Metsäliitto Osuuskunta - Company Announcement

The statutory labour negotiations concerning Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry's sawmills have ended

Metsäliitto Group Stock Exchange release 18 June 2009 at 12:00 noon

The statutory labour negotiations concerning Metsäliitto Wood
Products Industry's sawmills have ended

Metsäliitto continues to take measures in order to improve the
profitability of sawmilling and will temporarily lay off the
personnel at all of its sawmills in operation for two to four weeks
due to the weak market situation of sawn timber and the poor
availability of competitively priced wood raw material."For a long time, we have adjusted production at all of our sawmills
according to the market situation. Timber with competitive prices in
comparison to end-product market prices has not been sufficiently
available, which means that we have to curtail our production," says
Ole Salvén, Group Executive Vice President of Metsäliitto Wood
Products Industry."Metsäliitto Wood Supply has been very active in purchasing log
timber, and our market share has been high, but the volume of timber
trade has not been sufficient. It would be important to make the
timber trade successfully pick up already during the summer so that
production at sawmills can be launched in the autumn," emphasises
Juha Mäntylä, Group Executive Vice President of Metsäliitto Wood
Supply.

The statutory labour negotiations, which ended on 17 June, concerned
a total of 380 people. The temporary layoffs, ranging from two to
four weeks, will be carried out as an extension to summer holidays.
When necessary, the temporary layoffs will continue in the autumn
according to the market situation. In total, the temporary layoffs
will last a maximum of 90 days.

Moreover, Metsäliitto Wood Products Industry's Kaskinen upgrading
will give notice of termination of employment to a total of 20
employees as a result of the statutory labour negotiations that ended
on 16 June. The reduction need is based on the transfer of contract
manufacturing of consumer products intended for the United Kingdom's
DIY market from Kaskinen to UK, cost saving measures as well as the
organisation's resizing to meet the production volumes.
For more information:
Ole Salvén, Group Executive Vice President, Metsäliitto Wood Products
Industry, Finnforest, tel. 010 465 4870
Juha Mäntylä, Group Executive Vice President, Metsäliitto Wood
Supply, tel. 050 352 5528
Päivi Kauhanen, Metsäliitto Corporate communications, tel. +358 50
598 9560