Keitele Group Announces Major Investment at Its Sawmill in Keitele, Finland

Keitele Group, one of Finland’s largest mechanical wood processing companies, announced on Friday that it was investing more than EUR 40 million to increase annual sawn timber capacity at its sawmill in Keitele, Finland.

With the expansion, the Keitele Timber Oy sawmill will be capable of producing 600,000 cubic meters of finished sawn timber. The investment is planned for 2025–26.

According to the press release, the investment will increase net sales by EUR 60 million, while production at Keitele will increase by almost 50%. The investment includes a new packaging plant, additional drying capacity, a processing warehouse and batten load handling equipment, as well as 6 hectares of land and new storage buildings for end products.

The use of logs at Keitele will increase to almost 1.3 million cubic meters per year. The majority of the increasing use of wood is spruce logs, which are procured not only from North Savo but also from nearby regions.

The Finnish timber market, which has become skewed as a result of the end of Russian pulpwood imports and the increased energy use of wood, will be balanced thanks to the increased use of logs. This creates a market for long-cycle raw material, which is processed into sawn timber and wood products to store carbon.

Keitele Timber Oy’s total sawn timber production capacity will increase to 1.25 million cubic meters of finished sawn timber. The company’s other production facilities are located in Alajärvi, South Ostrobothnia and Kemijärvi in Lapland. The three modern plants use a total of nearly 2.7 million cubic meters of high-quality Finnish conifer logs per year, and the wood procurement of Keitele Forest Oy, the Group’s parent company, covers more than 60% of the need.