The import will reach 0! This country no longer imports Russian logs and chips
March 29, 2023
As one of the main suppliers of paper products in the Nordic region, Finnish pulp mills and sawmills have long relied heavily on imported supplies.
According to data, from 2018 to 2021, Finland's total annual timber imports exceeded 11 million cubic meters, of which hardwood logs accounted for about 50%. In 2021, up to 23% of its pulp raw materials rely on foreign imports of logs and chips, mainly from neighbouring countries.
As Finland borders Russia in the east, Sweden and Norway in the north, the Gulf of Finland in the south, and the Baltic Sea in the west, Russia, as one of the global timber producers, supplies most of the pulp logs and chips in the Finnish market.
However, in 2022, Finland's previously stable supply of pulp logs and wood chips rapidly changed - Finland's import trade of wood raw materials with Russia, which had been maintained for many years, declined significantly in 2022.
In 2021, Russia passed a ban on the export of softwood logs from January 1, 2022, supporting its domestic wood processing industry with low-cost wood raw materials. Hardwood logs and chips have been exempted from export bans.
In February 2022, after the Russian-Uzbekistan incident, Finland, like most European countries, boycotted Russian forest products, including timber and pulp raw materials. Therefore, from the second quarter of 2022, trade between Finland and Russia began to decrease; By the third quarter, the import volume had already reached zero.
The strong demand for pulp raw materials in the Finnish market makes it urgent for the Finnish pulp industry to find alternative sources of supply to Russia in order to maintain its production and supply. However, it is not easy to find a way to fill the shortage of supplies from Russia in the short term.
It is understood that Russia's annual supply of Finnish pulp logs and wood chips exceeds 10 million cubic meters. For this reason, Finnish companies have to adopt different strategies to solve the shortage of pulp raw material supply. This includes using more domestic pulpwood, replacing hardwood fibers with softwood fibers, and importing more wood fibers from non Russian sources.
Therefore, in the third quarter of 2022, the import volume of pulp logs and wood fiber from Sweden and the Baltic countries increased significantly. There has also been a small increase in logs and sawdust from Brazil, South Africa, and Uruguay.
Overall, Finland's total imports from Russia in 2022 decreased by nearly 60% year-on-year, with the most significant decline in hardwood log imports reaching 70%. With the high demand for pulp raw materials from Finnish pulp mills, it is expected that in the next few years, Finland will increase the share of softwood fibers in its pulp production and increase the procurement of pulp logs from domestic sources.
