“Can it be that our country has failed to fully comprehend the significance of the export sector?” Kari Jordan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, asked at the organisation's autumn meeting in Helsinki.
“Finland manufactures bioproducts out of renewable wood for a hundred million Europeans each year. The forest industry intends to keep making these goods also in the future. However, future developments are very strongly tied to the cost of domestic production inputs and the political decisions that concern them. The operating and investment opportunities of the export industry can be improved when desired, although we have not seen many such decisions so far,” says Jordan.
Structurally healthy companies that have the ability to react when opportunities appear will do well in the post-recession situation. The domestic operating environment must also be in good shape comparative to our rival countries,” he pointed out.
Opportunities must be strengthened, not limited in advance
“The availability of competitively priced energy would strengthen corporate faith in the domestic operating environment. In this light, it is very worrying that our country is about to increase the cost burden of companies without perceiving the big picture.”
“The forest industry's electricity needs are growing and we'll require 27-28 terawatt-hours of power in 2020, i.e. as much as before the onset of the recession. Long-term energy policies that neuter the operating possibilities of the export industry in advance should not be drafted in the light of historical-data-based trend forecasts.”
Good opportunities for success
“The foundation for the success of the Finnish forest industry is good in many respects. There's plenty of demand for climate-friendly bioproducts that are made out of wood as well as for the efficient production of bioenergy. Finnish factories number among the very best of Europe. We can effectively avail of the whole forest cluster's competence capital, professional employees and an abundance of sustainable raw materials,” FFIF Chairman Kari Jordan said to sum of the strengths of the industry.