Jan 14, 2009. /Lesprom.com/. Statistics collected by the Norwegian Forest Owners' Federation show that last year 8.1 million cubic metres of timber were felled for sales on the domestic market. This is a reduction of circa 0.2 million cubic metres, i.e. 2.5% as compared with 2007. There was also a notable changeover from saw timber to pulpwood, informed Lesprom Network according to the Nordic Forest Owners' Associations. According to Mr Gudbrand Kvaal, managing director of the Norwegian Forest Owners' Federation, these figures demonstrate that forest owners and their co-operatives have adapted well to changing market conditions. During 2008, the market for saw timber experienced a continuous negative development. However, the decreasing rate of exchange of the NOK has improved the sales prospects of the wood working industry, which exports most of its production. Thus, industry has been able to maintain its purchases of Norwegian timber at acceptable prices. The Forest Owners' co-operatives handled around 77% of total timber sales, i.e. 6.3 million cubic metres. Saw timber sales decreased by 8%, whereas there was an increase of almost 6% in the sales of pulpwood. This means that forest owners have concentrated their felling on pulpwood stands and on thinnings. Nevertheless, short-term economic prospects for forest owners have deteriorated considerably. There are two main reasons; considerable price reductions of saw timber and lower prices of pulpwood than for saw timber. Furthermore, thinnings which are more labour intensive than final fellings constitute an increasing part of total fellings, which contributes to deteriorating financial results. Investing in thinnings which improve the quality of the forest, proves that forest owners want to make long term investments and have a strong confidence in the future of forestry, says Mr Kvaal. Preliminary figures indicate that spruce energy wood sales were somewhat more than 245.000 cubic metres. This is a reduction of 20% in relation to sales in 2007. The company Viken Skog alone operated about 65% of this volume.