Mets Metsä

Metz is a Finnish timber group of companies (metsä - means "forest" in Finnish). The forest industry has long been not only logging, but even more the production of goods from timber, including both woodworking and the production of pulp products.

The Meth group traces its history back to 1934, when the private enterprise Metsyaliitto ("forest union") was established, transformed in 1947 into a cooperative, which included 10 thousand Finnish forest owners. The development of the business went according to the traditional scheme: first there were woodworking enterprises, then - pulp production, and after that - the manufacture of paper and cardboard.

For 2017, Mett includes five production units that are engaged in various types of this activity. The group does business in 26 countries, employs about 10 thousand people, and annual sales are about 5 billion euros. The parent company remains the Metsyaliitto cooperative, which now unites 104 thousand Finnish forest owners.

Business in Russia

2024: Vologda Timber Industrialists buys Russian business of Metsa concern

The Vologda Timber Industrialists Group bought the Russian business of the Finnish concern Metsa Group. This deal was announced in mid-May 2024.

Under the terms of the agreement, Vologda Timber Industrialists received ownership of four Metsa Group subsidiaries: Metya Svir LLC, Metya Forest St. Petersburg LLC, Metya Forest Podporozhye LLC and Metsya Bord Rus LLC, located in the Leningrad Region. Its participants did not disclose the financial and other parameters of the transaction. It is noted that the deal was approved by the government commission and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).

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We have no doubt that the respected Finnish concern made the right decision, given our long-standing partnerships... We are well aware of the best production practices, constructive attitude with the region, painstakingly created by the Mett group, and we will try to carefully integrate them into our structure, "said Alexander Churkin, chairman of the board of directors of the Vologda Timber Industrialists Group of Companies.

According to him, the management of the enterprise is ready to consider the return of the plant team, which suspended its work in 2022.

The Russian group expects that the purchase of Metsä Group assets will, in particular, increase the production of high-quality dry lumber to 900 thousand cubic meters. m per year, as well as increase the raw material base by 500 thousand cubic meters. m of the estimated logging area per year. In total, 270 people worked at the enterprises.

The Metsa Group recalled that the company has not been doing business in Russia since 2022, including the Mit Svir sawmill, timber harvesting and cardboard sales are not carried out. As a result of the completed transaction, Metsa Group no longer owns assets in Russia, the Finnish concern emphasized in mid-May 2024.^[1]

2017: Speech Chief information officer Metsa Group Russia at TAdviser SummIT

In 2017, almost all business areas of the group were represented in Russia, but in different ways. So, there are two industries - logging and sawmilling in the Leningrad region, and some foreign production units are represented in Russia by sales offices. That is, the group produces something in Russia, and only sells something. In particular, lumber is produced in Russia, but most of it is then exported for sale abroad^[2].

Russia is one of the leading countries in terms of forest area. Wood reserves are estimated at 83 billion cubic meters. All forest exporting countries are talking about growing global demand. However, success will come to those who will manage green resources in a smart way, that is, using high technologies. According to Ivan Kozlov, director of IT at Metsa Group Russia, the time has come for virtual forests. As part of the "IT in Industry" section at TAdviser SummIT in 2017, he said that today in a smartphone you can look at aerial photography of a forest, assess reserves, and consult an expert. It is also easy to sell the forest and order plant planting or cutting services. Simple - so far only for the native region of the Finnish timber industry concern. Today, the mother structure is actually a cooperative of 140 thousand private forest owners, and they have already appreciated the innovation. By mid-2017, about 28% of the concern's products were sold using digital tools, the demand for digital forest management services was even higher^[3].

In Finland, IT tools help businesses solve four important tasks: find out exactly what is growing and where; what is prepared and when to be taken out; what was already taken out and how they used it. The developers expect to present a service for creating a digital forest model in the near future. Now two data collection technologies are being tested for this - drones armed with cameras and drones with lasers. According to Juha Yampanen, senior vice president of Metsa Group, in the future, every tree growing in Finland will be modeled, and ecosystem participants will be able to find out its location, length, diameter, species and other data.

There is no Internet in the Leningrad forests, so the data is not transmitted online, but is updated in the system weekly, but so far, as Ivan Kozlov notes, this is enough to plan work. Timber trucks are equipped with GPS sensors, which allows you to control loading, unloading and delivery.

Most forest regions in Russia don't even have that. According to the results of the first half of 2017, the damage to the revealed illegal logging, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, exceeded 4.5 billion rubles, but in fact it may be even greater. A number of reasons prevent Russian loggers from adopting the experience of neighbors who take into account each tree.

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