"This [latest extension] is just in case, but serious negotiations are ongoing and we hope it won't need to be used," said a spokeswoman for the Finnish Forest Industries Federation.

The extension follows the union's rejection of the employers' offer to shorten annual working time by 11 hours. At the same time
the Finnish Paperworkers Union has called for support for its cause from other trade unions as of 1 June, if negotiations have not progressed with the employers' representatives.

Talks between employers and unions were continuing as PrintWeek went to press.

The president of the National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) Henry Cubbon warned that while the mills in Finland remain closed, few deliveries of paper were reaching the UK.

Cubbon said that NAPM members would be doing everything possible to maintain the service to printer customers.

"Merchants are seeking to mitigate the impact by drawing on their own stocks of paper." He added that they are also looking to source paper from other countries in case these stocks are depleted.

PaperCo managing director Alistair Gough said his firm was managing its stock to ensure a constant supply, and was increasing its coated paper stock supply from France and Germany.

Although Premier Paper's parent company is Finnish producer M-real, chief executive Martyn Eustace said most of its supply came from non-Finnish sources, apart from board from Hedsorboard.

"This situation has been known about for some time, so there has been plenty of time to build up stocks."

But Eustace said the situation could change if the lockouts became more prolonged.

Paper tonnage
The latest statistics on the UK import figures from Finland for the first quarter of 2005 show the following in tonnes:

Uncoated mechanical 75,068
Uncoated woodfree 52,323
Coated mechanical 126,021
Coated woodfree 65,045
Total 318,457 tonnes

Story by Andy Scott