The forest industry purchased 1.1 million cubic metres of wood from private forests in July. The holiday season dampened timber sales activity and the purchase volume was somewhat smaller than the July average for earlier years.
The aggregate purchase volume for January-July, 12 million cubic metres, more than tripled from the corresponding period of 2009, but remained 14% below the longer-term average. Pulpwood purchases came to 6.6 million cubic metres and log procurements to 5 million cubic metres in January-July.
The forest industry is purchasing storm-downed trees for suitable applications. Some of the downed trees have sufficient trunk diameters to be considered sawlogs, but are too damaged by the strong winds to be used in the making of sawn timber; instead, they can be chipped and used as raw material for pulp.
Stumpage prices remained almost unchanged. The prices of spruce logs and birch pulpwood increased 2% and pine pulpwood prices were up 1%. The average stumpage price of pine logs was €56 per cubic metre and spruce logs cost €58 per cubic metre. Birch logs fetched €41 per cubic metre on average. The average price of pine and birch pulpwood was €16 per cubic metre, while spruce pulpwood was priced at €19 per cubic metre on average.
More domestic wood is needed because of the improved market situation for forest industry products. There is good demand for all timber grades as well as for forest energy.
