ThE WRaPPINg Of SAwN TIMbeR PAckAGeS aRE RENEWEd

TIMBER

he eventful and interesting ﬁrst

half of the year in the sawn timber

trade will soon be over. One cannot

say that global events during the

past months have been boring, and

many of us are already starting to

think about the approaching summer

holidays. However, at the same

time here at UPM we are busy, as

I am sure you are, in planning the

operations of Q3 and Q4 which

will provide a good starting point for

2018.

The ﬁrst two quarters of this year’s

sawn timber trade have been both

positive and challenging. Glob-

ally, the sawn timber demand has

been on the upward trend. The

very good demand for whitewood

sawn timber has continued and will

continue, and demand for redwood

sawn timber will grow signiﬁcantly

in all of our redwood markets; the

future looks good at least for these

UPM TIMBER

CUSTOMER NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2017

markets. A more challenging situation

is container deliveries especially

to Asia which is expected to get

better before the holiday months.

An unexpected development was

the issuing of import licenses by the

Algerian State for importers of timber

last spring, which led to the tempo-

rary suspension of deliveries to that

market. Let’s hope that by the time

this newsletter comes out, deliveries

to Algeria have resumed, as Algerian

demand has had a positive impact

for several months. The old saying

goes that if it were always easy, then

everyone would do it. This saying, as

THE WRAPPING OF SAWN

TIMBER PACKAGES ARE RENEWED

practice. The wrappers have been

widened to ensure that the plastic

always covers the bottom layers

of timer, the rivets and pads have

also been standardised. Training of

personnel also encompasses best

packing methods and cleanliness.

As a result we have achieved signiﬁ-

cant improvement in the quality of

packages. We strive to maintain our

excellent packaging quality by con-

tinuous monitoring, and interventions

are introduced if there is any deterio-

ration in the standard of wrapping.

High quality packages are our most

visible business cards in the markets

and at our customers.

Our new customer promise will

soon travel from our sawmills to the

world on the new wrappers.

we know, cannot really be applied

in the world of sawn timber and, of

course, challenges are there to be

overcome.

In accordance with our recently

launched customer promise, we are

constantly developing our operations

with partners, such as our logistics

partners, in order to continuously im-

prove our service to you. I am happy

to say that we have received very

positive feedback from our custom-

ers, but we also know that there is

still room for improvement. Naturally,

sales work is the spearhead, and the

most visible part of our operations to

our customers, but alongside that we

also want to deepen and widen our

co-operation with you as we want

to be your number one choice, now,

and in the future.

Wishing you all a great and relax-

ing summer,

Mikko Hyvärinen

Director, Sales and Supply Chain

PM Timber’s sawn timber

packages will get a new look

during the summer when we replace

old sawn timber wrappers with new

ones. The new wrappers display our

customer promise ‘Grown to Sustain’

alongside UPM’s Grifﬁn logo. The

color of the wrappers will change

slightly, the familiar white background

will remain, but the Grifﬁn logo and

the Grown to Sustain slogan will

be printed in green and black. The

new wrappers will be introduced gra-

dually, as stocks of the current ones

run out.

The quality and durability of the

sawn timber packages have been

improved by utilising new packaging

material and employees involved in

their use have been trained in best

DEAR CUSTOMER,

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CUSTOMER DELIVERY RELIABILITY SUPPORTED BY LONG-TERM

COOPERATION BETWEEN UPM AND STEVECO

ur customer promise, Grown to

Sustain, highlights our ability

to reliably deliver the right sawn

timber to our customers at the right

time. This is possible partly thanks

to the long-term, good cooperation

with Steveco, which is specialized in

logistics and stevedoring services.

“We provide UPM with forward-

ing, conveying and stevedoring

services. We take up the goods and

load them in to the ship. UPM is a

very big customer for us and one of

our strategic partners. We discuss in-

vestments closely with them to ensure

we focus on the right issues at the

right time,” comments Tapio Mattila,

who works as Senior Vice President,

Marketing and Sales, and as a Unit

Manager in container operations at

Steveco.

UPM’s four sawmills are located

in Finland, requiring long distance

transport of the products to many

markets. However, Tapio Mattila

praises Finland’s efﬁciency: in his

opinion, the sawmilling industry

has been particularly successful in

the design of its procurement and

production chain. ”In Finland, the

raw material is typically very close

to the sawmills, and long distance

export are also more cost-effective.

