By 2021, the country’s largest OSB plant with a capacity of more than 600 thousand cubic meters per year will be built in Sharia

The SWISS KRONO Group supported the proposal of the Governor of the Kostroma region Sergey Sitnikov to build a new largest wood processing plant in the country in Sharia. On February 06, 2019, the company’s intentions were confirmed by the General Director of LLC ”SWISS KRONO” in Sharia Lutz Pape at a working meeting with the head of the region. This was reported by the press service of the Governor of the Kostroma region.

The administration of the region and personally the Governor Sergey Sitnikov for several years negotiated with the company on the construction of a new large wood processing plant in Sharia.

“We are interested in the fact that the main wealth of the region – the forest – is processed as much as possible in the region. Now from the region is exported around 1.3 million cubic meters of round timber. This situation cannot suit us. Therefore, the task is one – to maximize the amount of wood processed here, in our region”, – Sergey Sitnikov commented.

For the first time on the territory of the Kostroma region will be built a plant for the production of OSB. A modern wood processing enterprise with a production volume of more than 600 thousand cubic meters per year will start working in the region in 2021. It will be the largest enterprise in the country at the moment in Russia there are several plants for the production of OSB with a production volume of no more than 300-500 thousand cubic meters per year.

“The main direction of the company’s investment is the expansion of facilities for the production of oriented particle Board (OSB), including the construction of a plant in Sharia (Russia). This decision will give a significant acceleration to the group’s investment activities, it emphasizes its ambitious goals in the development of the direction for the production of building materials”, – the Director of strategic development and communications of SWISS KRONO Group Max von Tippelskirch commented.

In December 2018, the management of the SWISS KRONO Group decided to further invest in the amount of 340 million euros, including in the plant in Sharia. The question of construction of the plant was first raised in May 2013 at a meeting of the Governor of the Kostroma region Sergei Sitnikov with the owner of the SWISS KRONO Group Mr. Ernst Kyndl in the framework of the working visit of the head of the region in Vienna (Austria). After that, during the work on the project, the issues of raw materials, technologies, and infrastructure were discussed. For SWISS KRONO Group, the decisive factors to support the new project were: a favorable investment climate, which was created in the region, and the availability of the necessary stock of raw materials.

“The existing site” SWISS KRONO ” in Sharia allows you to build a plant in two years. It has all the infrastructure, prepared engineering staff. I have no doubt that the plant will be launched quickly enough, and in 2021 we will see the first products. And this year there will be new jobs associated with a large construction”,– the Governor said.

After the implementation of the project, new high-performance jobs will be created, additional tax revenues will be provided to the budgets of all levels. The administration of the region guarantees maximum support to the investor.

“Another great advantage. Such enterprises become forest users. At the same time, we are talking about a significant increase in reforestation. Over the past six years, we have done a lot, in fact, we have reached the volumes that were in the region in the second half of the 80s-about 6 million cubic meters per year. Accordingly, reforestation is growing, in this direction we are on the first positions in the country,” – the Head of the region said.

The SWISS KRONO Group company is the owner of LLC SWISS KRONO (Kronostar), the leading producer of wood plates in Russia and the largest taxpayer of the Kostroma region. Last year, the company completed the implementation of a priority project in the field of forest development, investing in the economy of the region more than 4.1 billion rubles. As part of the investment project, a modern timber processing infrastructure was created, a new chipboard line was put into operation.