Segezha starts exporting plywood to India via North-South corridor

KIROV. Nov 3 (Interfax) - Segezha Group , the forestry division of Russian investment group Sistema PJSFC , has begun exporting plywood to India through Iran along the North-South international transport corridor, the company said.

The new route involves shipping from the group's Vyatsky Plywood Mill in Kirov to Astrakhan, then to the Iranian port of Bandar Anzali, across Iran to its southern port of Bandar Abbas, and then to the Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai.

The first batch of birch plywood from the Kirov mill was shipped along this route in October, and a second one is now being prepared.

"Along with the Northern Sea Route, we are beginning the active practical development of the North-South international transport corridor. This is an important route for expanding our deepening cooperation with Iran, and countries in South Asia and the Persian Gulf region," Segezha Group logistics director Andrei Yudin was quoted as saying in the press release.

The North-South corridor will make it possible to significantly improve the company's logistics, which will make it possible "to strengthen the competitiveness of our forest products on foreign markets," Yudin said.

India, Russia and Iran signed an agreement to create the North-South corridor in 2000 and it was later joined by ten other countries, including Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan. The route, which runs about 7,200 km, reduces the time it takes to deliver freight from Russia to India by about half compared to the usual route through Novorossiysk and the Suez Canal, to 15-24 days.

Segezha Group is a vertically integrated forestry group, with logging and wood processing divisions.