Russian Forestry and Wood Supply Operations Analysis slide image

Russian Forestry and Wood Supply Operations Analysis

108 SIBERIAN FEDERAL DISTRICT KRASNOYARSK KRAI Sanitary felling is the basic forest management activity in the Krai. In accordance with silvicultural requirements, 225,700 ha of forest resources in the Krasnoyarsk Krai a year need tending. In fact, not more than 10 per cent of the required scope is completed. Moreover, experts comment that the forest tending area decreases every year. This is related to the increasing costs of the work; the Krai's budget provides a fixed amount for forest management costs, while growing energy prices, transport fares, and inflation annually reduce the scope of services that can be provided for that amount. Wildfires occur in the Krasnoyarsk Krai throughout the fire-hazardous season. This is due both to the diversity of forest growth conditions and to the great south-to-north extent of the region, i.e. to the diversity of climatic and temperature factors. As positive air temperature grows, wildfires start in the Krai's southern districts in April, and gradually move northward. Sometimes, if the early summer is hot, wildfires start simultaneously in the most of the Krai. Usually, wildfires originate in natural factors, such as thunderstorms, but quite often ignitions are attributable to local residents. To fight wildfires, a unified entity specializing in preventing and suppressing wildfires was established, called the State-Owned Wildfire Center Enterprise of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, which combines the functions of ground and aviation forest protection. FORESTRY AND TIMBER SECTOR The authorities do not include the forestry and timber sector on the list of primary areas for the region's economic development, although they recognize the "special role" of the forestry and timber sector and agro-industrial sector in the Krai's economy. As in most Russian regions, actual harvested timber is several times less than the allowable cut. The lack of infrastructure in, and information about, the forest resource, and poor accessibility to the forests are the main reasons for the low development of the allowable cut in the Krasnoyarsk Krai at just 18 per cent (about 77 million m³), of which 22 percent is softwood and 9 per cent is hardwood. The region has adopted a departmental target program titled "Development of the Forestry and Timber Sector in the Krasnoyarsk Krai for 2013-2015". The program requires the increase, by the end of 2015, of the development of the allowable cut from 18.1 per cent to 28.8 per cent compared with the year 2012; the increase of the finished product yield per 1 m³ of harvested HEDEVIENT timber from 1722.2 to 2073.6 rubles; the increase of human resources engaged in the timber industry from 92.0 to 97.0 per cent; and the increase of the fire detection in smaller areas to 80.0%. The program is funded primarily from the federal budget to 2.73 billion rubles, with slightly more than 600 million rubles to be allocated from the Krai's budget. Judging by public information, the interim targets of these programs has not been achieved thus far. For instance, the allowable cut development remains at the previous level, and the events in national economic and political life of Russia in the last two years will hardly help attracting new investment into the Krai's forest industry. Currently, almost all kinds of wood processing products are made in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, in particular sawn timber, fiberboards and chipboards, plywood, veneer, pellets, fuel briquettes, charcoal, and MHM panels (Massiv- Holz-Mauer technology), furniture, glued wooden products, building structures, pulp, paper and so on. The main bulk of these products have low added value. Among the factors restricting the development of the Krasnoyarsk Krai's forest and timber industry, in addition to problems faced by any other sector (low levels of engineering production and high wear of fixed assets; low levels of labor efficiency), are: ⚫ the great remoteness of the region's timber industry facilities from basic Russian and international markets; ⚫ the poor development of added-value raw timber processing facilities for low-quality wood; ⚫ low-levels of timber harvesting and processing waste management; ⚫ seasonal fluctuations and low concentration of timber harvesting; insufficient year-round logging roads; . • unsatisfactory commodity composition of timber exports, with its raw-material orientation remaining in place; poorly structured timber businesses. The authorities emphasize that among the positive factors determining the prospects for the Krai's forest and timber industry development are the following. The Krai has: Russia's largest raw timber resource potential, with fine softwood predominating; ⚫ power facilities and rich water resources; the possibility of large increases of product output by operating facilities of various profiles through their updating, re-equipment, and reconstruction, and setting up new enterprises. The government of the Krasnoyarsk Krai realizes that the region's investment attractiveness cannot be improved without developing infrastructure, and transport infrastructure in particular. Therefore, satisfying the industry's needs for railroad rolling stock is planned under the target program. In the opinion of the regional authorities, not all of the Krai needs active development of logging roads. At least 40 million of 158 million hectares of taiga are in fact unpopulated, without inhabited localities, enterprises, or