2018 was a record year for Norwegian timber

timberTimber.Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB scanpix

About 10.8 million cubic meters of timber were sold for industrial purposes last year. That is 303,000 cubic meters more than the year before and more than ever before.

No more timber has been harvested for industrial purposes than in 2018. The previous peak was in the 1989/90 operating year. Then the logging of 10.5 million cubic meters of timber ended. The forest owners also received a record price for their logs, Statistics Norway (SSB) reported.

Total harvest quantity in 2017 was just below the 1989/90 result. With the exception of a period in the summer of 2018, where fire hazards caused many forest operations to be postponed, the operating conditions for the rest of last year weregood. Along with the price increase, this had contributed to the record.

The preliminary calculations show that the gross value of timber sold to the industry amounted to NOK 4.4 billion in 2018. This is an increase of 22% from the previous year. The forest owners received an average of NOK 410 per cubic meter of timber sold, 16% more than in 2017.

It was especially the price of pulpwood that increased. From 2017 to 2018, the pulpwood price for spruce and pine increased by 35 and 41% respectively. Saw log prices increased by 8% for spruce and 6% for pine.

In Akershus / Oslo and in Hedmark, 133,000 and 73,000 cubic meters were harvested, respectively, more than in 2017. Hedmark is still the county where most timber is harvested. This amounts to 27% of all timber harvested in Norway.

3.5 million cubic meters of timber were exported in 2018, about the same as the year before. Pulpwood accounted for 56% of the exported timber.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today