The EOS Member, Sahateollisuus (Finnish Sawmill Association) is organising the 17th “Wood from Finland” conference.

The "Wood from Finland" is a unique opportunity to have an insightful view of the peculiarities that characterise the Finnish sawmill market, having a focus on the major trade partners. 

The conference will be organised on Thursday, February 14th 2019, in Helsinki, at Hotel Scandic Paasi/Congress Paasitorni starting at 8.30 AM. 

Some preliminary information on the sawn softwood outlook. The demand of sawn softwood enjoys a positive trend, driven by increasing demand in Asia, brisk European economies, sound fundamentals of the markets in North Africa and Middle East and construction activity in the USA. The sawn softwood market trend looks positive, thanks to the environmentally friendly characteristics of wood, which enable the trade to mitigate the climate change. However, the positive outlook is shadowed by numerous risks – which have partly been realized. Geopolitical conflicts, turbulent currency markets, local strikes, forest fires and storms added by looming trade wars have deteriorated the positive market atmosphere.
The year 2018 has been a year of sudden and unexpected market turns within the global softwood business. The structure of the trade flows towards Asia have changed substantially when Canadian and European sawmills have lost their market share in China to the Russian shippers. The North American market fell from boom to doom as lumber prices unprecedentedly collapsed by 50% from all time high in only a few weeks. The markets in North Africa and Middle East were buoyant during the first half of 2018, while especially the Egyptian and Algerian markets picked up from the challenges of 2017, but have cooled down towards the end of the year.

To register: www.sahateollisuus.com/en/WFFC2019

 Please register latest on the 30th of January 2019.