Russia increases rail transportation of timber through Azerbaijan by 37%

In the structure of Russia’s export rail transportation in March, timber shipments to four countries increased sharply - Belarus - by 181%, Turkiye - 163%, Azerbaijan - 37% and Egypt - 23%, Report informs referring to Roslesinforg, an all-Russian organization specializing in a comprehensive solution of forest accounting and forest management tasks.

An increased demand for the transportation of sawn timber is observed in almost all directions that are not related to crossing European borders. For example, on the Russia–China and Russia–Kazakhstan route, there is a twofold increase in the transportation of timber cargo.

At the same time, if earlier more than half of deliveries to Turkiye (mainly sawn timber and plywood) went through the seaports of St. Petersburg, timber carriers have shifted their focus to railway corridors to carry out significant volumes of international timber supplies. The cargo goes to Baku, and from there along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars corridor further to Turkiye.

About 65% of the transportation of timber cargo abroad is carried out by railway workers - last year more than 40 million tons were transported.

Last year, exporters of Russian timber and timber products began to earn more with smaller volumes of production and supplies - exports are estimated at $17.5 billion. The volumes of deliveries of cheap unprocessed and fuel wood were declining, while the volumes of expensive goods, on the contrary, were growing. Thus, the growth of foreign exchange earnings from plywood was 67.3%, chipboard - 103.6%, fiberboard - 50.5%.