The price of pulp doubled during the First World War, but so did many of the costs, including a 250 percent increase in wages. By 1917 export of sawed wood was responsible for forty percent of its revenue. The company experienced high profits during the war, peaking at NOK 5.6 million in 1918. However, the investments and increasing prices caused two issues of new shares, both of NOK 6 million in 1916 and 1918, raising the share equity to NOK 18 million. Demand and prices skyrocketed from 1919, but Saugbrugsforeningen, like many of its competitors, failed to capitalized due to the corresponding rise in lumber prices.