Finland is one of the largest producers of pulp, paper, and board in the world and one of the largest producers of sawn timber in Europe; Finland's growing stock is about 2 billion cubic meters. (The global standing stock is about 434 billion cubic meters)
Finland's exports of forest products in 2021 will total 13.1 billion euros, a real increase of 16% year-on-year. However, exports were only 2% higher than the average of the previous decade (deflated using the wholesale price index). Cardboard surpassed paper as the most important export, accounting for a quarter of total forestry exports, while paper remained at 22%. Pulp and sawn timber account for one-fifth, according to the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke).
In the wood products industry, exports increased by 42% over the previous year to 3.9 billion euros. Of all products in the wood products industry, sawn timber has the highest export value. 8.7 million cubic meters of sawn timber were exported, with an export value of 2.6 billion euros. Exports rose by 6% in volume, but value rose by more than half due to high export prices. The export price and value of plywood increased by 15%.
The most important exporters of forestry are Germany (13% of exports), China (10%), and the United Kingdom (8%).
In 2021, Finnish timber imports totaled 12.7 million cubic meters, the same as the previous year. Inwood imports, pulpwood accounted for 54%; wood chips accounted for 35%; fuelwood, preservative wood, and wood residues combined accounted for 8%; logs accounted for 3%. Pulpwood imports increased by 2% over the previous year, woodchip imports were flat, and log imports fell by one-fifth.
Exports from the pulp and paper industry increased by 8% year-on-year to 9.3 billion euros. Among them, paperboard is 3.3 billion euros, paper is 2.9 billion euros, and pulp is 2.6 billion euros. The pulp and paper industry's most exported product was bleached kraft pulp, whose exports rose by a fifth to €2.1 billion. Exports, however, fell 1% to 3.7 tonnes. The second export is kaolin-coated multi-layer board and plastic-coated board, with an export value of 2 billion euros (up 3 over the previous year), and the third is magazine paper with 1.2 billion euros (up 4% over the previous year).