Latvian plywood producer Latvijas Finieris has significantly increased its procurement of Swedish birch veneer logs during the 2025\/26 harvesting season, strengthening Sweden's role as a raw material supplier for the Baltic plywood industry.<\/p>\n
Through its Swedish subsidiary, Riga Wood Sweden AB, the company shipped more than 13,000 m\u00b3 under bark (m\u00b3fub) of birch veneer logs from the port of Karlstad to its plywood mills in Latvia. Additional shipments were loaded at V\u00e4ster\u00e5s and several other Swedish ports.<\/p>\n
The company established its Swedish purchasing operation during the 2019\/20 harvesting season, but procurement has accelerated this year. Riga Wood Sweden now sources birch veneer logs from a network of 19 suppliers delivering to its Karlstad export terminal, including sawmills, forest owner associations and independent timber purchasing companies.<\/p>\n
Sweden fills the supply gap<\/strong><\/p>\n The expansion comes as European plywood producers continue replacing raw material previously sourced from Russia.<\/p>\n Before the war in Ukraine, Russian birch was an important source of veneer logs for manufacturers across the Baltic region. That supply has effectively disappeared from the European market following sanctions and trade restrictions.<\/p>\n Finland remains another key source of high-quality birch, but competition for raw material is intense. Latvijas Finieris already operates a plywood mill in Finland, where it competes with domestic processors for timber supplies.<\/p>\n Sweden has become one of the few markets where procurement volumes can still increase.<\/p>\n Large quantities of birch continue to enter the pulpwood market despite meeting veneer log specifications. Riga Wood Sweden is working with timber suppliers to identify and separate veneer-quality logs before they are sold for pulp production.<\/p>\n Veneer logs command a premium<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the company, birch veneer logs typically sell for SEK 200-300\/m\u00b3fub (\u20ac18-27\/m\u00b3) more than birch pulpwood.<\/p>\n The price difference provides an incentive for forest owners and timber buyers to sort veneer logs during harvesting instead of sending all birch to pulp mills.<\/p>\n \"Our work is about finding partners who understand the value of separating veneer logs,\" Arvid Bj\u00f6rkroth, Riga Wood Sweden's timber manager, said.<\/p>\n Quality requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n The quality requirements are less restrictive than many forest owners expect.<\/p>\n The company accepts healthy knots without diameter limits and dead knots up to 40 mm. Limited red heartwood and sound rot are permitted, while loose rot is rejected.<\/p>\n Curved logs are also accepted within defined tolerances. Veneer logs can range from 18 cm to 60 cm in diameter under bark and are supplied in 2.8-metre lengths with an additional 10 cm trimming allowance.<\/p>\n According to the company, approximately half of all logs are cut into shorter sections during processing, making the raw material less sensitive to curvature than is often assumed.<\/p>\n Industrial markets drive demand<\/strong><\/p>\n Latvijas Finieris manufactures birch plywood for industrial applications including truck flooring, commercial vehicles, shipbuilding, scaffolding systems, concrete formwork and engineered construction.<\/p>\n Unlike appearance-grade hardwood products, these applications depend primarily on strength, durability and wear resistance rather than visual quality.<\/p>\n That makes veneer log demand less dependent on furniture and interior design markets than traditional hardwood sawmilling.<\/p>\n Investment remains a possibility<\/strong><\/p>\n The increase in Swedish procurement has also raised questions about future processing investments.<\/p>\n Latvijas Finieris has not announced plans to build a plywood mill in Sweden, but the company has indicated that additional processing capacity could become feasible if long-term raw material supplies continue to grow.<\/p>\n One option would be to produce veneer in Sweden before shipping it to Latvia for plywood manufacturing. Processing closer to the forest would reduce transport costs by replacing roundwood shipments with higher-value veneer.<\/p>\n A full-scale plywood plant would require substantially larger and more stable raw material volumes than those currently available.<\/p>\n New opportunities for Swedish birch<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweden has traditionally directed much of its birch harvest to pulp production, while countries such as Finland and Latvia have developed larger industries around veneer and plywood manufacturing.<\/p>\n The expansion of Riga Wood Sweden's procurement network is creating another outlet for higher-quality birch. As more veneer logs are separated from pulpwood, forest owners have an opportunity to capture higher values from the same harvest.<\/p>\n For the Baltic plywood industry, Sweden has become one of the few remaining regions capable of supplying additional birch veneer logs as competition for raw material continues across Northern Europe.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Latvian plywood producer Latvijas Finieris has significantly increased its procurement of Swedish birch veneer logs during the 2025\/26 harvesting season, strengthening Sweden’s role as a raw material supplier for the Baltic plywood industry.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n