infrastructure. However, this does not mean that the regional government totally refuses to expand the logging road network. For instance, about 100 million rubles is earmarked for the construction of roads off the Yartsevo-Maisky route towards Novy Gorodok in the Lower Yenisei Forest District for the period up to 2015. Special attention is given in the Krai's forest sector development target program to priority investment projects for forest management. As of the end of 2013, nine investment projects of the Krai were on the Ministry of Industry and Trade's priority list, but as of this day, some of them have been deleted from the list or have entirely ceased to exist. The priority investment projects in the Krasnoyarsk Krai that remained in effect as of the beginning of 2015 were: 1. Development of the wood processing factory in Krasnoyarsk (KLM Co. JSC). Cost: $45 million. Content: updating of the existing woodsawing and timber processing facility of KLM Co. in Krasnoyarsk, with the production capacity increased to 114,000 m³ of glued wooden structures per year. Expected results: updating the region's largest woodsawing and timber processing facility to make glued laminated beams, an added-value timber processing product. 2. Setting up a full-cycle timber processing factory in Krasnoyarsk (Mekran Management Company LLC). Cost: 5.6 billion rubles. Content: updating of an operating factory in Krasnoyarsk manufacturing premium class furniture (DOZ-1), with a capital investment of 166.8 million rubles; construction of a new factory in Krasnoyarsk to make business class blockboard furniture (DOZ-2) (5 billion rubles); development of a business network and opening 51 showrooms in various Russian cities (33.37 million rubles). 3. Setting up and updating of added-value timber processing facilities in Sosnovoborsk and Verkhnepashino, Krasnoyarsk Territory (Sibles Project LLC). Cost: 3.3 billion rubles. Content: the manufacture of 157,000 m³ of sawn timber of various lengths and sections in Verkhnepashino, Krasnoyarsk Krai. 13,800 m³ of low quality sawn timber (GOST 8486-86) will be delivered to Sosnovoborsk to produce 43,600 m² of MHM panels per year. Sosnovoborsk will also host a facility to manufacture plywood (30,000 m³/a) and veneer (9,600 m³/a). 4. Setting up an added-value solid wood processing facility (Firma Master LLC). Content: the set-up of a high-tech, highly profitable solid wood processing factory by providing a raw timber harvesting and transportation infrastructure, the design, purchase and launch of an advanced sawing and drying facility, and the initiation of a facility to produce semi-finished products such as planed stock, glued furniture boards, glued beams, and euro siding. 5. Expanding the timber processing facility at Novoyeniseisk Timber Chemical Plant JSC by making new kinds of products, and setting up a forest infrastructure to develop new forest tracts (Novoyeniseisk Timber Chemical Plant JSC). Cost: 351 million rubles. Content: the expansion of raw timber processing by making a new product (pellets). Integrated utilization of raw material, setting up a forest infrastructure, and development of virgin forest tracts. Using pellets to produce thermal energy as substitute for non-renewable natural resources. 6. Construction of the Angara Paper timber chemical complex in Yeniseisk District, Krasnoyarsk Territory (Angara Paper JSC). Cost: $3.2 billion. Content: the construction of a timber chemical complex producing annually 900,000 t of softwood bleached pulp, 300,000 t of dissolving pulp, 380,000 m³ of sawn timber and 100,000 t of wooden fuel granules (pellets). 7. Setting up a timber processing complex in Boguchansk District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, to produce softwood bleached kraft pulp, kraft liner, timber sawing/processing products, and MDF (Kraslesinvest JSC). Cost: 73.3 billion rubles. Content: the construction and launch of a wood processing complex to make the following advanced hi-tech added-value products that meet international standards: ⚫ softwood and hardwood kraft pulp: 850,000 t/a; • MDF boards: 250,000 m³/a; ⚫kraft liner: 500,000 t/a; ⚫ sawn timber (including added-value sawn timber): 700,000 m³/a. It is expected that the mill will annually process up to 7.7 million m³ of softwood and hardwood. The enterprise will be oriented at integrated waste-free utilization of timber. According to public sources, the investor updated its plans under the investment project, giving up (at least temporarily) the intention to build a new pulp and paper mill. Among the main reasons for this decision was the lack of the required resources which would ensure full utilization of the facility for a few decades to come. 8. Setting up wood processing in Kezhma District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, with a designed capacity of 300,000 m³ of finished products per year (Priangarsky Wood Processing Mill LLC). Cost: 1.569 billion rubles. Content: the launch of the Priangarsky Wood Processing Mill as an advanced multi-purpose facility producing sawn timber (210,000 m³/a), wood trim (48,000 m³/a), fuel briquettes (25,320 t/a), and charcoal (2,560 t/a). To implement these investment projects, wood land holdings totaling 9.1 million hectares (6 per cent of the Krai's total timber resources) with an overall annual allowable cut of 18.1 million m³ (23 per cent of the Krai's total estimated allowable cut) were rented out in the long term and without a tender. Mariya ALEKSEYEVA, Oleg PRUDNIKOV RUSSIAN #6 (2015) 109 FORESTRY
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