Russian Forestry and Wood Supply Operations Analysis
40
WOODWORKING
WOODWORKING
Widely Promoted
Oriented Strand Boards (OSBS)
OSBs have undoubtedly been among the most widely promoted and advertised woodworking end products
on the Russian market in the last decade. From 2005 to 2015, the construction of at least 40 OSB
factories, with a total production volume of 6 million m³ per year, were announced in Russia. If these
projects are realised, Russia will take a third of the global market for OSBs.
THE GLOBAL MARKET
The estimated capacity of the global OSB market
is 21-22 million m3, or $8-10 billion in monetary
terms. The average annual global growth rate of
OSB production in 2009-2013 was 6%.
In Europe (not counting production in Belarus,
Ukraine and Russia), OSB production increased
by 9.9% in 2013, reaching 4.8 million m³, while
in North America it increased by 11.7% to 17.3
Diagram 1. Production of OSB by countries of the world
in 2009-2013
1,000 m³
25 000
20 000
15 000
10 000
21 891
19503
11 055
9 770
9 181
10 774
9115
5 742
4 423
5 265
5 000
3 968
30
6 268
0
2009
■Germany
■ France
■ Russia
2010
■Latvia
Canada
2011
2012
2013
■Czech Republic
■ USA
■ Poland
■ Romania
101
Source: Pöyry Management Consulting
million m³. The United States accounted for 64%
of North American volume (diagram 1).
EUROPE
Construction activity in Europe continued to show
unimpressive results in 2012-2014 and therefore
growth in OSB consumption has been delayed
until the economy in Europe recovers. Romania
and Germany produced 1.3 million m³ each and
became the biggest European manufacturers of
OSB in 2013, while a new OSB plant was opened
in Italy with a capacity of 130,000 m³.
The average annual growth of global consumption
in the period from 2009 to 2013 was 5.5%, with
most of the increase in 2011-2013 and amounting
to 8% (diagram 2).
NORTH AMERICA
A growing demand for housing, building materials
and furniture contributed to the increase in the
consumption of all board and plywood products in
North America by 5.4% to 49 million m³ in 2013.
By the end of 2013, OSB consumption increased
by 11.7% to 16.7 million m³, thus consumption
continued to recover for a third year in a row
(UNECE/FAO, 2014). Nevertheless, the consumption
was far from the level of 2005, when the figure
of 25 million m³ was reached.
The European market, including Russia, is
not the main focus for sales of the North
American manufacturers of OSBS and its share
does not exceed 5% of the total exports.
Nevertheless, Canadian OSBs, consistently
hold the leading positions in Russian market,
sharing the 1st and 2nd places with Latvian
or Romanian manufacturers. In this regard,
Canadian manufacturers are closely watching
the situation on the Russian market as
conditions change. For example, in the crisis
year of 2009, under comparable conditions
with the weakening exchange rate of the
Russian currency and a general decline in the
consumption of imported timber, deliveries of
boards from Canada to Russia decreased by 3.5
times. At the same time, Canadians managed
to redirect a part of these sales with deliveries
to South Korea.
Thus, against the background of the growing
sector of wooden housing construction in the
United States and, accordingly, a stable demand
for OSB, the local market seems to be favorable
and reliable for the North American manufacturers.
THE RUSSIAN MARKET
Production
The first big companies started to explore the
Russian market for establishing
OSB production in 2005-2006. In 2006 the
Investment Fund of Kazakhstan announced its
intention to build a factory of the OSBI Grupp in
Tomsk, and the German company Egger announced
that OSB could be manufactured at its new factory
in Ivanovo Oblast. The Vuokatti-Rus company
planned to build a factory in the Nizhny Novgorod
Diagram 2. Consumption of OSB by regions of the world
in 2011-2013
1,000 m³
18 000
16 701
16 000
14 949
14 000
13 407
12 000 --
10 000 --
8 000 --
6 000 --
4 207
4 821
■CIS
■N. America
■ Europe
■Asia & Pacific Reg
■Other regions
3 892
4 000 --
2 000
855
1 037
597
200 300
200 300
200 300
0
2011
2012
Oblast with a capacity of 300,000 m³ per year
with an expected investment of 100 million
euros. Similar initiatives have been put forward
by Belrusneftegaz, Russian Forest Group, JSC
Karelia DSP, and Safwood (diagram 3).
Perhaps the Kalevala MLC woodworking plant
(Karelia) remained the most long-awaited
project during these years. Investors announced
the construction of the plant in 2006 and
construction of the plant began in August 2007.
Its commissioning was postponed several times;
however, it was launched in 2013. Equipment for
the plant was supplied by Siempelkamp of Germany.
2013
Source UNECE/FAO TIMBER database, 2014, calculations of WhatWood
Map 1. Consumption of OSB by regions of the world in 2011-2013
North America
Europe
13 407
14 949
16 701
3 892
4 207
4 821
2011
2013
2011
2012
2013
Capacity of the plant's first stage is 300,000 m³ per
year, and with the commissioning of the second
stage the rated capacity will reach 500,000 m³.
The total value of the project amounted to more
than 8 billion roubles, while the originally planned
value was 4.5 billion roubles in 2007.
The first production facility in Russia was Hillman
OSB, a mini-factory that was launched in 2012
in the Vladimir Oblast. The factory's capacity is
30,000 m³ per year.
In the same year 2012, after a major reorganization,
Novovyatsky Ski Factory started the production of
CIS
597
855
1 037
2011
2012 2013
Asia & Pacific Region
200
200
2011 2012 2013
Source: UNECE/FAO TIMBER database, 2014, calculations of WhatWood
#6 (2015) RUSSIAN
FORESTRY
RUSSIAN #6 (2015) 41
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