Segezha Group starts up new 6.7 bln rubles plywood facility at Vyatka plant
KIROV. July 11 (Interfax) - Segezha Group, a Sistema company, has invested about 6.7 billion rubles in modernization of the Vyatka Plywood Mill in Kirov region, a Segezha representative told Interfax.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new top-grade birch plywood production facility took place on Wednesday.
Segezha initially announced that investment in the project would total about 5 billion rubles. The increase in the budget was due to "revised specifications for auxiliary equipment," the representative said.
The project to increase capacity and create production of top-grade polished and laminated birch plywood has been underway since 2016.
The startup date for the new capacity was moved back a number of times, owing to wait times for delivery of high-performance technological and power equipment from the world's leading forestry equipment manufacturers - Polytechnik, Steinemann, Brucks, Nestro, Sennebogen, Ruf and others - as well as Raute Wood, which supplied the core equipment for manufacturing large-size plywood at the facility.
The new polished and laminated long-grain plywood capacity amounts to 71,000 cubic meters a year. In addition, capacity to produce cross-grain plywood has increased by 26,000 cubic meters. The new facility boosts the plant's overall capacity to 192,000 cubic meters a year.
The new capacity will also add more than 400 new jobs. Output is scheduled to increase to design capacity in Q4 2018. The bulk of production will be exported.
Speaking at Wednesday's ceremony, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov noted that implementation of the project would enable the plant to increase output of cross-grain plywood and bring a new premium product to the market: large-size long-grain plywood used in housing construction, transport machinery and lining for ocean-going LNG tankers.