Good for Business, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Woodwork

The forest industry's TOP 10 by turnover in 2014 also has not changed and lists Latvijas Finieris with EUR 193.62 million in turnover, Kronospan Riga (formerly Bolderaja LTD) with EUR 164.03 million, Pata AB with EUR 149.26 million, Billerudkorsnas Latvia with EUR 61.88 million, Stora Enso Latvija with EUR 61.35 million, AKZ with EUR 60.58 million, Vika Wood with EUR ar 59.13 million, Metsa Forest Latvia with EUR 56.83 million and Gaujas koks with EUR 55.85 million.

Roberts Stipnieks, the board chairman of LVM, said in the report that on the whole the year 2014 had been good for the industry. The market trends kept product prices largely stable, and the declining price of diesel fuel brought down the logging and timber transportation costs.

He said that the situation in the Latvian forest industry could not be reviewed separately from the developments in the global markets. Surplus of products is pushing down the prices and, however good the Latvian forestry industry's performance may be, its growth will be less steep in the coming years, the LVM head said.

Increasing productivity and wages to the personnel will be one of the challenges to the industry in the coming years, said Uldis Bikis, the council chairman of Latvijas Finieris.