In its Wood Products Industry (Metsä Wood) division, Metsä Group achieved growth of 25.4 % in sales revenue in the fourth quarter at €116.6m. This division’s EBITDA more than doubled to €10.1m and the operating result turned out to be positive again at €4.7m. Business in plywood and LVL (Kerto), both of which are covered by this division, thus continued to improve after the growth registered in the third quarter. The high losses in sales revenue in the first half-year, which had been contributed to by a four-week strike in the Finnish wood industry, temporary production stoppages due to the corona crisis, and regressive selling prices, were almost caught up with again by growth in the second half-year. The reductions in results in the first six months were even more than compensated more. Metsä Wood’s sales volume in the fourth quarter was up by 32.6 % to around 126,000 m³. Demand increased significantly, particularly in the LVL segment and for softwood-plywood products.
In the fourth quarter, the Wood Supply and Forest Services division geared to forest activities achieved growth in both sales revenue at €469.0m and the operating result at €8.9m (€5.6m). In Metsä’s other divisions, the kex performance figures developed in different directions. Sales revenue in the Pulp and Sawn Timber Industry (Metsä Fibre), for example, was 7.8 % up at €528.3m, but the operating result slipped into negative figures at -€8.0m. After the poor first half-year, demand for sawnwood recovered successively in the second half to the extent that Metsä Fibre was back at the previous year’s level with a sold volume of 434,000 m³ in the fourth quarter. The volume of pulp sales increased 15.2 % to 834,000 t.
