The line graph compares the changes in manufacturing the distinct forest-industry products: timber, pulp, and paper in a European country over two decades.
Overall, it is clear that initially, timber held the lead, while it was overtaken by paper, and so much so that it ultimately became the major demanding commodity in the industry in the remaining decade. Additionally, the data shows exhibited fluctuating trends in the production levels of timber, pulp, and paper over the two-decade span.
Pulp and timber bore certain parallels in that both showed fluctuating patterns throughout the period. The former was the dominant, at the beginning of the period, with the figure standing at just under 6 million tonnes, while the latter had smaller amounts by 2 million tonnes. The amount of timber product then had risen to almost 9 million tonnes in 5 years and reached its pinnacle in 1985. However, the timber production subsequently plunged before staging a recovery to around 7 million tonnes over the same period. In contrast, the rate of pulp production was relatively lower than timber, and started to fluctuate. In 1990, the share for pulp dropped to above 4 million tonnes before an upward trend, and almost doubling to shy of 10 million tonnes in 2000.
Turning to the final commodity – paper – it was an outlier as it showed less variation for most of the period. Initially, it was the least produced at 4 million tonnes, but thereafter has shown a significant step-up from 1980 to 1995, with a value increasing from 3 million tonnes to 9 million tonnes of production and overtaken other ones. In the 21st century, the amount of paper production skyrocketed to 10 million tonnes, making it the absolute leader in the forest industry.