Foreign trade in roundwood and forest industry products, 3/2024 (preliminary)

Political strikes disrupted exports and imports in March 2024. The value of forest industry exports was EUR 0.60 billion, compared with a monthly average of EUR 1.00 billion in the previous year. 

In March, 0.39 million cubic metres of wood were imported into Finland, which was 23% less than the monthly average of the previous year. However, imports of wood chips increased by 19% compared to last year's average.

Forest Industry Exports in January to March 2024

• The total value of forest industry product exports was EUR 2.58 billion in January-March, an average of EUR 0.86 billion per month. The value of forest industry exports showed a downward trend in the first quarter of the year. Of the export value, 23% came from paper, 27% from paperboard and 22% from pulp. Lumber and plywood accounted for 14% and 5% of export earnings respectively. 
• The real value of wood product exports was EUR 0.60 billion in January-March, averaging EUR 0.20 billion per month. The real value of wood products exports decreased by 22% from the monthly average of January to March of the previous year. 
• The pulp and paper industry exported an average of EUR 0.66 billion of its products in January-March, which was 18% less than in the corresponding period of the previous year. In March, exports fell to almost half of January's exports due to strikes.
• The export value of magazine paper and fine paper fell by 12% and 14% respectively over the period, but both export volumes increased slightly. The export value and volume of paperboard fell by 15% and 6% respectively.

Wood Imports in January-March 2024

• During January-March, an average of 0.44 million cubic metres of wood was imported into Finland per month, which was 13% less than in the same period last year. 
• 41% of the wood was imported from Latvia, 30% from Estonia and 17% from Sweden.
• Of the wood imported between January and March, 45% was pulpwood, 41% chips and 2% logs. Compared to the first quarter of last year, imports of pulpwood decreased by 14 percentage points and imports of logs by one percentage point, while imports of chips increased by 15 percentage points.