The devastation could have severe implications for the pulp and paper industries, and is likely to impact on Sdra's pulp production.

The Swedish Forest Industries Federation issued a statement on the impact this morning (13 January). It can be found here.

Manufacturer Stora Enso has also suffered damage to its forests, both in Sweden and the Baltic states where the storm hit hardest, but said it was too early to talk of impact on production.

Sdra information manager Ulf Gunnarsson said that, of the timber felled, 50% belonged to its forest members. "In the short term we are going to receive too much pulp wood at our mills with the amount of stock felled."

Although he hoped any storage of pulp would not affect quality, Gunnarsson wanted to reassure customers that the company could cope with the situation.

"There are means to handle this, like water hosing the stored pulp and mixing old pulp with fresh."

Forest areas in Finland remained unscathed, with the storms mainly hitting the south coast, according to M-real's vice president for corporate communications, Jyrki Antikainen.

The hurricane winds swept through Europe and hit the southern parts of Sweden during the weekend of 8-9 January, causing more than three years' worth of fellings in one night.

Sdra buys between 7-8m cubic metres of wood per year from its members, and consumes 14m cubic metres  per year in its pulp mills.

Story by Andy Scott