According to statistics from the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (Metsäteollisuus), purchase volumes fell to 830,000 cubic metres in the first week of October.

Timber trading slowed in October. Members of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation bought a total of almost 830,000 cubic metres of wood. That is nearly 160,000 cubic metres less than in the preceding week. It should be stressed, however, that compared with last year the purchase volume has risen by roughly 280,000 cubic metres.

Purchases by companies belonging to the Finnish Forest Industries Federation account for around 80% of all timber trading in Finland.

Since the beginning of the year, purchase volumes have already climbed to almost 35 million cubic metres, taking all timber buyers into account. Last year, the volume of timber purchased over the same period was 2.6 million cubic metres lower.

In Finland, average stumpage prices mostly fell. The average price of pine sawlogs dropped to 79.23 euros and that of spruce sawlogs to 81.96 euros per cubic metre. The average price of birch logs, meanwhile, rose to 64.21 euros per cubic metre.

Average stumpage prices for pulpwood fell across the board. Pine pulpwood cost 31.28 euros, spruce pulpwood 33.29 euros and birch pulpwood 31.85 euros per cubic metre. The Finnish Forest Industries Federation compiles average prices over the preceding four weeks.