Forest owners in Finland have recently enjoyed favorable timber prices. By percentage, the stumpage and procurement prices of fiber wood species have increased by 40-50% in just a couple of years.
The big question is how long these good days will last. Is the current price level the new normal, or will prices plummet back to the levels of a few years ago, or even lower?
If history repeats itself, harsh times could strike quickly. In the peak year of 2006, almost 20 million cubic meters of timber arrived in Finland from the east. Then Russia restricted imports, and the flow of wood from the east halved. Around the same time, the financial crisis sent the paper markets into a tailspin.