Nordic forest industry snapshot 

Top Nordic executives such as CEO Jouko Karvinen were speaking at Nordea’s annual Forest Products & Paper Seminar in Helsinki. The themes addressed by the industry representatives revolved around cost competitiveness, structural trends and growth opportunities.

All the companies have been battling increasing wood and energy costs and the strong Euro. All the forest product company executives spoke of improving their cost base.

Many are closing uncompetitive capacity, and Stora Enso has already closed down Summa and Kemijärvi Mills in Finland and will close Norrsundet Pulp Mill in Sweden by the end of this year. Jouko Karvinen remarked: ”I don’t think that we’ve done enough and I don’t think that the industry has done enough.”

The Russian export duty increase scheduled for January 2009 remains a threat. The use of Russian wood has already been significantly reduced. The goal remains for the company to be strategically independent of Russian wood.

Although the industry is in the midst of difficult times, Stora Enso is working hard to beat the current challenges. Opportunities lie in new markets and in innovation.
 
Download Jouko Karvinen’s presentation at http://dotcom-authoring.storaenso.com/investors/presentations