The first three months of the year saw a 10% drop in the amount of timber felled in Norway compared with the same period last year – from 2.3 million m3 to approximately 2 million m3, according to Olav Veum of the Norwegian Forest Owners’ Federation.
Mr Veum says the smaller harvest is the result of a low level of activity in a period that is traditionally a high season for forestry. However, he does point out that March 2001 was an exceptionally good month, with 900,000m3 transported. This year the figure for March was only 700,000m3, the decline being partly caused by low demand from industry and partly by the Easter holidays falling in March this year.
‘The prices of timber to forest owners declined by around 6% for both timber and plywood from the beginning of the year,’ points out Mr Veum. ‘So it is not surprising that such a price cut can lead to lower harvests and forest activities.’
Norske Skog‘s paper factories in Norway have used less timber so far this year because of the recession in wood processing so the forest owners associations have therefore had smaller delivery quotas. In addition, the timber industry used less timber.
Operating profits
In fact Norske Skog’s operating profits dropped from NKr892m in the fourth quarter of 2001 to NKr536m in the first quarter of 2002. The company points out that the results reflect low economic activity in most markets, reduced demand for publication paper and a fall in prices.
The Norwegian forest industry is faced with the problem of decreasing competitiveness. Although timber resources are increasing in the country, transport costs are higher in Norway than in neighbouring countries and make up an increasing proportion of industry’s raw material costs. An added factor is that in future timber may need to be transported from areas further away from industry and to a larger extent from pine forests. ‘The result is that Norwegian timber is losing its competitiveness in relation to foreign timber,’ says Mr Veum. ‘Therefore it is important for forestry to find new marketing opportunities for low quality timber. It is important for forestry’s overall profitability, but not least important to maintain the extraction of timber of high quality that can be processed locally.’
He suggests that bioheat production, based on wood, will be able to provide such a marketing option and will provide a third outlet for the forest industry in addition to timber and pulp and paper. The board of the Norwegian Forest Owners’ Federation has given the go ahead for a plan of action to be drawn up for increased investment in bioenergy in the industry.
‘The main benefit for local forestry will lie in the geographical location of the bioheating plant,’ says Mr Veum. ‘While present day wood processing plants are concentrated in a few towns around the Oslo Fjord and in Troendelag, bioheat plants can have a much wider geographical distribution.
‘At present it is not profitable to turn pine pulp wood into chips for bioheat production. However, all the political signals indicate that bioenergy production will be increased and prices of alternative energy are on their way up,’ concludes Mr Veum.
Forest damage
The current condition of the Norwegian forest is relatively stable according to a programme undertaken in 2001 to monitor damage to the forest. The health of the forest was expressed by the crown density and crown colour, which was examined quarterly on more than 40,000 marked trees. The average crown density for spruce and pine trees examined on a countrywide basis showed a small decline from the previous year (0.4% and 0.5% respectively) while in production forests an insignificant decline for spruce of 0.1% was recorded.
The crown colour has varied a lot from year to year but in 2001, in particular, many pine trees were damaged by fungus and were brown. The reason for the occurrence of fungus was unusual climatic conditions in the autumn of 2000 and the winter of 2000/2001.
Another type of climatic condition was the violent storms that swept Norway in August and November last year, mowing down 500,000m3 of timber. The insurance company Skogbrand paid out record compensation to forest owners last year and they fear that the continually more violent storms are being caused by climate change.
‘We ascertained that in recent years there has been a greater number of storm days with violent winds,’ says Ola Indergaard of Skogbrand. ‘It is not changes in forest management that have led to more trees being blown down now than previously but rather the stronger winds.’ He also points out that it is not just mature trees that are damaged but that young forest is also being hit hard.
