Naujienos

Two wind storms swept the north, central and east of Europe in mid-January, damaging forests, killing people and affecting infrastructure. The storms felled almost 54 million m3 of European forest stocks.

On 14 January, storm Per hit Sweden and the Baltics and felled about 12 million m3. On 18 January, Kyril storm stroke central and east Europe and felled over 41 million m3. Kyril hit Germany the hardest, causing damages of nearly 26 million m3, particularly in the central part of the country. The volume accounts for about 44% of the 57 million m3 harvested in 2005. In Czech Republic the damages amounted to 5 million m3. In Austria 2.5 million m3 were felled. In Belgium, the timber damage was estimated at 300,000 m3 in the Wallonia region. In France, preliminary estimates indicate that almost 300,000 m3 (around 150,000 m3 in public forests and the balance in private forests). In Slovakia 150,000 m3 were felled and in Romania 130,000 m3. In the UK, damage was comparatively lower at about 50,000 m3. In the Baltic states, 500,000 m3 and 300,000 m3 timber was damaged in Latvia and Lithuania. The extent of the storms was, however, lower than the Godrun, dubbed the storm of the century, that hit Europe two years ago and damaged 80 million m3 of forest stocks. The European State Forestry Association (Eustafor) said the windfall would easily be absorbed into the annual target timber harvest and would not affect prices. Eustafor added that the windfall would account for just 12% of the total removal estimated at 450 million m3.

Market players agree that the storms damage has halted any hike in prices for softwood logs in the near future.