Western countries are increasingly feeling the consequences of sanctions against Russia.
One of the issues is that due to the ban on importing timber from Russia, the supply of timber in the EU market is scarce and expensive.
Russia's response to Western sanctions has sparked a storm of anger.
Starting from January 1, 2022, Russia will ban the export of unprocessed wood.
A year ago, the European Union demanded that Russia reduce timber export tariffs and even threatened to impose fines.
According to reports, Sweden is the largest producer of wood in Europe, but the EU's demand for wood cannot be met.
China has become the largest foreign timber supplier to Europe, but its supply has sharply declined after imposing sanctions on Russia.
Therefore, the wood required for building and producing furniture is almost impossible to purchase and expensive.
For Russia, the situation is not that bad.
Russia is now shipping valuable raw materials to Central Asia and East Asia, rather than to Europe.
It is reported that at the beginning of 2024, Türkiye, Iran and Hong Kong significantly increased their purchase of Russian timber.
Although China remains Russia's largest importer of timber, its delivery volume to China has decreased by approximately 11% year-on-year.
Ranked second is Uzbekistan, whose import volume has also decreased by nearly 24%.
If Europe accounted for about 14% of Russia's timber exports before the implementation of sanctions, then Europe has now withdrawn from being the largest major importer.
Finland is particularly affected by unforeseen actions, as its timber processing industry is actually in a state of paralysis and has to increase deforestation to support it.
Although Western countries hope to harm Russia through sanctions, these actions actually affect their own economy and environment.
Now, the European Union imports timber from the United States and Türkiye.
Overall, Europe faces a choice: to continue losing money and impose sanctions on Russia, or to seek compromise and alternative solutions.
This situation applies not only to the timber industry, but also to other industries.
Economist Professor Alexander Safonov pointed out that before implementing sanctions, Russia had already attempted to restrict the export of timber and process it domestically to obtain more added value.
Therefore, Russia's timber industry is actively developing.
Compared to February 2023, the timber production in February 2023 increased by 28.6%, and has increased by 31% since the beginning of this year.
Although sawn timber decreased by 6.1% in 2023, it is now increasing, indicating that Russia's timber industry is gradually recovering.
Although demand in the European market has declined, Russia has compensated for the losses by increasing its supply to Asian countries.
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