Russian timber industry news #17-2015

– RusForest announces plans to develop harvesting operations in its Ust-Ilimsk forest lease areas. The company has recently been subcontracting forest lease areas in Ust-Ilimsk for harvesting by third party. While the subcontracted volumes have been successfully increased, pricing levels limit the level of profitability on such activities.

– The Ministry of transport of the Russian Federation will provide owners of heavy trucks a 18% discount for using federal roads. A temporary exemption is introduced in the framework of anti-crisis plan of the Russian government.

– Baltic forestry company LLC and Torrec Oy, Finland, signed a contract to build a new plant for the production of biochar in the Kaliningrad region with a capacity of 30,000 t. The total investment cost of the project is €4 million.

– Representatives of the Chinese company Song Yuan suggested the authorities of the Tomsk region to increase production at its subsidiary company Sibir-Les LLC. Since 2006, the mill produces veneer and furniture components for a range of end-users, including IKEA.

– The government of the Russian Federation signed a regulation on August 4, 2015, #786, according to which from 1 September 2015, the rates of export customs duties are reduced by half for certain specific lumber grades and coniferous and deciduous wood chips and shavings.

– In the first half of 2015, Russia exported 170,000 t of wood chips, Infobio agency reported. Almost all deliveries were made to Finland (95% of them by trucks), for the border CHPs and boilers.

– On 17 August, GS Group has opened a pilot production of granulated wood-plastic composite (WPC) in Ulyanovsk – GS Composite mill. The production capacity is up to 2150 tonnes of finished products per year. The volume of investments in the project amounted to RUR 200 million.

– Karelia DSP LLC (belongs to Segezha Group, AFK Sistema holding) has released a test batch of groove-and-tongue chipboard. These products, designed for the construction market, are widely used in the construction industry abroad, but are new for the Russian market, as the company notes.

– On August 25, 2015, Ustyeles LLC has put into operation a line for the production of birch plywood in Sokol, Vologda region, with the capacity of 18,000 m3.

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.