Harbour strike shuts down most of Finnish forest industry output

According to the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, 60 per cent of Finland’s paper production capacity is at a standstill because of the ongoing strike by stevedores.
      The organisation’s President Timo Jaatinen says that fixing the aftermath of the strike will take a long time.
      Leading sawmills are calling for mandatory arbitration in the strike. Mediation efforts were suspended on Friday, and are continuing today, Tuesday.
     
A Sampo Bank economist says that the drawn-out conflict is cutting one half of a percentage point from the growth of Finnish GDP.
      The forest industry says that 3,700 employees of the forest industry are now without work. “The situation is getting worse with every day and it is paralysing the entire forest industry in Finland”, Jaatinen says.
      He says that the knock-on effects of the strike extend through the whole chain of wood processing, and urged the Finnish Transport Workers Union (AKT) to actively seek ways to end the industrial action.
     
The strike affects different parts of the forest industry in different ways. Because of the danger of freezing, manufacturers are making efforts not to shut down production at pulp mills, preferring instead to put output into storage.
      Bales of pulp in the shape of a cube are easier to store than cylindrical rolls of paper, which is why paper mills are generally closed before pulp mills.
     
Leading companies in the private sawmill industry are calling for a forced end to the strike.
      The sawmill companies note that mandatory arbitration is used in many European Union countries. “Economic harm first affects companies, company employees, and the final damage is paid by the entire law-abiding society”, say the CEOs of three leading sawmill companies in a statement sent to the Prime Minister, Parliament and the President.
     
One of the sawmill CEOs, Ilkka Kylävainio of the Keitele group, says that appropriate legislation needs to be passed, “because this is an emergency”.
      Kylävainio is travelling to Japan in April to open an office there. “They will laugh at us, since we cannot deliver goods anyway.”
     
The drawn-out harbour strike is altering economists’ economic expectations for this year.
      Lauri Uotila, head economist of Sampo Bank, said in an interview with the Startel news agency that the conflict is reducing growth figures for this year by one half of a percentage point.
      Last week the bank predicted that Finnish GDP will grow by 1.5 per cent this year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Harbour strike forces UPM to shut down three paper mills (9.3.2010)
  Harbour operators fear stevedoreś strike will weaken competitiveness of Finnish transito traffic services (8.3.2010)
  Stevedoring strike´s ripple effects already seen in pay-packets of paper industry workers (11.3.2010)
  Mediation efforts in harbour strike suspended until Wednesday afternoon (10.3.2010)

Links:
  Finnish Forest Industries press release 10.3.2010: Stevedore strike eroding sawmill industry’s opportunities as construction season gets underway
  Finnish Port Operators Association
  Finnish Transport Workers Union (AKT)