Volumes and prices in roundwood trade, 6/2021

• Trade of roundwood in non-industrial private forests continued to be exceptionally active in June, with 8.2 million cubic metres of roudwood purchased by the forest industry. This was the largest amount of roundwood ever recorded in the roundwood trade statistics during one month. The largest roundwood buyers and forest management associations report their roudwood purchases to the roundwood trade statistics, and the published statistics includes only their roundwood trade. The number of companies reporting roundwood trade to the statistics has increased in 2013 and 2016. If the increase of companies reporting data  is taken into account, some more active roundwood trade months have probably occurred in the time series.
• The volume of roundwood trade during the first half of the year was 57 percent higher than a year earlier. Large monthly variation is typical for roundwood trade volumes. They vary more on a monthly basis than felling volumes.
• The stumpage prices of roundwood continued to rise in June. Pine logs fetched an average of EUR 65.2, and spruce logs EUR 68.8 per cubic metre in standing sales. The price level of softwood logs was about one per cent higher than in May. The previous peak in stumpage prices for softwood logs was in December 2018. The real price of softwood logs in June 2021 was approximately one euro more expensive than then.
• The standing sale price was EUR 19.9 per cubic metre for pine pulpwood, EUR 22.4 for spruce pulpwood and 18.8 for birch pulpwood. The average price level of pulpwood increased by two per cent from the previous month.
• In roadside transactions, the average unit price for pine pulpwood was EUR 32.7, for spruce pulpwood EUR 33.3, and for birch pulpwood EUR 32.6 per cubic metre. Delivery sales are dominated by pulpwood.

The recorded prices are based on prices entered in wood trade agreements between the buyers and sellers. Any other increments and services related to wood trade are not included in the statistics.

Wood trade data for statistics are provided by the largest buyers of wood and forest management associations. As the information is not rounded up to correspond to the total non-industrial private wood trade in Finland, the published wood volumes only represent just over 90 per cent of the wood purchased by forest industries from non-industrial private forests.