Abstract

In a global bioeconomy, benchmarking costs is essential in the evaluation of current forest harvesting systems and addressing, decisions on the most efficient supply chains for available forest resources. Benchmarking cost rates in forestry is challenging, due to a lack of harmonized terminology and difficulties in collecting information on comparable forest technologies. This study provides a first-time series of cost factors to be used when modeling and evaluating the cost competitiveness of forest felling and processing operations on a global scale. It is based on an expert survey using a standardized method of data collection. This benchmarking identifies and updates the knowledge of technical and socio-economic factors capable of influencing the cost rates of forest felling and processing operations across different regions. This study is expected to act as a reference for larger investigations, and for regular updates, with the aim to provide current data that can be used by forest practitioners and decision makers for improving, their cost efficiency and for designing future supply systems more effectively.

Keywords

International benchmarking; cost rating; forest harvesting; cost database; competitiveness

Published in

International Journal of Forest Engineering
2017, Volume: 28, number: 2, pages: 94-105

SLU Authors

• Di Fulvio, Fulvio

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

• Lindroos, Ola

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14942119.2017.1311559

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/88680