For an efficient operation, the UPM Pellos mills needs a constant flow of promptly delivered fresh large logs. This means that 70–80 truckloads of spruce logs are coming through the Pellos mills gate every day – that’s a truck every 20 minutes.
Also, the quality of the logs is crucial in terms of production efficiency. The size, freshness and length of the logs are especially important. Spruce logs that have a top diameter of 30 cm and are exactly – and not less than – 5.2 metres in length are optimal as raw material.
Ecological transportation choices mean fresh wood
To ensure the freshness of the wood raw material delivered to the mills, spruce logs for plywood production are acquired from sources located close to the mills. This way, the wood supply chain to the mills is as short as possible and the wood stays fresh. Wood is mainly transported by road from an area 150 kilometres away from the mills. Wood from further away is floated or transported by railroad.
During the summer, when waterways are free from ice, wood is floated to the mills. During floating, 90% of the logs stay under water, so logs stay fresh for longer. One raft of logs towed by a tugboat is equivalent to 400–500 truckloads, which makes floating an ecological alternative to road transports, especially over longer distances!
Sustainable wood from a known origin
UPM Forest is the sole supplier of wood raw material to the UPM Pellos plywood mills. All the spruce used for plywood production at the mills comes from responsibly managed forests in Finland.
At UPM, we make sure that forests grow more than they are used, and that biodiversity is safeguarded and enhanced. To do so, the forests are managed in accordance with the principles of sustainable forest management accepted worldwide.
To ensure that every single log stems from responsibly managed forests, the wood supplies are also covered by third-party verified chain of custody certificates under the FSCTM (FSC C009856) and PEFC (PEFC/02-31-112). This means that the origin of all wood is known.
None of the valuable wood raw material is wasted. The remaining parts of the logs that cannot be used to make plywood are used as raw materials for energy and pulp production.