Finland's sawmill industry entered the second half of 2026 with little sign of an improvement in market conditions, as exceptionally high domestic roundwood prices coincide with weak demand for softwood lumber in both European and overseas markets.<\/p>\n
Production declined during the first six months of the year, exports weakened across several of Finland's main destinations and sawmill profitability remained under severe pressure. The Finnish Sawmills Association sees few indications that the situation will improve during the autumn.<\/p>\n
Finnish sawmills produced 6.1 million m\u00b3 of softwood lumber between January and June, down 3% from the same period of 2025.<\/p>\n
The decline was concentrated in spruce lumber. Production fell 6% year on year to approximately 3.0 million m\u00b3, while pine lumber production remained broadly unchanged at 3.1 million m\u00b3.<\/p>\n
The value of Finnish softwood lumber exports also declined. Export revenues reached approximately \u20ac870 million in the first half of 2026, 5% below the previous year's level.<\/p>\n
The combination is particularly difficult for producers because weaker sales have not been accompanied by comparable relief on the raw-material side. Finnish sawmills continue to face high roundwood procurement costs, putting pressure on margins at a time when customers in several important markets are buying less lumber.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how closely you look, there is currently no light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Finnish Sawmills Association CEO Tino Aalto said. He described the level of uncertainty facing companies as exceptionally high and argued that lower Finnish roundwood prices would improve both profitability and the industry's international competitiveness.<\/p>\n
Export weakness extends across major markets<\/strong><\/p>\n The deterioration is not confined to one geographical market.<\/p>\n During January-May, Finnish delivery volumes declined in eight of the country's ten largest softwood lumber export destinations compared with the same period last year.<\/p>\n Among the three largest markets, shipments to Egypt fell 2%, deliveries to Estonia declined 2%, while exports to the United Kingdom dropped 15%.<\/p>\n The weakness was considerably more pronounced in Asia. Finnish softwood lumber exports to Japan were down 20%, while shipments to China fell 27%.<\/p>\n The decline in China and Japan is particularly significant for Finnish sawmills because overseas markets provide an important outlet for production that cannot be absorbed by Finland's relatively small domestic market.<\/p>\n Finland's geographical position also creates an additional disadvantage when international competition intensifies. Aalto said sawmills elsewhere in Europe are confronting many of the same problems, but Finnish producers face longer transport distances to many of their principal customers.<\/p>\n That leaves companies exposed simultaneously to weak international demand, high raw-material costs and the logistical expense of reaching distant export markets.<\/p>\n Domestic recovery offers little help to sawmills<\/strong><\/p>\n Recent signs of improvement in parts of the Finnish economy have so far failed to translate into a meaningful recovery in wood products consumption.<\/p>\n Aalto said demand for wood products remains low and that any improvement in domestic consumption would have to be substantial before it could materially change conditions for an industry heavily dependent on exports.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been some much-needed positive news from the Finnish economy recently. Unfortunately, it is not as visible in the forest sector and sawmill industry,\u201d Aalto said.<\/p>\n The underlying problem remains the imbalance between the cost of logs entering Finnish sawmills and the prices producers can obtain for softwood lumber.<\/p>\n With production already being reduced and export volumes falling across most major markets, mills have limited scope to compensate for expensive raw material by increasing output. At the same time, weak construction and subdued wood products consumption are limiting their ability to pass higher costs on to customers.<\/p>\n The first-half figures consequently point to continued production discipline rather than a rapid recovery. With 6.1 million m\u00b3 of production, falling export revenues and sharp declines in several important overseas markets, the Finnish sawmill industry is entering the autumn with essentially the same problems that dominated the beginning of the year.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finland’s sawmill industry entered the second half of 2026 with little sign of an improvement in market conditions, as exceptionally high domestic roundwood prices coincide with weak demand for softwood lumber in both European and overseas markets.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99542,"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-99541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n