Pulpwood and energywood prices reached record-high levels in wood trade in 2023
During the first half of the year, prices for pulpwood and energywood reached unusually high levels. While pulpwood prices started to decrease during summer, the year’s average prices in real terms were some 20 per cent higher than in the previous year. Energywood prices were higher than ever before in the history of the statistics, as the price for pruned stems in standing sales almost tripled. No significant changes took place in the prices for pine and spruce logs.
After two peak years, demand for forest industry products decreased significantly in 2023. At the beginning of the year, forest industry production and exports were high, but the outlook for exports and the domestic economy weakened during the rest of the year. Inflation, high interest rates and product stock levels, and general uncertainties reduced demand for forest industry products.
In wood trade, 2023 was a divided year. Rising average prices and high purchase volumes were recorded during the first half. The wood volume in May was the highest ever recorded in the statistics for May. During summer the standing sales prices for key assortments started to decrease, with wood volumes falling short of the previous years’ levels by roughly a quarter during the latter half.
Pulpwood prices high
Pulpwood prices increased rapidly during the first half of 2023. In standing sales, the average price for spruce pulpwood exceeded the EUR 30 limit in June, and the full-year average price increased to EUR 27.5 per cubic metre. Prices for birch and pine were a couple of euros lower.
In pulpwood delivery sales, the monthly prices for spruce and birch were briefly above the limit of EUR 48, and the year’s average price increased to almost EUR 46, while pine prices were a couple of euros lower.
“Pulpwood prices increased unusually much and were exceptionally high. The average price for all pulpwood was roughly 20 per cent higher than in the previous year in real terms. In standing sales, the last time the annual price for spruce pulpwood was this high was in 2008. For birch and pine, we have to go back to the previous century,” says Jukka Torvelainen, Senior Statistician at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
High demand and record-high prices for energywood
Energywood prices increased significantly in 2023, more in standing sales than in delivery sales. The average price for pruned stems increased to EUR 19.4 per cubic metre in standing sales, being as much as 2.6 times the prices in the previous year. In delivery sales, the price was 1.3 times the previous at EUR 43.4.
Prices for logging residues increased slightly less. The year’s average price increased to EUR 7.3 per cubic metre in standing sales and EUR 25.5 per cubic metre in delivery sales.
“Energywood prices increased to record-high levels, driven by the replacement of fossil fuels and peat with wood and the drop in the volumes of imported wood and forest industry by-products. The high demand and prices for pulpwood and stems steered energywood purchases more towards logging residues and whole trees,” Torvelainen says.
Prices for pruned stems close to pulpwood prices
In delivery sales, prices for stems and pulpwood have for long been close to each other. In standing sales, stem prices were previously roughly a quarter of pulpwood prices until the gap started to close quickly during 2022.
“In standing sales in 2023, average stem prices were three quarters of pulpwood prices or more in certain regions and near heat plants. However, it should be remembered that last year’s stem removals were less than a tenth of pulpwood felling volumes,” says Torvelainen.
Prices for softwood logs unchanged while prices for birch logs increased significantly
In standing sales, the average price paid for spruce logs was EUR 74.8 per cubic metre and EUR 70.7 per cubic metre for pine logs, showing a decrease of one per cent from the previous year in real terms. In delivery sales, average prices increased by one per cent.
Prices for birch logs increased. The average price for birch logs increased by 12 per cent to EUR 57.6 in standing sales and by 17 per cent to EUR 70.1 in delivery sales.
Log trade decreased while pulpwood and energywood purchases increased
In 2023, the purchase volumes of logs decreased by three per cent and those of pulpwood increased by one per cent. The purchase volume of pulpwood became higher than the combined volume of regular and small logs. Of all assortments, pine pulpwood and spruce logs were purchased most, each accounting for a quarter of the total wood trade volume.
In 2023, the energywood trade volume recorded in the statistics was five million cubic metres, which was the largest volume during the history of the statistics started in 2014. Trade in logging residues increased by more than a quarter from the previous year, while trade in pruned stems decreased slightly.
Of all energywood purchases, logging residues accounted for more than half and pruned stems for a third. The rest consisted almost entirely of unpruned whole trees, as stumps were not used for energy to any significant extent.
Background to the statistics
Information for the wood trade statistics is collected from the largest wood buyers and from forest management associations. The datasets cover roughly 90 per cent of all industrial wood and half of energywood purchased from non-industrial private forests. The reported wood volumes are published unchanged, and the data are not expanded to correspond to all wood trade in non-industrial private forests. Luke’s wood trade statistics are highly representative of average prices on the wood market and any changes in them and volumes.
Wood prices are recorded in the statistics database at nominal, or fair, prices valid at the time in question. However, price changes are examined in the texts and graphs in real terms by eliminating the change in value using the cost-of-living index. In 2023, the average inflation rate was roughly six per cent, meaning that the purchasing power decreased more quickly than normal.
