Jan 13, 2009. /Lesprom.com/. The timber purchases in Finland's forest industry 2008 were 13% below the five-year average and 27% below the record volume achieved in 2007, informed Lesprom Network according to the the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. Finnish forest industry procured a total of 38.5 million cubic meters of wood from privately owned domestic forests in 2008. Due to the weakened situation in the sawmilling sector, softwood log purchase volumes fell by half from the previous year. Demand for fiberwood increased, because the amount of woodchips produced by sawmills fell. Fiberwood purchases were nearly at the previous year’s level. Purchases of birch fiberwood increased by seven percent and pine fiberwood by one percent from the previous year, but spruce fiberwood purchase volumes fell by 25%. The ending of a full tax break for first thinning operations at the end of August spurred the supply of fiberwood to record levels, and this caused purchases to increase to a record. In 2008, the price of pine and birch fiberwood as well as birch logs increased by four to 5% from the previous year. The market situation for pulp, paper and wood products affects short-term demand for timber, but the significance of domestic wood raw material for the Finnish forest industry will grow over the long run, according to the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. Imports of timber from Russia will decline, the Federation says, and the share of the industry’s raw material supplies, accounted for by timber sourced in Finland, will increase substantially.