Plywood industry in Russia in 2017-2018

Plywood mills, like other wood-based panels enterprises, faced a severe shortage of raw materials on the market due to the huge collapse of wood exports in the summer-autumn period of 2017. According to our estimates, plywood mills located in the European part of Russia, sustained a loss of about 350 thousand for their production of veneer logs for the year in review. As a result, in 2017, plywood production in Russia for the first time unexpectedly reduced from the crisis year 2009 (-2.2% YoY to 3.7 million m3).

Additional pressure on the raw materials market rendered a strong demand for veneer logs from China. In 2017, the sale of birch veneer logs from Russia to China grew by 23% (YoY) to 1.6 million m3. The Russian government has already introduced protection measures to protect plywood producers and, most likely, will soon introduce quotas for the export of birch veneer logs.

WhatWood prepared an annual update of study “Plywood market in Russia 2017-2018”

More details at: research@whatwood.ru