A total of 65 million m3 of roundwood was harvested in 2021 from Finnish forests for the forest industries. Spruce logs were harvested the most as industrial roundwood, more than ever before. As 10 million m3 of roundwood were also harvested for energy generation, total roundwood removals increased to 76 million m3, According to preliminary data of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
The high supply of forest industry products and the increased demand for wood were reflected in commercial felling in 2021. Industrial roundwood removals increased by seven million cubic metres, or 12%, from the previous year, up by 4% from the average roundwood removals during the preceding five-year period.
During 2021, new records were also broken in roundwood removals at a monthly level. Over four months, industrial roundwood removals totalled more than 6 million m3, with the highest volume of up to 7.4 million m3 being reached in March.
Log removals have never before exceeded the limit of 30 million m3 a year. Last year, log removals totalled 30.3 million m3, up by 14% compared with the average of the previous five years.
“Spruce log removals were particularly high at 16.3 million m3. This was the first time when spruce log removals exceeded pine pulpwood removals. This year, pine pulpwood removals were 16 million m3,” says Tiina Sauvula-Seppälä, senior statistician at Luke.
Spruce log removals were 26% higher than in the previous year and 15% higher than the average of the previous five years. Pine log removals were also record-high at 12.9 million m3. The increase in the felling volumes mainly came from non-industrial private forests.
Pulpwood removals did not increase as rapidly as log removals, with pulpwood removals totalling 35.1 million m3. While this volume increased by 5% at an annual level, it fell short of the average of the previous five years by 4%. Spruce pulpwood removals increased by 9% from the previous year.
In commercial felling, 6.2 million m3 of energywood were harvested as forest chips for heat and power plants. Delimbed and whole-trees accounted for 3.6 and logging residues and stumps 2.6 million m3.
Roundwood is also imported from other countries for use in the Finnish forest industries and energy generation. According to preliminary estimates, a total of 12–13 million m3 of roundwood were imported into Finland in 2021. Pulpwood made up roughly 7 million, chips 4 million and logs less than half a million m3. Roundwood exports totalled slightly more than a million m3.
“According to preliminary estimates, total roundwood removals increased by 10% from the previous year to 75.8 million m3. The 2021 felling volume was the second highest ever recorded in statistics, only falling short of the peak year of 2018 by slightly more than 2 million m3,” says Jukka Torvelainen, senior statistician at Luke.
