WhatWood: On the Russian OSB market, DOK Kalevala competes in the middle-price segment with Egger

The growth of OSB imports from Romania into Russia last year occurred due to the increase of capacities at the mills of Egger and Kronospan. The latter completed an investment project in September 2013 worth EUR 40 million at its plant in Brasov and doubled OSB capacity up to 600 thousand m3. In this regard, Kronospan partially transferred deliveries from its Latvian Bolderaja mill to the Romanian company, which led to the reduction of imports from Latvia, as says the report ‘OSB market in Russia’ recently published by WhatWood analytic agency.

Bolderaja imports panels by rail, while shipments from the Romanian mills are carried out by water transport, which allows to reduce transport costs due to a larger volume. The quality of Romanian panels is also increasing.

The most expensive and high-quality panels on the Russian market are imported from Germany. Canadian and especially Chinese OSB products are considered as economy class. Romanian and Latvian boards are in the middle price segment, where they compete with the Russian-made Kalevala OSB, as a major Russian distributor of panels told WhatWood.

In 2013, the country had three mills for the production of OSB: DOK Kalevala (Petrozavodsk, Karelia) that launched first large-scale production, as well as Hillman OSB (Vladimir region) and Novovyatsky ski mill (Kirov region). A total of three mills made 101.1 thousand m3 of board. Therefore, apparent consumption amounted to 795.9 thousand m3, which is 27.2% higher than in 2012.

With the development of domestic capacity imports are likely to reduce. Kronospan, obviously, will soon complete the construction of its plant in the Moscow region and is likely to abandon a part of deliveries from Romania and Latvia, while the growth of the domestic market of housing construction in North America may cause the companies from Canada and U.S. redirect sales from Europe to their region.

OSB is a regional product, it is mainly consumed in the same regions as manufactured, and the share of foreign trade is relatively small. A significant part of international trade in OSB accounts for supplies from Canada, where OSB was invented and first made, to the U.S. market. Russia is the world’s second largest importer of oriented strand boards. The leading positions in exports have been recently captured by Latvia and especially Romania, from a zero base.

In Russia, OSB is used mainly in construction (production of rough floors, walls, I-beams and so forth), small volumes are also utilized in the production of furniture and pallets.

To order the study ‘OSB market in Russia’, please write a request to zakaz@whatwood.ru or visit product page.