The forest industry production in Finland increased by some 15 percent in January-March, compared to the first quarter of 2009. Availability of wood might become a bottleneck, the Forest Industries Federation warns.“The Finnish government's proposal to build more nuclear power will, when realized, improve the forest industry's operating and investment prerequisites in Finland. Additional nuclear power provides the forest industry with the ingredients for developing more and more diverse processing operations and to increase its utilisation of forest energy,” said Timo Jaatinen, Director General of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.“It is very important that the supply of wood raw material to the forest industry is safeguarded during the further development of bioenergy subsidy decisions, as has been promised by the Government. Industrial wood must not be steered into combustion,” Jaatinen said. “Timber sales also need to be improved so that we can keep production operations up and running. A steady flow of wood is a fundamental precondition for the success of the forest industry.”According to the preliminary data of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation, the value of January-March production was about 4.3 billion Euros, of which 0.8 billion was generated in the wood products industry and 3.5 billion in the pulp and paper industry. March production activities were affected by the stevedore strike.