Of course see freight is expensive

as there are fairway charges and

ships need ice classiﬁcation, but the

efﬁciency of operations is excellent,”

Tapio Mattila says.

TOP-NOTCH TUNED KNOW-HOW

Previously, the containers came into

the port as a steady stream due to

transshipment and were always avail-

able. Now containers often arrive

many at a time, correspondingly, the

ship will export to capacity. ”Hun-

dreds of empty containers come at

once which have to be put in to the

container depot, received, inspected,

swept and repaired. When time is

short, we have developed a concept

to ensure the reliability of deliver-

ies, this has changed the way the

Steveco’s have to work” Tapio Mattila

tells us.

From UPM’s point of view, Ste-

veco’s most important task is for the

vessel to leave the port in the agreed

time window. Steveco is open 24/7,

this is essential, as production runs

around the clock. ”We take care

that UPM’s products leave Finland on

time and on the right vessel. Shiping

capacity is currently in high demand,

especially on routes from Europe

to Asia, and this is why the ships

don’t wait for the cargo coming from

Finland. For this reason, investments

have been made in a new informa-

tion system and new straddle carriers

in Kotka and in Helsinki. With these

investments, we can ensure that

containers are taken to the right

ship in time. It also enables us to

closely monitor in which ocean-going

ships the containers need to be and

when,” Tapio Mattila explains.

The Finnish forestry industry and

its export service is the core com-

petence of Steveco. The entire port

infrastructure and information system

have been built in co-operation

with customers to serve exports from

Finland. Steveco employs about

800 people and new employees go

through a very tight training process

that encompasses quality, safety, envi-

ronmental issues and the company’s

way of operating.

Steveco also has a vision for the

future, where continuous development

and training are an important part

of the business. ”If we look 10 years

ahead, we anticipate more and more

integrated information systems with

our customers in order to move data

efﬁciently. I hope this will enable us

to better serve UPM and adopt some

of the activities that UPM are currently

doing by themselves. In another 10

years, automation will have gone

further: we will have automation for

sawn timber that will improve quality

and bring cost efﬁciency to the op-

erations,” Tapio Mattila envisions.

With our strategic partners like

Steveco, we want to ensure the high

standards of our operations in every

area, to offer our customers the most re-

liable partner in future challenges, and

to focus on what we do best: supplying

our customers with the right high quality

sawn timber at the right time.

SARI HEIKKILÄ

UPM TIMBER

ORDER DELIVERY PROCESS

he sawmill industry has been

part of Sari Heikkilä’s life

since she was a young girl, as

her childhood home was located

opposite the sawmill. Since her

father and siblings all worked in

sawmills at some point, it was a

clear choice for Sari to work in

the sawmilling industry.

In 2000, Sari joined UPM

when Yhtyneet Sahat Oy bought

Aureskoski Oy. She has amassed

over 30 years of work experience

in the sawn timber business in

various roles from domestic and

export sales assistant to invoice

SAFETY OF PEOPLE

AT UPM’S SAWMILLS;

A KEY CONSIDERATION

clerk. Today, Sari is manager of

the order delivery process and

acts as a team leader for invoice

clerks and sales assistants. ”My

team consists of four invoice

clerks and ten sales assistants

who are highly motivated and

have great know-how. The team

operates

from four different

locations: Kaukas sawmill,

Korkeakoski sawmill, Seikku

sawmill and head ofﬁce in

Tampere,” says Sari.

For Sari, the customer is the

most important consideration for

whom Sari and her team will do

everything possible. ”My number

one priority, and that of the

whole order-supply chain, is that

the customer gets the right

product at the right time. In order

for this to happen, the whole

chain from sawmill to customer,

both internal and external

functions, needs to work

smoothly,” Sari says.

afety and health at work has

been one of UPM’s focal points of

development during the last years and

the safety of employees and contrac-

tors has remained an important focus

area. Last year UPM introduced a

global reporting tool, One Safety,

for all UPMers and contractors. It

covers environment, health and safety,

product and process safety as well

as security. In addition to this, all 13

UPM safety standards were updated

last year.

Occupational safety has been a

visible theme for every UPMer also

this year. The aim of these UPM life-

saving standards is to safeguard the

health and safety of people at work

and to standardize the safe working

practices in UPM.

One of the UPM life-saving stand-

ards is working at height, as working

at a height of over 10 meters is not

exceptional at UPM’s sawmills.

