Singapore's Environment Council has put temporary restrictions on Asia Pulp & Paper's green label (earned after the 2015 haze) over fires at three supplier concessions in South Sumatra — PT Bumi Mekar Hijau, PT Bumi Andalas Permai and PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries; APP must file daily fire-response reports or risk suspension, which would pull the label from its tissue and paper on Singapore shelves. APP says it has had a zero-burning policy since 2013 and spent US$100M+ on fire management (Wood Central)
UPM named Aki Temmes (EVP Fibres since Dec. 2023) CFO from Jan. 1, 2027, succeeding the retiring Tapio Korpeinen; Petri Hakanen — who led the Paso de los Toros project — becomes EVP UPM Fibres and joins the Group Executive Team (PULPAPERnews)
Central National Gottesman's Lindenmeyr Munroe is acquiring Omaha Paper Company (OPC Direct), a family-owned Nebraska paper, packaging and JanSan distributor founded in 1961; closing is expected at end-October, terms undisclosed (PULPAPERnews)
Forestry & Timber
NSW Liberals have broken with the Nationals to back the Great Koala National Park bill, which moves 178,000+ ha of Mid North Coast State forest into the park estate; Timber NSW says 40%+ of North Coast hardwood sawmill supply sits inside the area and warned the bill lets the minister expand boundaries without time limit (Wood Central)
EU softwood sawn timber exports to the UK fell 14.6% y/y to 3.80M m³ in Jan–Aug 2026, with most major suppliers shipping less and earning less (GWMI)
Barge Forest Products is investing $8.3M in a new building and production line at its Macon, Miss. (Noxubee County) sawmill, with completion expected October 2027; MDA's announcement gave no job figure (WTVA)
Indonesia's forestry ministry has raised fire sanctions to 32 companies — 19 permits frozen with restoration orders, 5 licences revoked — with 125 companies and individuals under criminal inquiry and investigators building cases against beneficial owners; APP pulpwood supplier Bumi Mekar Hijau is sanctioned but keeps its licence (Wood Central)
Congo Republic's cabinet approved a bill (Oct. 14) to replace its forest-products export control service after log exports hit 445,718 m³ in 2025 — 99.9% to Asia, mainly China — under special permits covering 2M m³ despite a three-year-old ban; the CEMAC-wide raw-log export ban is still slated for 2028 (Wood Central)
Södra is opening a US sales office near Boston, paired with a logistics partnership, to bring its pulp and sawn timber commercial team closer to North American customers (GWMI)
Update: Motu's modelling for MFAT puts the NZ–India FTA wood gain at NZ$164M/yr in the first full year, rising to NZ$283M by 2036, as the average Indian tariff on NZ forestry, wood and paper products drops from 6.2% to 0.3%; India took just 2.7% of NZ log exports in 2025 vs China's 89.8% (Wood Central)
Co-generation & Mill Energy
Finnish Forest Industries' 2025 environmental statistics show fossil CO₂ from the country's pulp and paper mills down ~85% since 1990 (5.88M t → ~0.9M t), credited to bioenergy replacing fossil fuels and efficiency gains; landfill waste is down 97% since 1992 and the sector spent ~€224M on environmental measures in 2025 (PULPAPERnews)
Industry Technology Vendors
Ponsse — Update: alongside its Q3 report, Ponsse opened change negotiations covering all 1,109 Finnish employees (Epec excluded) on possible full or partial temporary layoffs of up to 90 days each during 2027 at Vieremä, citing an order backlog too small for capacity; no dismissals are on the table. John Deere Forestry began similar talks for 367 Joensuu workers last week (Metsätrans, GWMI)
