Russian timber industry news #21-2016

– AFK Sistema owned by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov made a public proposal of the purchase of all shares of Finnish house-building company Honkarakenne at the price of €1.5 per share. According to Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, the CEO of Honkarakenne Marko Saarelainen, however, declined the offer of the Russian holding: the shareholders found the amount insufficient.

– Due to still difficult situation on the North African market there were no RusForest’s sales there in Q3 2016 (compared with 3,328 m3 in Q3 2015), the company said in a quarter report. Also the share of low-priced Central Asian market decreased from 24% in Q3 2015 to 11% in Q3 2016. Volumes from these two markets were partly redirected to China. The share of Chinese market in total sales increased from 9% in Q3 2015 to 41% in Q3 2016. The trend of growing share of China in Russian softwood lumber sales is noted in the recent issue of WhatWood Monthly Lumber Report. The share of Japanese market in total sales remained stable – 46% in Q3 2016 compared with 45% in Q3 2015. Also, construction of a new saw line in Magistralny is currently being investigated.

– Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia has taken the initiative to restrict export of birch wood temporarily due to a deficit of veneer logs on the domestic market, export growth and increase of log prices.

– On November 1, Tomlesdrev LLC inaugurated a new particleboard production plant in Tomsk. The cost of new project was 6.2 billion rubles (Sberbank supported the investors), rated capacity of the enterprise is 350 thousand m3 of particleboard annually.

– Human rights defenders and group of parliamentarians have requested Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia not to privatize Karellesprom holding.

– Representatives of Segezha Group signed an agreement on attraction of debut syndicated credit with a total value of €383.6 million for a term of five years. Club deal attracts several banks of multiple jurisdictions: ING Bank, Raiffeisenbank and Sberbank are engaged in it.

– At Panel Industry of Russia conference, which took place within Lesdrevmash exhibition in October 2016, the CEO of Sveza group Aleksandr Shevelev made a proposal to establish association of birch plywood producers in Russia.

– Polish plywood and furniture producer Paged Group considers the construction of an enterprise in Nizhny Novgorod region.

– In 2017, Sudoma mill (Pskov region) plans to achieve full capacity of 61.5 thousand m3 of products per year, the company stated in press release timed to coincide with anniversary of production start-up (November 14, 2015).

– Forestinvest LLC will receive 300 million rubles from Industrial Development Fund to develop investment project in Severo-Baykalsky District of the Republic of Buryatia. The funds will be used to organize production of wood-polymer composites, charcoal and trim mouldings and to put the second stage of lumber mill and biofuel boiler into operation.

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.