Segezha Group launches CLT panel factory

Segezha Group launches CLT panel factory
CLT panel proudly displayed on automated production line of Segezha Group's new factory at Sokol.
By bne IntelliNews March 30, 2021

Leading Russian wood processing holding Segezha Group has launched the country's first factory to manufacture cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels in Sokol, Vologda region, 500 km northeast of Moscow.

"What we're seeing today is the rise of the timber construction industry," Segezha vice-president Dmitry Rudenko was quoted as saying by AFP. "It is Russia's future without a doubt."

Segezha Group, owned by Sistema, has long been known as one of the leaders in the wood processing industry at home and abroad. The company is the world's third-biggest manufacturer of brown packaging paper and the fifth-biggest manufacturer of large-format birch plywood, with exports sent to over 100 countries.

But most recently Segezha has been shifting towards more innovative products.

 

CLT panel promise

Launched in February, RUB3bn ($39.5mn) Sokol CLT manufactures CLT panels, a construction material that, thanks to layers of wood glued at specifically determined angles, is rigid enough to be used for the construction of multi-storey buildings.

In June 2019, Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade put the project on a list of priority investment projects in the forestry sector. Later the same year, the investment council at the Vologda region governor's office awarded it the status of a priority regional project.

The plant's capacity is 50,000 cubic metres of CLT panels a year. The equipment was supplied by major European companies, including Ledinek, Imeas and SCM Group, and priority was given to achieving a high degree of automation and synchronicity of production processes.

In the autumn of 2020, a test batch of CLT panels was manufactured, and work on certification began. The plant has capacity to manufacture regular customised CLT panels with a depth of between 8 cm and 40 cm, up to 3.6 metres in width and up to 16 metres in length.

Between three and nine layers of wood are used in a panel, and the glue does not contain formaldehyde, making the panels suitable for use both outside and inside.

Apart from CLT panels' eco-friendliness and economic efficiency, they are considered to have a high degree of protection against fire and seismic activity, while the use of such materials can substantially speed up construction.

CLT panels can be used in various types of construction, from customised projects to multi-storey residential buildings or social, transport and industrial infrastructure.

The use of CLT for buildings is increasingly popular in Europe but still small in Russia, but companies hope it will be approved by the regulators there later this year. Orders for CLT panels manufactured at Sokol have already arrived from Germany, Austria, Italy and Japan.

Currently, the majority of Sokol CLT's output is being reserved for foreign buyers, but the company also plans to operate in the Russian market.

In early March, Sokol CLТ supplied the first batch of industrial-grade CLT panels to a Russian buyer in the Leningrad region.

The CLT panels will be used for framings and wall bases in the construction of a customised building. Although the project is relatively small-scale and the total area of the building is 250 square metres, this is an important step in the wider use of CLT panels within Russia. A total of 14 3-metre by 9-metre panels were shipped, totalling 60 cubic metres.

Later this year, the construction of the first multi-storey building in Russia that uses CLT panels is scheduled to be launched in collaboration with Etalon group, which is also part of Sistema. The building will be erected in Zorge Street in Moscow.

 

Focus on sustainable forest management

Segezha Group is one of those companies in the Russian wood processing sector that are serious about environmental protection and sustainable forest management.

"At its newest production facilities, Segezha Group uses cutting-edge environmentally friendly tech, which facilitates the maximum implementation of the full-cycle concept," Vyacheslav Mutyev, Segezha Group's director for environmental protection, noted in a recent column published by the Russian daily Kommersant, adding that this approach totally applies to Sokol CLT.

"In early 2021, in a major move for Segezha Group, a long-term strategy for environmental safety was developed and adopted for a period between 2021 and 2025," he went on to say. "Its goal is the decarbonising of manufacturing operations and minimisation of any other anthropogenic impact on the environment. The company has begun to systematically bring its operations in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation.

"Wood is a renewable building material so long as forests are managed properly," Sokol CLT head Konstantin Pastukhov was quoted as saying by AFP. "One is cut, another is planted it's an inexhaustible source."

Segezha's efforts in the area of eco-friendliness and sustainable use of natural resources are already being noticed.

Earlier this year, Segezha Group was included on a list of Russia's 30 most eco-friendly companies, compiled by Forbes Russia, thanks to its managing forests sustainably and using eco-friendly products.

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