Political strikes in March 2024 severely impacted Finland's forest industry, causing a significant drop in exports and imports. The value of forest industry exports fell to Euro 0.60 billion from a monthly average of Euro 1.00 billion in the previous year. This represents a sharp decline in economic activity in one of Finland's key sectors, according to Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
In March, Finland imported 0.39 million cubic metres of wood, 23% less than the previous year's monthly average. However, imports of wood chips bucked the trend, increasing by 19%.
From January to March 2024, the forest industry exported products worth Euro 2.58 billion, averaging Euro 0.86 billion per month. This marks a downward trend compared to the previous year. Notably, 23% of the export value came from paper, 27% from paperboard, and 22% from pulp, while lumber and plywood accounted for 14% and 5%, respectively.
The real value of wood product exports was Euro 0.60 billion in the first quarter, averaging Euro 0.20 billion per month, a 22% decrease from the previous year. The pulp and paper industry exports averaged Euro 0.66 billion per month, an 18% decline from the same period last year, with March's exports nearly halved due to the strikes.
The export values of magazine paper and fine paper fell by 12% and 14% respectively, although export volumes increased slightly. Paperboard export value and volume decreased by 15% and 6%. In March 2024, forest industry products saw a 40% decrease in export value compared to the average monthly exports in 2022. Wood-products industries experienced a 35% drop, while pulp and paper industries faced a 41% decline.
During January-March, an average of 0.44 million cubic metres of wood was imported into Finland per month, 13% less than in the same period last year. Latvia, Estonia, and Sweden were the main sources, contributing 41%, 30%, and 17% of the imports respectively. Of the wood imported, 45% was pulpwood, 41% chips, and 2% logs. Imports of pulpwood and logs decreased by 14 and 1 percentage points respectively, while chip imports increased by 15 percentage points.
In March 2024, wood imports totaled 0.39 million cubic metres, 23% less than the 2023 monthly average. Pulpwood imports decreased by 41%, while chip imports rose by 19%. Log imports fell by 60%, continuing the trend of declining wood imports during the first quarter of 2024.
