As the Swedish forestry association Skogsindustrierna reports, the Swedish Committee on Environmental Objectives presented a preliminary catalogue of measures, some of which involve significant restrictions on the country’s future supply of raw materials. According to the association, these measures are not only harmful to the forestry and timber industry. They also have little to no impact on reaching climate goals. At its core, there is a proposal to reach an agreement with private forest owners to extend rotation periods in their forests. According to Viveka Beckeman, CEO of Skogsindustrierna, this proposal should be questioned and criticized, both in terms of the high costs related to it and its low impact on the climate. While having merely vague positive effects on the climate, “the proposal will significantly impact the supply of raw materials to Swedish sawmills and the downstream production of durable wood products,” Beckeman comments.
The proposal is also in contradiction to the goals set by the Committee on Environmental Objectives itself, i.e. to further promote timber construction in the future. Skogsindustrierna calculates that the proposal could reduce logging volumes by around 5 to 6%, which corresponds to approximately 5 million m³ a year.
Within the pulp, paper and sawmill industries, this would lead to a loss of added value of around SEK 8 billion (around €720 million). In addition, up to 7,200 jobs depend on these millions, the forestry association adds.
Södra and Vida Wood’s decision to temporarily shut down their 19 sawmills shows how tense the raw material supply situation in Sweden already is.
