Dec 04, 2012. /Lesprom Network/. SCA will terminate production in the sawmills in Vilhelmina and Holmsund in Northern Sweden. This means that 98 employees at the two sawmills will become redundant, as the company said in a press release received by Lesprom Network. “We experience what are the most severe conditions for Swedish sawmill industry in 40 years”, says Jonas Mårtensson, president of SCA Timber. “The demand for sawn timber products is weak and prices are low. At the same time the price for raw material remains high. Finally we have a currency situation that is challenging for Swedish forest industry. This means that we need to cut down production and concentrate our operations to the most competitive units. Vilhelmina and Holmsund are our two smallest sawmills and the ones with the weakest profitability.” SCA’s sawmill in Vilhelmina has a production of 115,000 cubic metres of Nordic spruce wood products. Vilhelmina also has value adding operations in the form of 30,000 cubic metres of planed wood products. The sawmill has 45 blue-collar and 8 white-collar employees. Holmsund sawmill outside Umeå has a production of close to 90,000 cubic metres of Nordic pine wood products. The sawmill has 43 blue-collar and 2 white-collar employees. “We plan to close the two sawmills permanently from July 1st next year”, says Jonas Martensson. “We will do whatever we can for the staff that now will lose their jobs, but our options are very limited. We will cooperate with the local communities and other authorities for limiting the consequences and we will contribute if we can to introduce other business on the two sites.” Since 2004 SCA has invested SEK 1.8 billion ($273 million) in its sawmill operations. “We strongly believe in the future for solid wood products”, says Jonas Martensson. “But we need to have competitive sawmills in par with the best mills among our competitors. We have invested almost two billion kronor in eight years, but we have been forced to develop some sawmills while others have been held back. There is not wood raw material enough for all sawmills to develop and we have had to focus our efforts on the ones with the best prospects. It is important for the forest owners that the wood raw material is used by the sawmills that can fully utilize it and thereby over the long term pay the best price for the timber.”