Russian timber industry news #12-2016

– The Far Eastern company Arkaim is going to open plant for the production of antioxidants from raw wood in bonded zone Xinglong in China’s Changchun. “We plan to process here larch into antioxidants and prebiotics. These products are very interesting for the Chinese market, they are used in pharmaceuticals and food industry,” said the president of the company Alexander Lepikhov.

– Representatives of the Turkish company Kastamonu visited the Belarusian woodworking enterprises of the Bellesbumprom concern. “Kastamonu is ready to provide the necessary funding in order to lower costs of production at the Belorussian enterprises and as a result to organize a joint production of the competitive goods that will be marketed by means of Kastamonu’s distribution network,” commented company vice president Onur Güven. He also noted, the innovative goods like insulating fibreboards produced by Mozyrsky DOK are of particular interest. This kind of boards is gaining more and more popularity in Europe and may be of interest for the Turkish market.

– The Minister of industry and trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov has proposed to amend the construction standards for wooden buildings over three floors and encourage wooden construction with reduced mortgage rates, especially in those regions where house-building factories are located. The minister came up with the proposals at a meeting on innovative development of building materials industry under the leadership of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

– RusForest has concluded a sale for three non-core forest lease areas belonging to the Ust-Ilimsk unit, corresponding to a total of 353,400 m3 of annual allowable cut, for $2.5 million.

– Chinese AVIC Forestry has commissioned Roskitinvest sawmill in the Tomsk region. “The mill was under commissioning, we received a positive conclusion from the federal Construction Supervision Service. Now the plant actually works,” said Deputy General Director Boris Kaznacheev.

– China is ready to consider cooperation options with wooden housing companies from Tyumen region. In particular, this is about a new programme for the construction of environmentally friendly parks, implemented by the Ministry of science and technology of China. The pilot area for the implementation of this programme will be the northern province of Heilongjiang.

– Chairman of the Board of Ilim Timber Boris Zingarevich intends to sell up to 30% of the company to a strategic partner, the mandate on search of the investor is given to VTB Capital.

– The expert council of the Industry Development Fund of the Ministry of industry and trade will allocate a preferential loan of 67.5 million rubles under 5% to a company manufacturing chairs for IKEA in Priozersk (Leningrad region) for an import substitution project. Meanwhile the plant covers 70% of IKEA’s Russian division needs, also exporting part of its products to Poland and China. After the expansion of production, self-sufficiency will reach 100%.

More detailed news of the Russian timber industry and review of global market trends of roundwood, lumber, wood panels and pellets; exclusive articles and interviews; over 25 pages of price charts are available in our digital Russian Timber Journal.