Northern Finland’s wood market is heading into an unusual autumn as two major developments in Kemi affect the region’s demand for pulpwood and sawlogs.

Metsä Fibre plans to stop production at its Kemi bioproduct mill for six weeks during October and November 2026 while it modernises the mill’s cooking system and carries out its annual maintenance outage.

At the same time, Stora Enso is considering permanently closing its Veitsiluoto sawmill in Kemi.

The two developments are fundamentally different. Metsä Fibre’s shutdown is a temporary investment-related outage, while the future of the Veitsiluoto sawmill remains uncertain. Together, however, they could temporarily change harvesting schedules, wood transportation and purchasing patterns across northern Finland.

Six-Week Kemi Shutdown Will Reduce Pulpwood Consumption

Metsä Fibre’s Kemi bioproduct mill is designed to consume approximately 7.6 million cubic metres of wood annually, making it one of the most important individual wood consumers in northern Finland.

During normal production, the mill can use around 22,000 cubic metres of wood per day, equivalent to roughly 350 truckloads or railway wagon loads.

A six-week production interruption therefore represents a substantial temporary reduction in consumption.

On a simple annualised calculation, six weeks would correspond to close to 900,000 cubic metres of wood. This should not, however, be interpreted as an equivalent reduction in Metsä Fibre’s wood purchases.

Part of the shutdown overlaps with maintenance that would have occurred regardless of the investment. Harvesting and transportation can also continue during the outage, with some wood redirected to intermediate storage terminals until production resumes.

The effect is therefore more accurately understood as a temporary disruption to wood flows and logistics rather than the disappearance of almost 900,000 cubic metres of demand.

Storage Could Keep Harvesting Operations Moving

The Kemi mill sources large quantities of softwood pulpwood and birch from Finnish Lapland, North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu, as well as some wood from Sweden.

Because of this extensive procurement area, changes at Kemi can affect considerably more than the immediate surroundings of the mill.

Instead of stopping harvesting entirely during the outage, wood can be accumulated at intermediate storage locations across northern Finland.

That could help logging and transportation companies maintain operations, but it also transfers part of the challenge from mill consumption to logistics.

More wood entering storage may increase demand for terminal capacity and alter transportation distances. Autumn weather could add another variable, particularly if wet conditions restrict harvesting on forest sites with weaker load-bearing capacity.

For forest owners, this means purchasing activity may vary considerably depending on location, road access, tree species and harvesting conditions.

€2 Billion Mill Remains Central to Regional Wood Demand

The current Kemi bioproduct mill started production in 2023 following an investment of approximately €2 billion.

Its startup significantly changed northern Finland’s wood market because the facility replaced a smaller pulp mill and increased annual wood consumption at the site by approximately 4.5 million cubic metres.

Around 70% of the mill’s raw material requirement consists of softwood pulpwood, while birch accounts for much of the remaining volume.

The 2026 shutdown does not signal a reversal of that expansion.

Instead, Metsä Fibre is modernising the cooking system with technology supplied by Andritz. The project is intended to improve operational reliability, material efficiency and flexibility in the use of different raw materials.

The upgraded system is expected to enter operation during the fourth quarter of 2026.

For the regional wood market, this distinction is important: Kemi remains a major long-term consumer of pulpwood despite the temporary interruption.

Finnish Pulpwood Market Has Already Cooled

The outage nevertheless arrives as Finland’s wood market has weakened from the unusually strong conditions seen in 2025.

According to Finland’s Natural Resources Institute Luke, forest industry purchases of industrial roundwood from private forests declined 27% year on year between January and April 2026. Purchases were also 14% below the average level of the previous five years.

Pulpwood prices have similarly retreated.

Average standing-sale prices in April ranged from slightly below €23 to €25 per cubic metre depending on species, approximately 25–27% below the average prices recorded during 2025.

A temporary reduction in consumption from a mill the size of Kemi therefore comes when the pulpwood market is already adjusting to softer purchasing conditions.

The impact will not be uniform across all forest holdings. Accessible harvesting sites and stands containing higher proportions of sawlogs may remain more attractive than remote sites dominated by pulpwood.

Veitsiluoto Adds Another Layer of Uncertainty

The situation is complicated further by Stora Enso’s proposal to permanently close the Veitsiluoto sawmill in Kemi.

The sawmill, which has operated for more than a century, employs approximately 60 people.

Stora Enso is considering transferring pine sawing to newer production facilities, principally in Oulu and Kalajoki. Veitsiluoto has already experienced temporary production curtailments and, under the current proposal, would not restart in October.

A final decision remains subject to employee negotiations.

If the closure proceeds, its effect on northern Finland’s wood market would differ from Metsä Fibre’s temporary shutdown.

Local demand for pine sawlogs around Kemi could decline, while production transferred elsewhere would shift part of that demand geographically rather than eliminate it entirely.

Forest owners could consequently find that buyers still require their timber but that transportation distances and procurement priorities change.

The closure could also alter regional flows of sawmill by-products such as wood chips and bark.

Temporary Disruption Rather Than Market Collapse

Taken together, the developments at Kemi are likely to create a more complicated wood market during autumn 2026.

Metsä Fibre’s six-week outage will temporarily remove one of northern Finland’s largest continuous consumers of pulpwood from production. Additional wood may consequently move into storage, changing harvesting and transportation patterns.

A possible permanent closure of Veitsiluoto would represent a longer-term structural change, although Stora Enso intends to transfer much of its sawing production to other northern Finnish facilities.

Neither development means that northern Finland’s wood trade will stop.

The more important question for forest owners, contractors and transport companies is where the wood will move while industrial production is being reorganised.

Metsä Fibre expects its Kemi mill to return to production after the modernisation, maintaining its position as a major regional wood consumer. Veitsiluoto, by contrast, could become another example of sawmilling capacity being consolidated into larger and newer production sites.

For northern Finland’s forest economy, autumn 2026 will therefore be less about the disappearance of wood demand than about its temporary interruption, redistribution and geographical adjustment.

Last Updated on 18/08/2026 by Jota Machinery