As part of the Eastern Economic Forum, member of the board, vice
president for external relations, and head of the Board Materials and House
Building Division Nikolay Ivanov took part in the business dialogue titled the “New contours of international cooperation:
Russia–India.”
During the Forum dialogue, Nikolay Ivanov said:
“Working with
India in the context of the changed global situation allows our business to
realize and explore significant potential in this strategic region. The current state
of export volumes to India is the beginning of a long promising path.
Currently, only 3% of Russian forest industry products are supplied to India.
In the structure of Segezha Group exports, India’s share is only 1%. However
already this year we plan to increase the volume of deliveries to this region
by 50% compared to 2022. Of course, these are comparatively small values
compared to the huge potential that we see today.”
“ . For example, for plywood,
these rates today reach 30%. On paper, the import duty in India is 10% for
products from Russia and from 0–7% for other exporters. This does not allow us
to actively increase volumes. The issue of logistics costs is also very
important. For efficient operation, the share of transportation costs should
not exceed 15–20%. That is to say, $1,800 for a 40-foot container will be
acceptable. We are actively negotiating [these] questions with our partners.”
Currently, Segezha
supplies classic sawn timber and plywood to India but seeks to expand the range
of construction solutions it proposes. Wooden house
kits are a big step in this direction, but there is also biofuel and wood
pellets, which are an excellent substitute for coal, Ivanov said. According to Ivanov, with a reduction in
logistics costs and customs duties, Russia could export to India the equivalent
of about 50 million m3 of round timber in processed form, which is 25% of the
total volume of timber harvested in Russia.
Despite the fact that India itself harvests about 300 million m3 of
timber per year, Segezha says the market for Russian products has great
prospects due to the different intended purpose and quality of Russian timber,
from which paper, packaging, lumber, modular houses, and wood pellets replacing
coal will be produced and exported to India.