Articles containing the keyword 'sawmilling'

Selling through agencies became common Finland in the end of 1800s in timber sales and export. No joint marketing organization has been established in the sawmilling industry, as has been done in pulp and paper industry. The aim of this report was to discuss need for the agencies in the post-war situation.

The paper concludes that the timber agents fill their post even at present under the changed conditions of the timber trade. The Finnish sawmilling industry is based on a majority of small sawmills, which have difficulties in keeping up foreign connections themselves. Even to the somewhat larger sawmills, which have a salesman of their own, the services of a domestic agent can be recommended. The number of agencies has markedly decreased during the war. With 120 agencies active in Finland it is evident that a considerable part of them will disappear. In Sweden the Association of timber agents has only 33 members. In comparison to other countries, the Finnish agency firms have the greatest number of joint-stock companies. The companies are concentrated in Helsinki. A good solution for co-operation in the sector could be to found an independent timber agent’s association.

The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.

• Runeberg, E-mail: lr@mm.unknown

The article summarizes import and export of timber and manufactured wood products in Europe before the Second World War, and outlines which are the opportunities of import and export after the war. The evaluation is based on statistics of 1936 and 1937. The export balance of Europe was positive; when all the timber assortments were included, Europe exported almost 10 million m³ more timber than it imported. Export and import of round timber were almost in balance, whereas export of paper products was about 12 million m³ larger than import. Consequently, European forest industry reached its magnitude before the war through export overseas. Foreign markets have been important especially for countries like Finland and other Nordic countries.

The war has disturbed the markets. In a scenario where Europe remains a closed sub-area in the global market, there is 10 million m³ excess of timber and wood products. Within Europe, United Kingdom is the greatest importer of timber and manufactured wood products. If UK was excluded from the European market, it would mean a big change in the export and import balance within the area. In 1936 and 1937 the import would have been only 45% and 55%, respectively, of the export if UK is not included in European numbers. If also Russia is excluded from the European sub-area, it would affect especially the export of round wood, sawn timber and plywood. Nordic countries have accounted for about 80% of European paper products export before the war. According to the article, Finnish wood resources do not allow big increase in sawn industry. However, there is potential in increasing demand of pulp in continental Europe in future. In general, Finnish forest industry would have to decrease the production, if the markets would be limited to the European sub-area.

The PDF includes a summary in German.

• Pöntynen, E-mail: vp@mm.unknown

The main source of data was the official industrial statistics in 1911‒1929. The data was complemented with information from other sources, and the figures converted to solid volumes under bark. The wood consumption of wood manufacturing industry in the period varied strongly, being lowest in 1918 (2.2 million m³) and highest in 1927 (18.1 million m³). The wood consumption dropped during the World War I.

The wood manufacturing industry in Finland concentrated on sawmilling industry which has used annually 70‒80% of the wood consumed in the whole wood manufacturing industry. Other sectors of industry using wood were plywood industry, wood-wool industry, spool factories, match industry, mechanical pulpwood industry and pulp industry.

The PDF includes a summary in German.

• Pöntynen, E-mail: vp@mm.unknown

The influence of log properties (diameter, length, taper, volume, density and quality), sawing pattern, yield, sawing efficacy, stoppages, consumption of electric power and thereby on the financial result of sawing was examined. In addition, the significance of various revenues and costs were studied from the point of view of the financial result of sawing. The revenues from sawing are composed of revenues obtained from sawn goods, chips, sawdust and bark. The costs in sawing are made of raw material, capital, labour, energy and other costs. The results were calculated per diameter class and applying the basic principle of targeting all returns and costs on the different diameter classes.

The results are based on test sawings of a total of 1,606 Scots pine logs representing eight diameter classes,  using conventional frame saw sawing patterns. In addition, a sawing simulator was used. Log top diameter had a significant influence on the financial result obtained when calculations were made per log volume. The financial result obtained for the biggest diameter class exceeded that of the smallest diameter class by FIM 99.1/m³. Sawing revenues accounted for FIM 66.0/m³ and sawing costs for FIM 33.1/m³ of this difference. In addition to being influenced by the top diameter, the yield and sawing efficacy were observed to have a clear influence on the financial result. The influence of stoppages was smaller.

The only means of gaining significant improvement in the annual result obtained from sawing were improvements in the revenues from sawn goods or reductions in the cost of raw material. Increase of the minimum diameter led to a significant improvement in the annual result obtainable from sawing only if the production time remained unchanged; i.e., when correspondingly more logs from the other diameter classes were sawn. If the production time was reduced by an amount corresponding to the increase in minimum diameter, then the annual result fell dramatically except in the case of minimum diameter.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Hakala, E-mail: hh@mm.unknown

• Roos, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: anders.roos@sh.slu.se
• Flinkman, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: mf@nn.se
• Jäppinen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: aj@nn.se
• Warensjö, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: mw@nn.se