Where does baltic birch plywood come from?
Baltic birch plywood is a valuable product in the EU market. According to the report from the Birch Plywood Alliance report. volume of baltic birch plywood consumption per year is about 2,2 million cubic meters. From that volume, only 850.000 cubic meters are produced in the EU, and the rest is imported from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Depending on the size, we can say for sure that plywood with a size of 1525 x 1525 mm is mainly imported from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Regarding birch plywood mills from Belarus, you can check our blog post here.
As for imports from Russia and Ukraine, there are numerous mills. Some examples with links are below:
- "Parizhskaya kommuna" (TECHNOFLEX LLC)
- JSC "Krasnyi Yakor"
- JSC "Murom"
- Ivanovskaya Lesopromyshlennaya Kompaniya (ILK)
- "Uniplyt" LLC
Size 1525x1525 mm is mainly used in low grades like C/C or Cp/C. The volume of plywood sold in the EU are 1250 x 2500 mm ( short grain plywood) and2500 x 1250 mm (long grain plywood).
Main producers besides such huge Russian holdings as SVEZA and Seghezha Group are also east countries of the EU (Latvia, Poland, Estonia) and Finland, with key producers as Metsa and UPM.
Plywood producer in Poland is Paged
Plywood producer in Latvia is Latvijas Finieris
Note
According to the list of sanctions that were admitted by the EU against Russia and Belarus, all wood products under TH 44 are banned for import.
Nevertheless, a lot of European wholesalers have taken their chance and imported huge volumes of plywood to their stock before.From summer 2022, main source of baltic birch plywood goes from Turkey and China.