Mar 19, 2010. /Lesprom Network/. Finnish dock workers have agreed to end a two-week strike that crippled the country’s major industries. The Finnish Port Operators Association said that transport workers union AKT accepted proposals from Finnish national conciliator Esa Lonka, and that dockers would return to work by 23 March at the latest. Mills will be starting up gradually over a few days. The forest industry will be cleaning up the mess caused by the strike for a long time, Finnish Forest Industries Federation said in a press release received by Lesprom Network. "The strike has added to the forest industry’s costs and is increasing pressure to achieve savings in other aspects of operations,” says Jari Forss, Executive Vice President of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. “The flow of export revenues was cut off after the stevedore strike halted the forest industry’s client deliveries. Whenever possible, companies transferred production to their other plants in Europe. The forest industry in Finland lost orders for good because clients can no longer rely on the delivery ability of Finnish factories.” “Finland must develop its system for maintaining industrial peace. Our country can ill afford labour disputes that halt the deliveries of the entire export sector. In addition to the forest industry, the cost of the stevedore strike will be shouldered by the employees of the industry’s entire value chain as well as by the regions in which affected companies operate,” Forss says. It will take at least several weeks to clear inventories of export and import goods at harbours. The large number of full railway carriages that have accumulated in ports form a major problem because they place obstacles to loading, clog up rail yards and lead to a shortage of empty carriages elsewhere. Things will also be slowed down by the need to move cargo around the docks to facilitate the loading of ships that will arrive at the same time to pick up deliveries. Further financial losses may be caused if clients refuse to accept late deliveries. Paper mills will start up gradually over a few days. After the machines are launched, it will take some time to bring the quality of the manufactured paper up to the target level. Sawmill production operations were not stopped because of the strike to as large an extent as occurred in the paper industry. The sawmill industry nevertheless was hit by the drying up of export revenues, in addition to which some of their clients solved their sawn timber needs by buying from other suppliers. Products meant for export were put into storage, while deliveries of woodchips to pulp mills as well as domestic deliveries of sawn timber were for the most part made as normal. The strike led to stoppages of paper machines and sawmilling lines. Majority, nearly 70%, of paper making capacity was shut down. About 4300 employees in forest-based industries in Finland run out of work because of the strike. Some factories were kept in operation during the strike with exceptional arrangements. Temporary storage facilities were used to stockpile products and goods were taken by road, for example, to Swedish ports for shipping. These measures caused extra transport costs for companies and weakened their ability to compete with factories located in central Europe.