One of Europe’s largest sawmillers has agreed to buy the Finnish sawmiller Kuhmo Oy, in the same week that layoff talks closed at its own two plants in the country. That is according to Reinhard Binder, Chairman of the Binderholz group of companies, which signed with the Finnish shareholders on 31 July. “A clear commitment to our Finnish operations,” Binder said of a purchase he expects to secure high-quality timber for the group’s processing plants, naming Lieksa and Nurmes as the two Kuhmo will supply.
All 250 production staff at those two sites entered formal layoff talks on 17 July, a week after the announcement, with Binderholz Nordic proposing no more than 10 permanent dismissals and temporary layoffs of up to 90 days. Joonas Vitri, Managing Director of Binderholz Nordic, blamed the end of Russian roundwood imports for higher sawlog costs, and the Iran conflict for rising energy prices and falling demand.
Kuhmo takes its logs from Kainuu and the northern parts of North Karelia, cutting more than a million solid cubic metres into 500,000 cubic metres of sawn timber a year. Pine makes up 80 per cent of that output, with spruce accounting for the rest, on an annual revenue of €150 million.
Rebuilding the mill took a new main line and an outside engineering team, with HewSaw supplying the SL250 and AFRY handling layout, infrastructure, and project management. The work was designed to raise rated capacity from 400,000 to 600,000 cubic metres, and the first log went through on 2 August 2023.
The main saw line inside Kuhmo Oy’s mill, commissioned in August 2023 under an investment programme designed to raise rated capacity to 600,000 cubic metres, and the newest asset in the transfer to Binderholz. (Photo Credit: J. Heikkilä / AFRY)
“The future of Kuhmo Oy looks stronger than ever,” Tommi Ruha, Managing Director of Kuhmo Oy, said of a sale he expects to leave the company better placed to grow, invest, and strengthen its position in international markets.
Nothing changes for the workforce under the terms agreed, with all 180 employees moving to the new owner on their existing pay and conditions. The sale also takes in Juntinsalo Oy, the property company that holds the Kuhmo group’s real estate.
Nordic mills have been shedding capacity for two years, and Norra Timber counts at least 5 million cubic metres of annual output taken out across the region. Sweden’s Vida closed its Urshult and Orrefors sites in May at a combined 260,000 cubic metres, Bergkvist Siljan shut its 115,000 cubic metre Mora sawmill in March, and Stora Enso has stopped production at Veitsiluoto until October, standing down all 56 staff.
Finnish roundwood costs have kept climbing, with the Natural Resources Institute Finland putting pine sawlogs at 78.52 euros a cubic metre in June and spruce at 83.65 euros, up 7.3 and 8.4 per cent on their January lows.
Austrian groups have been buying into Finland for a decade, and Holzkurier counted at least 15 per cent of the country’s cutting capacity in Austrian hands by the end of 2022, before Kuhmo was added to that total. Pfeifer Holding took Pölkky Oy’s four sites in January 2023, then demanded 60 million euros back from the sellers in 2024 over what it called misleading information about investment costs.
“One of the biggest events in Kuhmo’s history,” Heikki Huotari, Chair of the Kuhmo city board, said of a purchase he counts as an opening for fresh investment in a town already suited to sawmilling, adding that he wants a meeting with Binderholz management as soon as one can be arranged.
Before Kuhmo, the group ran more than 60 production and sales sites across Austria, Germany, the UK, Latvia, Finland, and the United States, on a workforce approaching 6,000. Most of that came from buying BSW Timber in January 2022, which was then the largest sawmill group in the UK, producing more than 1.2 million cubic metres a year.
