For the first time in history, Russian producers sold OSB trial supplies on the US market in 2017

OSB is mainly a North American product, its production and consumption in the US and Canada in 2017 amounted to about 20 million m3. The world market capacity is currently estimated at 32 million m3 (2017). CAGR for production in 2011–2017 was 8.46%. OSB consumption in Russia for the 2012–2017 period increased 2.5 times to 1.3 million m3.

Russian OSB producers expanding on geographical sales, trying new logistics schemes and offering products, including in countries far abroad. Russian products produced with modern European equipment are competitive in terms of price and quality and are not inferior in European and even in North American markets (OSB prices have been increasing in America for the past 14 years, and in 2017, the prices reached a peak). For the first time in history, Russian producers sold OSB trial supplies on the markets: USA (in the formats 1220×2440 and 1250×2500, mostly 9 and 11 mm), Italy (1250×2500, 6 mm) and Greece.

For two years, there were no products from Canada and the USA on the Russian market. OSB of the North American production isn’t getting through to the Russian market and is being completely replaced by Russian and Belorussian production. The last batch of OSB produced by Louisiana-Pacific Canada with a capacity of 305 m3 was delivered in December 2015.

The design capacity of the announced greenfield projects for OSB production for the period up to 2023 is estimated at 1.8 million m3/year.

In 2017, OSB consumption volumes on the Russian market for the first time came to the same level as plywood consumption (1.3 million m3 per product). There is a substitute for low-grade plywood in the low-rise construction segment: for the roof, enclosing structures, wall cladding and ceilings, temporary structures.

WhatWood has recently prepared an annual update of study “OSB market  in Russia 2017-2018”.