Feb 11, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. The industry in Finland purchased 1.3 million cubic metres of timber from privately-owned forests in January. This was 32% less than in January 2008, but 16% more than in December, the Finnish Forest Industries Federation reported. Log procurements were down 21% and fibrewood purchases were down 37% from January 2008. Although wood demand has temporarily fallen because of the economic slump, the industry needs to secure an increasing amount of timber in Finland over the long term. The decrease in purchases was due both to the economic slump and the harvesting of winter felling sites that had been procured in earlier years. Winter felling sites can be logged and the wood transported away from them only after the ground freezes. The weather has been sufficiently cold this winter to enable logging activities in these difficult sites. The stumpage prices of wood have declined slightly. The January stumpage prices of logs fell by about 10% and fibrewood stumpage prices by 6-9% from last December. The average stumpage price of pine and spruce logs was Euro 46–47 per cubic metre. On average, birch logs fetched Euro 43, pine and birch fibrewood Euro 14-15 and spruce fibrewood Euro 20 per cubic metre. The prices of wood raw material in the main competing countries have fallen more rapidly than in Finland. The export prices of sawn timber have also declined more rapidly than log prices.