Finnish industrial roundwood prices continued to fall in August. In the standing sales, average prices for spruce and pine logs fell by 2% from July and pulpwood prices decreased slightly more. Only the price of birch logs rose, as the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) reported.
As in June and July, the volume of timber trade in August fell by about a third from last year. However, during January-August, wood purchases have increased compared to last year and the last five years.
The average price paid for spruce logs in standing sales in August was Euro 73.5 per cubic metre, while the average price for pine logs was Euro 69.2. These prices fell by 2% from July and ended slightly below the average prices for the whole of last year in real terms.
The average price of birch logs was Euro 58.6. This was 2% more than in July and 15% higher than the average for the whole of last year.
Standing sales prices for pulpwood fell by three to 5% but were still 21–27% above last year's average prices. The average price of spruce pulpwood fell to Euro 27.7, birch to Euro 26.1 and pine to Euro 25.5 per cubic metre.
The price changes were in delivery sales in the same direction, higher for logs and lower for pulpwood than in standing sales. Delivery prices of pulpwood fell slightly from July, ending between Euro 45 and 48. Average prices for the whole of last year were exceeded by 20–22%.
Trade volumes
In August, the volume of industrial roundwood purchased from private forests was 36% lower than last year and 7% below the average for the previous five years.
In January-August, timber trade was 17% higher than a year ago and 10% higher than the average for the previous five years. Compared to the previous five years, trade in logs was up 12% and trade in pulpwood was up 7%.
