The demand for poles from Swedish forests is high. By sending out updated price lists directly to the harvesters, the trunks can be cut more efficiently and Norra Skog will have access to more raw material.

Norra Skog describes pine poles as one of the forest's most profitable products. On the tenth of February, the price to forest owners was raised by an average of 20 percent, and demand is high despite the recession.

To get more poles out of the forest, Göran Wikman, timber specialist Flow at Norra Skog and Norra Skog's pole factory in Agnäs in Västerbotten, has worked with the information that goes out to the harvesters' computers.

Comparisons between November and December 2023 and the same period in 2024 show that significantly more pole timber has been delivered.

"We produced 2,369 more poles during the two months, an increase of 34.1 percent. In volume, this means 917 cubic metres more pole timber, which corresponds to an increase of 41.3 per cent," says Göran Wikman in a press release.

High demand for poles
He describes the new technology as the harvests have been "trimmed". The harvesters' analysis of each tree has become easier and the bucking has been streamlined to give the forest owner the greatest possible value from each tree.

Previously, the harvester had to calculate five different instructions in the pole segment with different lengths and diameters.

"The computers in the machines count thousands of times per second and make a forecast for each tree trunk. With the new price list design, they can make better decisions and produce more poles," says Göran Wikman.

The pole factory in Agnäs has a strong demand for its products. Despite the recession, 2023 was an unprecedented year for the factory – "an all-time record", as site manager Johan Lundberg described it.

"When we entered 2023, we had a very high inventory. But we sold an incredible amount, so there was a substantial reduction in inventory," Johan Lundberg said in a press release in May 2024.

"Manufacturing poles is quite niche, there aren't that many players. This means that those of us who are doing this collaborate a lot. We deliver poles to each other, which are then exported. In Agnäs, we export almost everything we manufacture, so we also get great advantages in terms of currency," says Johan Lundberg.