Forestry in Russia

The timber industry is a significant contributor to the economy of Russia, worth around 20 billion dollars per year. Russian Forest Industry - a set of Russian industries related to wood harvesting and processing . One of the oldest sectors of the economy.

On the territory of Russia is 1/4 of the world's reserves of wood. According to data for 2015 the total forest area has exceeded 885 million hectares, representing 45% of the total area of the country. At the same time the stock of wood was in the area of 82 billion cubic meters. The main share of coniferous tree species comprises: pine, spruce, larch, cedar.

Forest Fund of Russia can be divided into four main groups:

Waterproof, field, reserve, recreational forests. In this area can be carried out only sanitary felling of trees in order to improve the overall condition of the forest. Forest areas, which allowed selective cutting, not exceeding volume growth for the year. Operating forests, they can use the clear cutting. Timber industry as chemical, differs quite a complicated structure. Conventionally, all branches of forest complex can be divided into four groups:

Logging industry - timber harvesting; Wood industry - mechanical and chemical-mechanical treatment and processing of wood. Of plate production, furniture production, production of lumber and so on; Pulp and paper industry - mainly chemical processing of wood, pulp, paper and cardboard; Wood chemical industry - production of charcoal, rosin and turpentine.

Russia has more than a fifth of the world's forests, which makes it the largest forest country in the world. Russia supplies the wood to the whole world However, according to a 2012 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Government of the Russian Federation, the considerable potential of Russian forests is underutilized and Russia's share of the global trade in forest products is less than four percent.

Sectors included in the timber industry, as part of the Russian industrial production are in seventh place in terms of production and fifth in terms of exports. [2] The most important role the forest industry plays is in the economies of the European countries of the North, in the vast territories of Eastern and Western Siberia and the Far East timber complex inferior fuel industry and metallurgy.

The main product of the industry is now the timber, whose share among the total volume of exported timber is approximately 75 - 80%. Logging industry is considered to be the basic direction of the whole forest complex. By the end of the 1980s, the USSR ranked second in the world in the export of wood, behind only the United States. As a result of numerous economic changes over the past decade, Russia has moved on 6 - 7th place in this index.

As in other industries in Russia, based on the extraction of raw materials and the resumption of raw materials in the timber industry a significant proportion of revenue is formed by the export of raw materials sawing logs. For a long time Russia was the main supplier of wood raw material in Europe

According to analyst group of companies Lesprom Network, the Russian government's decision to raise export duty on roundwood in July 2007 by 20%, and April 2008, 25% resulted in a decrease in the competitiveness of Russian companies-exporters in world markets. In the second half of 2008, amid the global economic crisis, the volume of construction fell sharply in Japan, China and Western Europe, production volumes declined substantially in the major economic sectors that consume the wood .

In 2008, the volume of timber in Russia decreased by 14.4% compared with 2007. Production growth in the wood was 1.4%, in the pulp and paper production, publishing and printing - 0.8%.

The net profit Russian forest industry companies in 2008 fell sharply, evidenced by an annual ranking of the 50 largest companies data Russian timber industry, published by the magazine "Forest Industry". Total revenue companies included in the Top 50 "Forest Industry" in 2008 amounted to 216.34 billion rubles. In the 10 largest companies account for more than 70% of total revenue. The total net profit of 50 rated companies reached 6.26 billion rubles. The proportion of companies that are engaged exclusively in the processing of wood without pulp and paper production amounted to slightly more than 27% of total revenue, while total net profit - 26.8% .

In addition to country-specific, there are common features of development of the industry: increase in market share of goods substitutes and reduced share of wood and paper products. For example, the appearance of plastic packaging has reduced the consumption of paper, and the development of the Internet has led to a reduction in the consumption of newsprint.

In Russia, there is no private ownership of forest land, which is replaced by a long-term lease of forest land for recreational and logging purposes. However, in some countries there is private ownership of the land. For example, in the US management of forest land - this is a big business volume of more than $500 billion forest land in the country cover about 500 million acres, of which 53% belong to private owners who are not manufacturers, 30% are in the public domain, 4% owned by industrialists. and 8% owned by financial investors.

Composition

Forestry (raw only accommodation factor)

European North

(The forest area is reduced)

Eastern Siberia Ural Far East Mechanical wood processing Sawmills (raw factor) Construction materials (consumption factor) - is typical for all regions Chemical treatment of wood Pulp and paper industry (energy, raw materials, environmental factors accommodation, hygroscopic) Dendrochemistry (raw factor) Machining of wood [edit | edit wiki text]

Vintage frame saw, mounted on Rakovski Street in Minsk Mechanical wood processing (sawmilling, manufacture of prefabricated wooden houses, furniture, plywood, wood-fiber, chipboard) is located in the blanks areas and in areas of consumption. (Especially when crossing the floatable rivers and railways, or in estuaries)

Lumber [edit | edit wiki text] In connection with the declared policy of the Russian government to reduce the export of raw timber companies are starting to increase the export of sawn timber. In the 1st quarter of 2010 the volume of exports of softwood lumber from Russia increased by 11%, export prices increased by 6%, it said in a published analytical results service Lesprom Network export markets research. The bulk of Russian lumber was shipped to China, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Japan and Iran. In the 1st quarter of 2010 increased the volume of lumber shipments to Europe, China, Middle East and North Africa. Reduced prices for lumber, raised in China and the CIS countries. At the same time China took the largest share in exports - 19%. The leaders in the volume of exports of sawn timber in the 1st quarter were: Lesosibirsk LDK, Ust-Ilim Timber Processing Plant, Novoyeniseysk LHK, "Sawmill-25" and "Svir Timber".

