Volumes and prices in roundwood trade, 8/2023

Industrial roundwood prices continued to fall in August. In the standing sales, average prices for spruce and pine logs fell by two per cent from July and pulpwood prices decreased slightly more. Only the price of birch logs rose.

As in June and July, the volume of timber trade in August fell by about a third from last year. However, during January-August, wood purchases have increased compared to last year and the last five years.

Timber prices

The average price paid for spruce logs in standing sales in August was EUR 73.5 per cubic metre, while the average price for pine logs was EUR 69.2. These prices fell by two per cent from July and ended slightly below the average prices for the whole of last year in real terms.
The average price of birch logs was EUR 58.6. This was two per cent more than in July and 15 per cent higher than the average for the whole of last year.
Standing sales prices for pulpwood fell by three to five percent but were still 21–27 percent above last year's average prices. The average price of spruce pulpwood fell to EUR 27.7, birch to EUR 26.1 and pine to EUR 25.5 per cubic metre.
The price changes were in delivery sales in the same direction, higher for logs and lower for pulpwood than in standing sales. Delivery prices of pulpwood fell slightly from July, ending between EUR 45 and 48. Average prices for the whole of last year were exceeded by 20–22 per cent.

Average timber prices and their real changes in private forests, August 2023
	August 2023	Compared to the previous month	Compared to the previous year as a whole
	€/m3	%	%
Standing sales
Pine logs	69,24	-2	-1
Spruce logs	73,52	-2	-2
Birch logs	58,63	2	15
Pine pulpwood	25,51	-3	23
Spruce pulpwood	27,69	-3	21
Birch pulpwood	26,11	-5	27
Delivery sales
Pine pulpwood	45,19	-1	20
Spruce pulpwood	47,54	0	21
Birch pulpwood	47,54	-2	22

Trade volumes

In August, the volume of industrial roundwood purchased from private forests was 36 per cent lower than last year and seven per cent below the average for the previous five years.
In January-August, timber trade was 17 per cent higher than a year ago and 10 per cent higher than the average for the previous five years. Compared to the previous five years, trade in logs was up 12 per cent and trade in pulpwood was up seven 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 August 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.