Finnish manufacturers have warned they may be forced to scale down production if natural gas prices continue to rise, national broadcaster Yle reported.
While Finland's industrial sector is not as heavily reliant on natural gas as many other European countries, such as Germany, completely phasing out natural gas appears to be an impossible task for Finnish captains of industry. While only representing some five percent of total energy consumption in Finland, gas is an important part of the energy cocktail.
Earlier, Finland said that in the event of a gas shortage it would prioritize households and essential social services, such as healthcare, above its industrial needs.
The country's forestry and chemical sectors have expressed particular concern regarding the coming winter, admitting that the temporary shutdown of factories cannot be ruled out. Today, around one fifth of companies in the Finnish chemical sector use natural gas as an energy source or raw material. Among forestry companies, some five percent use gas to fuel factories.
“It's possible that production at some facilities will decrease or halt if the gas price reaches impossibly high levels or if supply issues arise,” Ahti Fagerblom, the head of energy and climate policy at the Finnish Forest Industries, told Yle, adding that forestry companies are already switching to fuel oil to replace natural gas.
Mika Aalto of the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland said that the burden of replacing natural gas was heaviest for smaller companies, as investments into other energy sources are costly and time-consuming, whereas natural gas in itself serves as a raw material.
