Russian timber industry news #9-2016

– The Central Asian and Northern African markets remained difficult in the Q1 2016, as Rusforest mentioned in its quarterly report. However, the company managed to redirect more low-quality product sales to the Japanese market instead.

– Pomorskaya sawmill company LLC has started implementation of an investment project at the industrial site of Solombala sawmill in Arkhangelsk. On 29 April 2016, the company signed a contract with Hekotek for the supply of pellet production line with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes.

– Kronospan company acquired a mothballed Dieffenbacher line for the production of OSB that was pledged in Promsvyazbank. This line was previously ordered from Dieffenbacher by the company ORIS for installation in Tchaikovsky (Perm region). Funding included a credit from Promsvyazbank in the amount of $187 million, and the construction of the mill with design capacity of 500 thousand m3 began in late 2011. However, the company subsequently abandoned the project, mothballed the line and put it up for sale. The equipment will be placed at the Kronospan site in Bashkortostan. A detailed overview of Russian OSB investment projects is given in an industry research by WhatWood agency.

– In the framework of the Environmental Year 2017, testing of a system to label all logs will begin on the territory of the Irkutsk region in order to monitor wood flows, said the Minister of natural resources and ecology of Russia Sergey Donskoy.

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.