Finnish strikes and lockouts pose threat to Australian paper supply

The strike of Finland paper workers led to the closure of 40 paper mills and 14 board mills around the country, with speculation that the stoppages could spread to Sweden where Pappers, the Swedish Union, declared an overtime ban at Stora Enso mills for the duration of the Finnish strike.

Printing industries in Europe are at risk as their relatively short paper supply chain is threatened.

Melbourne-based Paper Agencies customer service manager, Jason Nalder, says the Australian paper industry should remain unaffected for the moment by the strikes. “Australian paper markets generally carry quite a bit of excess stock, due to the long lead times of 16 weeks or more we’ve been experiencing for the last six months or so,” he says.

Nalder emphasises it is unclear how much longer the strikes will continue, asserting that the Australian market will feel the crunch if the industrial action carries on for a considerable period of time. “We’re currently waiting to see if the strikes extend beyond the allotted period of time, if so then it is likely that a slight follow on will be felt in Australia.”

Roger Breen, PaperlinX general manager for merchandising, believes that the industrial action will not affect his organization’s activities in Australia. “We only rely on a limited amount of board supply from Finland,” he says. “Our inventory is sound, and for that reason I don’t see the current industrial action as having any serious impact.”

The three-day industrial action stretched from May 15 to 18 of May, after which point the employers began a two-week lockout. The strike spans around 24,000 members of the Finnish Paper Workers Union, with another 7,000 mill workers from the Union of Salaried Employees joining the dispute.