4 billion, showing a decrease of 9% from the previous year in real terms”, said researcher Eeva Vaahtera of the Luke.

The value of paperboard exports totalled EUR 2.7 billion, showing an increase of 5% in real terms. The third most important export product was pulp. Its export value was nearly EUR 2 billion, showing an increase of 6% in real terms.

Regarding exports of paper and paperboard, Germany was Finland’s most important trading partner. A little more than one-third of earnings from pulp exports came from China.

The exports value of wood-products industries was EUR 2.9 billion. In real terms, it increased by 6% from the previous year.

“The most exported products in the wood-products industries were sawn goods at a value of EUR 1.8 billion. The highest amount of sawn goods was exported from Finland to China which comprised 18% of total exports. It was followed by Japan accounting for 13%, and the UK covering 10% of exports”, Vaahtera said.

A total of 1.4 million cubic metres of wood was exported from Finland at a value of EUR 101 million. The wood export volume increased by more than one-tenth from the previous year. The assortments with the highest export volumes were pulpwood (42%), logs (32%) and wood chips (13%). In total, 77% of all exported wood was exported to Sweden.

Finland imported 8.7 million cubic metres of wood in 2017.

“Wood imports decreased by more than one-tenth from the previous year. Of all imported wood, pulpwood accounted for more than half, chips for 31% and logs for 8%. Wood residues covered the remaining 5%”, Vaahtera said.

Compared with the year before, the volume of imported pulpwood decreased by 18% and that of imported logs by 23%. Instead, the volume of imported chips increased by 7%. Russia is clearly the most important country for imported wood, covering 85% of all wood imported in 2017. Other key trading partners were Estonia (9%) and Latvia (4%). The value of wood imports was EUR 324 million.

The value of imported forest industry products was EUR 1.4 billion. Articles with the highest import volumes were pulp (EUR 0.3 billion), wooden furniture (EUR 0.3 billion) and converted paper and paperboard products (EUR 0.2 billion).

Finland’s key trading partners were Sweden (covering 18% of the value of imports), Estonia (14%) and Brazil (13%). The most important forest industry articles imported were paperboard from Sweden and wooden furniture from Estonia. Pulp, consisting nearly exclusively of bleached hardwood sulphate pulp, was imported from Brazil.