Lumber trade goes up in forest industry in 2017

Last year was a good year for roundwood trade from Finnish forests, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland-Luke.

The purchases of the forest industry from non-industrial private forests totalled 43 million cubic metres, said a press release from Luke.

This was five per cent more than in 2016. Half of the total quantity was pulpwood. Of the different types of roundwood assortments, spruce logs and pine pulpwood were traded the most, 11 million cubic metres each.

The standing sales of roundwood totalled 36.7 million cubic metres in 2017. Their relative share of the Finnish roundwood purchased by the forest industry increased from the previous year by three percentage points to 85 per cent. In standing sales, approximately half of the roundwood were logs. In turn, the delivery sales (6.2 million m³) were mostly made up of pulpwood, with logs only representing 27 per cent.

The average stumpage price for pine logs was EUR 54.9 per cubic metre and that for spruce logs EUR 57.8 per cubic metre. EUR 15.9 per cubic metre was paid for pine pulpwood in standing sales, while the price paid for spruce pulpwood was EUR 17.7 per cubic metre, said senior statistician Aarre Peltola of Luke

The nominal prices of roundwood increased from the previous year, but the real stumpage price level still decreased by one per cent. Spruce logs were the most sold item in standing sales at 10.5 million cubic metres, followed by pine pulpwood at 8.9 million cubic metres.

In 2017, the average delivery price of pine pulpwood was EUR 27.7, that of spruce pulpwood was EUR 30.1 and that of birch pulpwood was EUR 28.0 per cubic metre.

Like the stumpage prices, the real delivery prices also decreased from the previous year. Pine pulpwood was the most sold item in delivery sales at 2.4

The method of felling affects the stumpage price paid for the wood.

“The stumpage price for logs harvested by regeneration felling was two per cent and for pulpwood 12% higher than the average stumpage price. The price for logs harvested by thinning was 15 per cent and for pulpwood eight per cent lower than the average stumpage price. Wood harvested in the course of a first thinning fetched 29 per cent less than the average stumpage price,” Peltola added.

Some 86 per cent of the logs purchased in standing sales and 49 per cent of the pulpwood purchased in standing sales originated from regeneration felling stands.

The collection of data for the statistics expanded in 2016 when it also started covering forest management associations and certain medium-sized forest industry companies. The volumes of wood reported by the parties providing information are recorded in the statistics as received, and the figures in the statistics represent over 90 per cent of the wood purchased by the forest industry from non-industrial private forests.

The expansion of the data collection caused a break in the homogeneity of the time series, which is why the current wood trade volumes are not comparable with the figures in the statistics up to 2015. The years 2016 and 2017 are comparable with each other.