The European market for solid-wood products
amounts to some SEK 135bn, with demand primarily
deriving from the construction and house
building industries. The industry is dominated by
many small and mid-sized sawmills. Combined,
the five leading suppliers – located in Scandinavia
and Central Europe – account for less than 20%
of the European market.
The pulp market is exposed to significant movements in volume and price due to intense international competition.
SCA’s sawmill operation is the second largest in Europe. The strategy for solid-wood products is to move towards more value-added and customised products in markets that offer long-term growth. SCA’s own raw materials, production and logistics expertise, combined with close cooperation with customers, generate competitive advantages.
SCA is a qualified supplier of purposedesigned wood products to industry for further processing into such items as panels, floors, windows, doors and furniture. Finished-wood components for window manufacturing, for example, represent another high-growth market. Products for the building materials trade are often delivered planed and pre-packaged.
Service and advanced logistics solutions are of key significance for the building materials trade. SCA works in close cooperation with its customers in its principal markets in Scandinavia, France and the UK. In Italy, Asia, North Africa and the US, SCA is a specialised supplier within several niche markets.
In the pulp market, SCA has positioned itself in the high-quality segment based on its excellent access to forest raw materials and a high environmental profile derived from its TFC production (Total Chlorine Free), among other products. Forest Products has an annual pulp capacity of 520,000 tonnes. Approximately 40% of this capacity is utilised within SCA for production of tissue and publication papers while the remainder is sold to external customers.
Over the past 50 years, the standing volume in SCA’s FSC-certified forests has increased by nearly 50%, at the same time as growth, and thus the sustainable harvesting potential, has more than doubled. SCA is one of Europe’s largest suppliers of forest-based biofuels, such as tree branches, crowns, stumps, bark, sawdust, peat and processed products, such as pellets and briquettes.