The Khabarovsk Duma asked the government to lift the ban on the export of roundwood

Deputies of the Khabarovsk Territory Duma appealed to Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev for support for the Far Eastern timber industry, according to the official Telegram channel representative body. The industry is experiencing a decline in production, a decrease in the level of timber harvesting and a reduction in prices for timber products. Because of this, the deputies propose to allow the export of round timber.

“Since the beginning of 2023, the Khabarovsk industry has been generating hundreds of millions of rubles in losses. This situation has developed due to the fact that from January 1, 2022, a ban on the export of roundwood was introduced in Russia. The structure of forest management entities began to change. Companies have invested in recycling. However, after the imposition of sanctions, companies that invested hundreds of millions of dollars in sophisticated equipment faced a production crisis.

The deputies emphasize that the products of the Far Eastern timber industry are not competitive in the western regions due to high transport costs. In this regard, the Duma proposes to introduce a temporary moratorium on the ban on the export of round timber, as well as to suspend the collection of export customs duties (10%) on sawn timber with a moisture content of more than 22%.

From January 1, 2022, a ban on the export of roundwood was introduced in Russia. Earlier, the Russian authorities have already made an attempt to ban the export of round timber. The previous campaign started in 2007. Its result was the loss by Russia by 2009 of the export markets of the Asia-Pacific countries. How reported “b”, the threat of prohibitive duties on the export of roundwood led to a reorientation of buyers to American raw materials. As a result, the timber processing capacities created at that time and earlier were idle, the companies went bankrupt, and the only beneficiaries from the process of industrialization of the industry were banks, which then hardly got rid of these non-core assets.

Ernest Filippovsky, Khabarovsk