42 | Sector Focus: Panel Products
CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL PLYWOOD
The question of illegal Russian birch plywood still entering the EU market has been a
prominent one in the European forest products industry. The European Panel Federation recently held a webinar to educate the industry on the topic
The issue of birch plywood from Russia and Belarus entering the EU market through third countries has been a thorny one since sanctions were placed on the product after the Ukraine conflict started in early 2022. To educate the market about the latest situation, the European Panel Federation (EPF) and Polish Association of Wood Based Panel Producers, recently convened a panel of experts in an online webinar streamed from Warsaw. “We believe we have a serious issue with this trading [of sanctioned plywood from Russia and Belarus] and need a serious response from all stakeholders and appropriate action from all stakeholders in the process,” said the organisers.
“Therefore, we decided to bring the issue closer to the sector. Any regulation is only as good as its enforcement. Without obeying our laws, we could not live in a modern society.” Martins Lacis, executive board member at Lativijas Finieras and chairman of the plywood product group within the EPF, kicked off the event by covering the background. Mr Lacis said a lot of investment had occurred in Russia in birch plywood production over the past decade, ending up
in overcapacity and resulting in products flooding into the EU. Several European producers shut down their mills during this period and investments were put on hold. The European Commission enacted anti- dumping duties on the products in question. Of course, the outbreak of war in Ukraine meant further sanctions were imposed on Russia and Belarus in 2022, effectively banning products from the countries. This had the effect of triggering new import trade flows of birch plywood.
Mr Lacis reported that exporters sending birch ply products into the EU were claiming the raw materials for the products originated within the EU – such as in the Baltics – but the statistics didn’t add up.
This included from countries producing birch plywood but on limited amounts due to their capacity and raw materials (Kazakhstan, Moldova). It also included from countries producing plywood but without sufficient birch log resources locally (Turkey, Georgia, China, Vietnam, Morocco, Ghana and others) and from countries without any plywood production (Uzbekistan, Egypt, Armenia). In 2023, some 337,000m3
of Russian plywood (mainly birch ply) was exported to
Egypt, followed by China (244,000m3 Turkey (196,000m3
Kazakhstan (120,000m3
), US (187,000m3 ).
) and ) and
“At the same time, birch plywood exports to some above-mentioned countries from Russia sky-rocketed,” Mr Lacis added. “The current share of illicit plywood in the EU is about 16%, it’s going down but it’s still a lot and is a concern to the market.” This, he says, is hurting the industry and misleading customers.
At the same time there is substantial substitution of materials using other plywood products to avoid the missing volume from Russia.
2024 CHALLENGES
Mr Lacis said the questioned imports from Kazakhstan and Turkey were reducing, but imports from other countries were increasing. The reduction from the two aforementioned countries was mainly due to the European circumvention and anti-dumping duties imposed.
China was also flagged up, with the average density of its plywood increasing from 556gk/m3
in 2022 to 669kg/m3 in 2024 – giving an indication that the product was
Above: Birch plywood from Russia and Belarus is the target of considerable EU and UK enforcement activity TTJ | November/December 2024 |
www.ttjonline.com
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