Timer industry of Komi republic is characterized with large forest stock – over 30mln ha of forest area (about 20mln ha of certified forests) and 2.4bln cubic meters of growing timber, and developed facilities for deep wood processing (mainly pulp and paper and board and veneer production) – annual production volumes being as follows:

commercial timber - 5mln cubic meters
paper - 592 thousand ton
cardboard - 198 thousand ton
fiberboard - 305 thousand ton
plywood - 280 thousand ton

In the Soviet time Komi used to be a raw-material base for other regions of the country where deeper wood processing was developed. During 1990-s the volume of wood harvesting in the area decreased almost 6 times – from 25mln cubic meters in 1989 down to 4.5mln cubic meters in year 2000.

Currently the volume of harvesting in Komi reached the index of 7.5 cubic meters (due to increased level of mechanization of harvesting process – over 150 harvesters and forwarders operating in the area in 2005 vs. 19 machines in 2001). However, without launching new processing facilities in the area it is impossible to increase harvesting volume, as 100% of existing processing capacities (already modernized and renovated to a great extent) are working at full stretch. As for the possibility of transporting extra harvested volume of timber to other regions, it seems to be quite inexpedient due to high costs of transportation by railway.

To improve the situation the local government adopted special Strategy of timber industry development in the region (up till year 2015). Among the main projects the following should be specially stressed as having the most influence to achieving the target – using full potential of natural resources of the area:

• Further modernization of “Mondi Business Paper –Syktyvkarsky LPK” (to achieve the volume 1200 thousand ton of cellulose/year). The project is funded by Anglo-American Corporation. 
• Feasibility study for construction of Udorsky pulp plant prepared jointly by Jaakko Poyry Group (Finland) and local "Giprobum Engineering”. The project attracted attention of such financial giants as Bayerische Landesbank Ag and Vneshtorgbank (Russia).
• Feasibility study for construction of Troitsko-Pechorsky pulp and cardboard plant almost completed. Estimated capacity of the plant – 310 thousand ton/year.
• Finnish group of companies Karelnet started construction of modern sawmill in Syktyvkar area. Estimated capacity of the plant – 700 thousand cubic meters of logs/year to be processed.
• It is planned to set up several enterprises to be engaged in bio-fuel production in different parts of Komi area, which is aimed at conversion to “green” raw-material.

Realization of the above-mentioned projects will allow to process extra 13-15mln cubic meters of timber annually, which will have a double effect: efficient use of forest resources of the area and escape from unemployment in remote forest villages.

Business Support Bureau "Runa" www.runa.info