Pulp and paper industry [citation | edit wiki text] Main article: Pulp and Paper Industry in Russia In the production of paper in the first place the European North, in the second - the Eastern Siberia.

Venues - Arkhangelsk, Syktyvkar, Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk and Ust-Ilim, Irkutsk. And Svetogorsk, Moscow, Balakhna (Nizhniy Novgorod region), Astrakhan (as a raw material - cane), Rostov-on-Don (as a raw material - cane), Amursk, Perm, Solikamsk. In this connection, the sharpness becomes the question of the preservation and renewal of forest resources in Siberia (especially taiga) and the other aforementioned cities of the Russian Federation.

The largest enterprises of the timber industry, combining all stages of the processing timber 3 are called the timber industry complex. It Arkhangelsk, Syktyvkar, Asino (Tomsk.), Krasnoyarsk, Lesosibirsk (Krasnoyarsk region), Bratsk and Ust-Ilim, Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

Biofuels [edit | edit wiki text] In Russia, the development of the biofuel sector is regulated by the state program "Energy saving and energy efficiency for the period up to 2020." and "Energy Strategy of Russia for the period till 2030". However, as noted in the journal article "Forest Industry". [6], these goals are not sufficiently clear in the draft. According to these documents, by 2020, 4.5% of electricity in Russia must be made with the use of alternative sources. In Norway the figure is 67.5%, in Sweden - 50%, in Latvia - 40%.

With the growing of biofuel consumption in Central Europe will miss its forest resources, therefore, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom increase the import of pellets. Russia is fully capable to take a large part of this market, but it is necessary to improve the country's relations with Europe. Direct Russian competitors in the market of wood pellets in Europe - Brazil, Canada and the United States with large reserves of biofuel feedstocks.

Russian forest-based industries financials

Taiga in Kamchatka Krai

Profitability ratio of Russian forest industry companies decreased harshly in 2008, as indicated in the annual Top 50 Russian Forest Industry rating published by Lesnaya Industriya Russian magazine.

Following the results of 2008, joint revenue of companies listed in the Lesnaya Industriya’s Top 50 amounted to 216.34 billion roubles ($7.19 billion). Ten largest companies had over 70% of the total Top 50 joint revenue. Joint net benefit of 50 companies made up 6.26 billion roubles ($208.1 million). Share of woodworking companies that do not deal in pulp and paper business was slightly over 27% of the total revenue and 26.8% of the total net benefit.

Average profitability ratio of Top 50 companies decreased to 0.7%, compared to 9.0% in the previous year. Woodworking companies’ profitability was slightly higher than that of pulp and paper companies (5.7% and 4.9% respectively). Only four of the Top 50 companies managed to reach a double-digit profitability ratio.

Zelenodolskiy plywood plant had the highest profitability ratio (17%) in 2008. The fastest-growing forest industry company in Russia was United Panel Group, which revenue boosted by 89.5% up to 3.04 billion roubles. Among pulp and paper companies, the fastest-growing was Obyedinyonnye bumazhnye fabriki (United paper mills, +49.6% up to 1.76 billion roubles).

Ilim Group gained the largest net benefit un 2008 (1.67 billion roubles) and was also listed in the Top 50 forest industry companies as having the largest revenue (37.92 billion roubles).

The Top 50 Russian Forest Industry rating is prepared and published by Lesnaya Industriya magazine on the base of companies’ accounting reporting and data provided by th companies.

Problems of forest industry

The forest industry is harvested annually about 0.5 billion tons of biomass, of which production is only 25%. Do not use needles, bark, twigs, that apparently is due to irrational use of extracted raw materials. The finished product is converted only 11% of the feedstock. In addition, according to the voiced in autumn 2011 Forest Club participants at the St. Petersburg International Forestry Forum, Russian timber industry is faced with the following problems:

The increase in fuel prices; Problems of transport and logistics. Including commercialization and transport companies serving the forest industry, which caused an increase in the final cost of forestry products; Problems of legal regulation of the lease and the organization of auctions for the right to lease forest areas; The lack of a coherent foreign countries the regulatory framework governing economic relations; The cost of cleaning systems for water and air resources used in the timber industry; The absence of a competent methodology of selection of investment projects in the timber industry. [7]

See also

• Deforestation in Russia
• The forest engineering in Russia
• Temperate rainforests of the Russian Far East
• Forest cover by federal subject in Russia

External links

• official site"The Timber Industry Worker" magazine -one of the leading professional publications on forest complex on the territory of Russia
• Timber Industry 2000-2004 (Kommersant)
• "Commercial Logging Fails in Russian Parliament", Environment News Service, November 26, 2003
• Litvinovna, Irina (October 2004), "Timber industry in Russia shows promise", The Logging and Sawmilling Journal
• Forestry Code in Russia: to rent but not to own

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