The February Strike in Finland put a big dent in UPM’s plywood sales. The delivered volume in January-March 2020 was 173 000 m3. The previous 6 year average (2014-2019) was 197 000 m3. The decrease from last year’s first quarter was 23 000 m3 of plywood, i.e. 11.6%.

Since the peak year 2017, profitability has slided. The capacity increase in the European birch plywood market has had a negative impact on the prices. The comparative EBITDA of UPM Plywood during the first quarter of this year was 14 million euros. The drop from last year (2019) was 26%.