High-stakes events playing out in Finland over the price of forest wood could be a portent for Australia and New Zealand where the commercial plantations are increasingly in ‘private’ ownership.
Sweden’s Stora Enso – the self-proclaimed “world leader in forest industry sustainability” and giant paper, packaging and wood products producer – is threatening to shut mills in neighbouring Finland because of mounting wood costs there.
As In-Wood magazine reported in May (issue 91, page 23) most of Finland’s commercial forest is owned by thousands of small woodlot investors who sell their wood through cooperatives.
Three years ago when the industry in Europe was riding high, Finnish sawmills were paying around 65 euro for standing logs. But the GFC changed all that, and although prices have fallen dramatically, they haven’t dropped enough for the likes of Stora Enso and the other Scandinavian giant, Finnforest.
Finnforest has closed eight of its 11 mills in Finland and now Stora Enso, which employs 27,000 people worldwide, is threatening something similar. This week it announced the beginning of “co-determination negotiations” concerning possible temporary lay-offs at its three Finnish sawmills.
The planned lay-offs are in response to the threat that wood costs in Finland will become even more uncompetitive if current trends continue.
In Australasia
Hardball battles over wood costs are also likely to escalate in New Zealand and Australia, where the age of the fully integrated wood processing giants is all but over. And the new gatekeepers to the region’s hardwood and softwood fibre, the exclusively northern hemisphere-owned timber management funds, are by definition interested in one thing: return on investment. (Full story)
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