News in international markets

Raute Corporation has announced that it signed a contract with AS Latvijas Finieris, a leading producer of birch plywood in Europe and Baltic countries, to deliver technology for the expansion of Latvijas Finieris’ Vermes, Latvia, plywood mill.

To help meet the demand for sawn timber and to keep mills in operation, logs are being transported more than 900 kilometers by rail from northern New South Wales as part of the bushfire recovery, according to a report by “ABC News.”

HS Timber Group (HSTG), an Austrian wood processing company, announced Tuesday that it had recently sold one of its Romanian units to Germany’s Ziegler Group. Under the agreement, Ziegler Group is taking over the entire team of more than 650 employees.

On Sunday, Kenya’s Forestry Permanent Secretary Kimotho Kimani announced that the ban on logging forests, imposed six years ago, will be lifted in July, according to The Star newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya. Kimani said the move will allow licensed sawmillers to resume harvesting mature trees from both public and private forests.

Mercer recently announced the launch of its program “Growing forests – Growing a future” to support forest owners in Germany. Mercer Holz, the wood purchasing organization of Mercer, is committed to partner with forest owners in Germany to sustain the longevity of their forests.

Stora Enos OYJ announced Wednesday that intends to consolidate its book paper production and permanently close one of the two paper machines at its Anjala facility in Finland. The company cited the prevailing weakness in paper demand and high input costs.

According to Dry Cargo International, the Port of Riga, a major port on the east coast of the Baltic Sea in the capital of Latvia, reported forestry and timber industry cargo were the largest cargo group transshipped through the port in 2022.

According to data released by US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service and reporting by Biomass Magazine, the US exported 632,043.8 metric tons of wood pellets in February. This is down from 637,518.4 metric tons in January.

The Finnish forest industry’s foreign trade was negatively impacted in 2022 by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting economic affects. According to Luke, a total of 5.5 million cubic meters of roundwood and forest industry by-products were imported in 2022, a 56% annual drop.