It also seems that as a result of the mild autumn and early winter, as well as the increase of electric boilers, the strict energy wood market has changed towards a more balanced situation.
The price levels of wood have slightly decreased in the early part of the year, but historically they are still at a very high level – especially compared to the situation in the end-product market. In the autumn of last year, the market situation of pulpwood in the Baltics shifted to oversupply, and the roadside prices of overbark pulpwood have since been clearly below the prices in Finland. In Sweden, demand for logs and pulpwood continues to be very strong.
At Metsä Group, we are most interested in purchasing thinning sites available for summer harvesting and wood from delivery sales. We are also purchasing regeneration felling sites as normal. In energy wood, demand focuses on crown wood and small-sized trees.
The Metsä Group Plus forest management model has gained a solid foothold, and last year about 30 per cent of wood sales were made using this model. Similarly, our renewed price guarantee model has been well received by forest owners.
The harvesting conditions in January and early February have been poor due to a mild winter, with the exception of Lapland and Kainuu. Despite this, we have got good wood mobilisation from forests to factories, thanks to our excellent contract entrepreneurs.
Our reputation is the best in the industry. We are the most preferred partner among forest owners, and last year we achieved an all-time record in customer experience. Also, the quality of thinning improved further last year. As proof of the high quality of our operations, the Finnish Quality Association awarded us the 2024 Finnish Quality Award in November. This is a great recognition of our long-term customer-oriented work with forest owners and partners. Forest service sales were at a record high last year, and demand is projected to continue to grow this year.
I believe that these factors will create the prerequisites for good cooperation with forest owners also in the future.
Throughout the spring, we will accelerate the growth of our owner-members’ forests with a fertilisation campaign that will run from the beginning of February to the end of May. During the campaign, Metsä Group’s owner-members receive a 10% discount on any growth-enhancing fertilisation they order. Growth-enhancing fertilisation improves forest growth and enhances carbon storage, which helps mitigate climate change. Forest fertilisation is one of the most financially profitable investments in wood production, which means that you should now seize the opportunity at a good price.
We conclude more than 30,000 wood trades every year, and the quality of our operations is a matter of honour for us. Unfortunately, it is impossible to eliminate all errors, and there are occasional nature deviations in our operations every year. Fortunately, their number is extremely low in terms of the scale of operations and our market share, but even one is too much. In the event of a possible error, we will introduce voluntary nature compensation measures to overcompensate for the damage caused to nature. In the end, therefore, there are more advantages than disadvantages to nature.
We also invest more human resources in the ecological sustainability of forest operations. The team of experts in forest nature management who started in 2024 will grow during the early part of the year.