Electricity prices in Sweden and Norway has increased sharply over the past week

One of the major cost in forestry, pulp and basic industries are high electricity prices. Many of the major forestry companies are looking to secure its electricity needs for several years in the future.  In the Nordic power exchange NordPool, the average price increased by 40 percent over the past week. Now average price for electricity on Friday's trading (which is set on Thursday) is up to 0.748 Swedish crowns per kilowatt hour.

The recent cold weather has contributed to the price of electricity has risen sharply but there are also other structural problems. A strong contributing factor besides weather are the low levels in reservoirs in both Sweden and Norway. In addition, two out of ten nuclear power stations in Sweden temporarily stopped - but they'll start next week, according to Swedish Television.