This paper focuses on examining the cost efficiency in a Nordic paper mill. Recent years

this topic has been under wider interests especially in Finland. The economic efficiency

per machine hour is an essential research area from the point of supply chain. This topic

has been scantily examined in previous journals and discussions. Our purpose was to

examine if the development of economic efficiency might give any explanations to vast

mill closures particularly in Finland after 2002. The empirical data was retrieved from

a very large paper mill, which is exporting 90 % of the production. The research data

consists of machine hours, variable and fixed costs and contribution margins and covers

the years between 2002 and 2008. The study presents interesting results how economic

efficiency of supply chain has developed during the research period. Our findings

demonstrate that cost efficiency per machine hour have been under serious pressures

during past years in the case mill. Additionally this empirical study concludes that in

a supply chain (SC) examination is worth to make by utilizing mill specific time series

data in order to yield valid and specific results.