Felling in Swedish forests decreased by 6% in 2023 to just under 90 million cubic meters, according to the Norwegian Forestry Agency’s preliminary statistics. Harvesting has not been this low in seven years and thus the upward trend of recent years was also broken. Source: Timberbiz
According to the Forestry Agency’s preliminary statistics, the gross felling in 2023 amounted to 89.6 million cubic meters (cubic meters of forest), to be compared with 2022 when felling landed at 95.0 million cubic meters.
The reason for the reduction is mainly a reduced demand in the wood-consuming industry, especially in the sawmill industry. The reduced production in the sawmills meant that the felling of sawn timber decreased by 10% in 2023, according to Jonas Paulsson, statistician at the Norwegian Forestry Agency.
In the years 2021 and 2022, record fellings were noted, if you ignore 2005 and 2007 when fellings were very high due to the storms Gudrun and Per. The trend with high felling levels was thus broken in 2023 with a reduced felling. The reduction was so great that you need to go back to 2016 to find a lower level.
The reduction was noticeable in all parts of the country. In Norra Norrland and Södra Norrland felling fell by 7%, in Svealand by 6% and in Götaland by 5%. Most of it was harvested in Västra Götaland County. There, felling in 2023 was 8.2 million cubic meters, which was 9 percent of the total felling in the country. Felling was also large in Värmland County, where 8.0 million cubic meters were felled.
Barely 2% of Swedish felling was exported in 2023. Exports decreased in 2023, from 2.0 million cubic meters in 2022 to a preliminary 1.3 million cubic meters in 2023. In 2023, imports of roundwood amounted to a preliminary 7.3 million cubic meters, which is around 0, 8 million cubic meters more than the year before.
Spruce makes up more than half of the felled volume, pine a third and hardwoods around a tenth.
About 68% of the felled volume comes from final felling, 22% from thinning and the rest from other felling.
The average final felling for fellings larger than 0.5 hectares amounted to 3.6 hectares in 2022. The size of the final harvests was on average more than twice as large in Norra Norrland (5.6 hectares) as in Götaland (2.5 hectares). The average area in final felling for individual forest owners is approximately 40% smaller than that of other forest owners.