“One of the very ﬁrst things to

check before starting the work is to

restrict the area below”, says Joona

Ivonen, Safety Manager of UPM

Timber. Another important thing is

the equipment: “When working at

height, it is important to use ap-

propriate equipment for dangerous

work, such as man lifts, and have the

competence, permit and induction for

using the equipment”, Joona Ivonen

continues.

Nobody should work at heights

alone or without notifying the team.

“Communication is important when

working at height and needs to be

agreed in advance”, Ivonen says and

emphasizes that there is a good rea-

son for that. Namely, if an accident

occurs and a person is hanging by

the safety harness, it will take only 10

to 15 minutes for the blood supply

to be interrupted and that may lead

to necrosis. “It’s often only the ﬁre

brigade who can help with accidents

which have happened at heights,

so there’s not much time if something

happens up there”, Ivonen explains.

Even though these types of accidents

are rare, it is important to work in

teams.

Outside work, safety should be

taken equally seriously. Projects like

renovations, ﬁxing cottages, or even

gardening may require working at

height. “Many people think it is too

expensive to buy safety equipment or

harnesses just because you will need

it only once or twice. For example at

the Seikku sawmill, employees can

loan the safety equipment from work

to prevent any risks related to working

at height”, Ivonen says.

he co-operation between VTI and

UPM started already back in 2000

with top log qualities and has been de-

veloping and growing ever since. These

days UPM supplies Live Classic and com-

ponent quality for windows with a certain

amount of heartwood content.

Danish VTI Vinderup Traeindustri (VTI)

chose UPM as their sawn timber sup-

plier almost 20 years ago. Since then,

the cooperation has only strengthened,

developed and grown. These days UPM

supplies Live Classic and component

quality for windows which contain a

certain amount of heartwood.

When choosing the sawn timber sup-

plier, VTI emphasizes in particular stable

quality, on time delivery, ﬂexibility, forest

and chain of custody certiﬁcation, claim

handling procedures and competitive

pricing. UPM has been successful in these

things and has been chosen as one of

VTI’s most important suppliers.

The relationship with UPM and VTI is

close and gives an excellent opportunity

to work on improving the key factors in

supplier co-operation. “UPM is a reliable

supplier of high quality timber whose

know how in industrial products and

production is a huge beneﬁt when de-

veloping new products“, says Mr. Allan

Rasmussen, Purchase Manager of VTI.

He also tells that UPM Timber’s extranet

service, Timbernet, is actively used on

daily basis and sees it as an

big advantage.

VTI Vinderup Træindustri, founded

in 1976, is located in the western part

of Denmark in Vinderup and it employs

around 110 people. VTI’s core compe-

tence is the production of window com-

ponents as well as edge glued panels

for furniture, merchants and DIY stores.

A large share of the total turnover comes

from export to other European countries.

VTI is one of our European joinery and

furniture customers. Joinery segment is

strategically very important end-use area

in many different markets for UPM Timber.

inn Nielsen started as a

salesman in Skive Træimport

in 1991 which was a part of

Anco in Denmark, and owned

by UPM. At the beginning of his

career, Finn didn’t know much

about timber but soon learned

the secrets of the sawn timber

business. “When I started I didn’t

have much knowledge about

timber but by visiting our sawmill

I learned and understood the pro-

cess better. Through that I started

to understand the customer needs

better and was able to ﬁnd the

UPM TIMBER

SALES TEAM

FINN NIELSEN

FROM DENMARK

WINDOW MANUFACTURER

APPRECIATES QUALITY, RELIABILITY

OF DELIVERY AND RESPONSIBILITY

IN PARTNER CHOICES

Get to know our customer VTI Vinderup Træindustri A/S

Allan Rasmussen, Purchase Manager

inspecting the sawn timber.

best suitable products and even

new possibilities for our custom-

ers,” explains Finn.

Nowadays, Finn is really fond

of the sawn timber business. “I re-

ally like to work with timber, and

I know that I’m working with a

good product with lots of possibili-

ties in for the future. I also like the

smell of timber when I’m walking

in the log yard or in a sawmill,

it just gives me a good feeling,”

Finn continues.

Today, Finn works as sales

manager in Denmark and Swe-

den. According to Finn, the most

important aspects to his job are to

have great relationships with the

customers and supply them with

stable, high quality sawn timber

suited to the end use. “In addition,

reliability of delivery is crucial

which is only possible because of

the excellent service provided by

my colleagues in Finland every

day,” says Finn.

