Volumes and prices in roundwood trade, 7/2023

Prices for industrial roundwood fell in standing sales in July. Average prices for spruce and pine logs fell by four percent and prices for all species of pulpwood by five percent from June. Delivery sales prices moved in the other direction, rising by 5–10 per cent, except for birch stumps.

July timber trade has not been this low since 2017, as it was 28 per cent below the average for the previous five years. For the whole of the year, 12 per cent more timber was purchased than in the previous five years.

Timber prices

• In standing sales, the average price paid for spruce logs in July was EUR 75.3 and for pine logs EUR 71.4 per cubic metre. Real prices fell by four percent from June and ended up at average price level for the whole of last year.
• The average price of birch logs was EUR 57.9. This was five per cent less than in June and 13 per cent higher than the average for the whole of last year.
• For all types of pulpwood, the average standing sale price fell by five per cent, but were still 25–34 per cent above last year's average prices. The average price of spruce fell to EUR 28.8, birch to EUR 27.6 and pine to EUR 26.5 per cubic metre.
• In delivery sales, pulpwood prices rose by 5–10 per cent from June. Average prices for the whole of last year were exceeded by 21–24 per cent.

Trade volumes

• In July, only 1.4 million cubic metres of industrial roundwood purchased from private forests were recorded in the statistics. This was 29 per cent down on the previous year and 28 per cent lower than the average for the previous five years. The last time that lower volumes of timber sales were recorded in July was in 2016 and 2017.
• In January-July, timber trade was 28 per cent higher than a year ago and 12 per cent higher than in the previous five years. Compared to the previous five years, trade in logs was up 15 per cent and trade in pulpwood was up nine per cent.

Background information on the statistics

Unit prices in roundwood trade are recorded in the statistical database at the fair prices valid each time. 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 July 2023, the annual increase in consumer prices was around six per cent.

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 about 90 per cent of the wood purchased by forest industries from non-industrial private forests.