CELPA director general Luis Costa Leal said there had already been a meeting of industry bodies to discuss an urgent plan to minimise losses.

"We cant be objective at the moment as we still have fires going on and are suffering from very adverse climatic conditions," he said.

Portugals total forest area is around 2.3m hectares and covers almost 40% of the country.

Portucel Soporcel is just one firm affected by the fires, with all telephone lines to its mills out of action.

"Every time we have forest fires the industry is obviously affected, but the impact will depend on species burnt and degree of damage," said Leal.

CELPA is calling for a special survey to be done in one months time to evaluate the forest affected and the impact on wood flow.

Leal said the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture had estimated that of the 150,000 hectares hit by fire, 50,000 hectares were pine forest, 30,000 hectares were eucalyptus and 10,000 hectares were cork oak.

With large areas of forest owned by pulp companies affected, there was a need to maximise the use of all wood available, said Leal.

The bleached portion of Portugals pulp industry had many restrictions on the wood that comes from burnt areas, but in the unbleached pulp market there were fewer limitations on the use of pine and eucalyptus, he added.

Story by Andy Scott