PM’s Kaukas sawmill is one of

the biggest sawmills in Finland.

It is part of UPM’s Kaukas mill inte-

grate which is located in Lappeen-

ranta, Eastern Finland. The annual

production capacity of the sawmill is

about 510,000 cubic metres and it

employs around 130 people. Kaukas

sawmill produces both redwood and

whitewood sawn timber of which 90

per cent is exported. This high quality

sawn timber is mainly delivered to

Japan and North Africa, in addi-

tion to the domestic and European

customers.

Kaukas sawmill is continuously

developing its production and is a

forerunner in automation, process engi-

neering and kiln drying in the Nordic

countries. “The automated quality

measurement is a key focus at our

sawmill. We use computer vision that

has been developed over the years

and at the same time the employees’

know-how in adjusting it has risen to

a new level,” says Antti Waajakoski,

the recently appointed Production

Manager of the Kaukas sawmill.

Last year the sawmill invested in

three fully automatic chamber kilns

t UPM Timber we make continu-

ous efforts to secure the profes-

sionalism of our personnel and to

further develop the customer oriented

approach, employing around 400

true timber professionals.

Continuous development of our

commercial capability is ensured

through a diverse range of initiatives

including sales training at various

levels (this spring, training was held

for sales assistants), training on prod-

uct and quality issues at sawmills,

and later this year UPM’s wood

and kiln carriage’s return track. “Con-

tinuous improvement of production

plays a key role nowadays and we

need to ﬁnd new ways to do things

better and more efﬁciently. In the

future, the data from the production

process should be utilized even more

efﬁciently than today using the Lean-

Six Sigma approach,” Antti Waaja-

koski continues.

As one of Europe’s largest

redwood sawmills, UPM’s Kaukas

sawmill has a major role in the pro-

duction of redwood in Finland. In ad-

dition to the size and the high capac-

sourcing and forestry personnel will

deepen their product knowledge and

understanding of the requirements for

producing top quality sawn timber.

This year we have expanded

our extensive training program with

Crane-training. Crane-training consists

of four modules: The Timber business

as part of a leading international

forestry organisation, the importance

of cooperation within the UPM inte-

grate, our commercial strategy and

customers, as well as the cooperation

between and safety considerations of

the different functions.

The second module of the training

was held at the Kaukas integrate,

ity of the mill, Antti Waajakoski also

believes that the personnel and the

cooperation in the integrate are

clear competitive advantages

of the sawmill. “Our em-

ployees have extremely

good knowledge and

know-how and the

working atmosphere

is great. Moreover,

the utilization of all

wood raw material

that is delivered to

the site is at an excel-

lent level, thanks to the

where the beneﬁts brought by the

integrate cooperation and the

important role of UPM as a regional

inﬂuencer were considered and

discussed. The Kaukas mills form a

unique bioforest industry conglomer-

ate. The cornerstones of Kaukas’

operations are sustainably acquired

wood raw material, high self-sufﬁ-

ciency in energy and the recycling

of production by-products into raw

materials.

The name of the training pro-

gram, Crane, contains a message:

participants in the training program

are expected to develop themselves,

assimilate wide-ranging expertise in

CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN KAUKAS SAWMILL

CONTINUOUS TRAINING CREATES TRUE TIMBER PROFESSIONALS

the timber business and its ancillary

businesses, and also to raise UPM

Timber’s business to a new level. The

participants were invited to join the

training program from all operations

of UPM Timber. By selecting people

with as versatile backgrounds as

possible and with a wide range of

professional expertise we ensure the

success of the training as well as

excellent future development of UPM

Timber. “In the Crane-training, there

are very competent people from

whom you’d expect bold suggestions

to improve Timber’s business,” states

Mikko Mäki-Tuuri, UPM Timber’s

Human Resource Director.

TIM Crane training in Biofore

House in Helsinki

integrate model”, Antti Waajakoski

concludes.

To support UPM Timber’s new customer promise, Grown to Sustain, we have renewed our marketing and communications artwork. Our aim is to

convey the unique way in which UPM creates value for our customers via committed staff and ﬁrst class product quality and operations.

Sawmill worker, Marko Ahtiainen, captured these images of professional photographer Krista Keltanen at work in the Seikku mill.

-NEW MARKETING IMAGES