The market of wooden I-beams in Russia

Dear clients and partners,

Recently we have studied the market of I-beam in Russia. We invite you to have a look at its highlights.

For the production of wooden I-beams, kiln-dried softwood lumber is used (12% humidity; UPM, Stora Enso, MM-Holz etc.), which is glued with a slab made of OSB, plywood, particleboard or LVL (Sveza, Egger, UPM, Zheshart plywood mill etc.)

In Russia, there are two wooden I-beam application spheres:

– Industrial formwork. This is a fairly large consuming sector that uses rougher and cheaper beam. The practice of beam re-use is widespread: complete sets of formwork are rented to construction companies through dealers. I-beam production lines of this kind are often owned by large holding companies who make products for the construction industry (PERI, Promstroykontrakt). Demand in this sector is closely linked to the volumes of industrial construction.

The largest investment project in this sector was the launch in September 2015 of a plant for the production of beams in Noginsk (Moscow region) by the German company PERI. The plant’s capacity is 2.15 million linear metres of I-beams per year. Investors are already planning to replace some equipment and to install additional machinery. The company uses press of its own design.

– Frames and floor slabs in the private and agricultural construction, including long-span structures. In this segment, I-beams are often produced by housing construction companies. Many manufacturers use homemade equipment and do not certify their beams. The demand in this segment has increased in the last five years, because consumers learned more about the advantages of this product – these include the ability to use long-span structures, light weight, and ease of installation. With increasing awareness of the product, the demand will follow, and the I-beam will be able to occupy some niches, according to industry players.

On the other hand, the market of housing construction in Russia sank in response to the crisis (as much as by 50%, according to some players), and numerous companies have stopped production. This makes the demand for construction I-beams postponed: consumers already know about the product, but the consumption will be able to grow only with the restoration of the construction dynamics. “We have two direct competitors in the region, one company in the North and another on the Riga highway direction: production load of the first one in 2016 amounted to 65%, of the other – to 27%. The downfall of the industry as a whole, of course, is obvious: in the first half of the year, the market has lost 1160 construction companies and associations. The purchasing power is down in the private housing”, as said the manager of one of the companies producing I-beams in the Moscow region.

Large I-beam capacities in Russia

For more information on I-beam capacities in Russia, please contact us:

zakaz@whatwood.ru

+7 905 704 5133