Finnish forest industry production and exports in 2005

Global demand for paper and board in 2005 largely followed general economic growth. For the Finnish forest industry it was an exceptional year: the seven-week labour dispute in the paper industry led to considerable reductions in both production and exports. Paper production was almost 12% down on the previous year at 12.4 million tonnes. Pulp production fell by roughly the same amount. With pulp mills idle during the dispute, chip deliveries had to be reduced, forcing sawmills to curtail output by around 10% to 12.2 million cubic metres. Production by the forest industry as a whole was some 10% down on 2004 (article on pages 72-74).