“The winners of the future are the companies with modern, environmental and resource-efficient production plants.”
Teppo Vainio
caused by destructive pests may increase. If mild winters become more common, it may make logging more difficult in the Nordic forests. Summanen predicts that wood supply will experience large fluctuations in Central Europe. In the past few years we have seen a need to accelerate logging due to insect and storm damage. This has temporarily increased the amount of pulpwood on the market and lowered prices. In Central Europe, forest industry production is also impacted by the increasing irregularity of rain. Heavy floods alternate with periods of drought that threaten to weaken the production plants’ access to water.
pulpwood production is realistic for Russia in the near future, even though it has more raw material than any other country in the world. Jokinen says that Russia lacks a comprehensive forest road network and other infrastructure needed to increase logging. An increase in pulp production would also require large investments in the sawmill industry, but that would necessitate financing and technology. “Russia has neither, and foreign operators were cautious of investing in the country’s forest industry even before the war,” says Jokinen.
Modern mills help to reduce emissions
Russia is not capable of increasing production
Vainio points out that, globally, there have been relatively few significant investments in softwood pulp production capacity. Modern mills create even fewer emissions, and according to Vainio this will improve their competitiveness as environmental regulations are likely to tighten in the future. To reduce emissions in a cost-efficient manner means, for example, that a company will pay lower emissions trading fees than competitors. “The winners of the future are the companies with modern, environmental and resource-efficient production plants,” says Vainio. •
The Russian invasion of Ukraine halted the import of wood from Russia into Western Europe. This has impacted the supply of pulpwood, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. “The shortfall has been covered by acquiring more wood from nearby areas and domestically, which has increased the prices of pulpwood and logs,” Vainio says. The European Union imposed an import ban on pulp and wood products from Russia, but the export of pulp and other wood products from Russia to countries such as China is likely to continue. Jokinen does not think that a significant increase in
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