Cargo ship loaded with Russian timber, one of Putin's largest sources of government revenue after oil and gas, seized in Germany

lemmefixdat4u, 1 month ago

I want to know which US companies are importing Russian plywood.

fennek182, 1 month ago

Tja.

tal, 1 month ago

I’m kind of surprised that the US is still importing it. I’d think that wood from Russia could be replaced by wood from Canada.

googles

Apparently after the invasion, there was a 50% tariff added, but not a ban. The volume dropped by about half, but is still moving.

apnews.com/…/russia-ukraine-putin-biden-baltimore…

Russia’s vast forests are some of the largest in the world. After Canada, Russia is the second largest exporter of wood, and has some of the only mills that can make strong, solid Baltic birch plywood, flooring used throughout the U.S.

This year, the Biden administration began imposing tariffs on Russian wood exports, a move which infuriated Ronald Liberatori, a Nevada-based wood dealer who sells Russian grown Baltic birch to all the major furniture makers, construction companies and flooring manufacturers in the U.S.

“The problem here is Russia is the only country in the world that makes this product,” he said. “There’s no alternative source.”

He said that on top of the tariff, he had to put up an $800,000 bond to ensure he’d pay the tax, further driving up prices.

“Who’s paying for this? Who? You and every other individual in the United States,” he said. “We’re so damned upset with what Biden has done. This is a government versus government issue.”

Liberatori said decision-makers need to consider who is going to be more hurt by tariffs before imposing them.

garnica.one/…/russian-baltic-birch-dilemma-seekin…

In the construction and furniture industry, birch harvested from Russian forests is often used in floors, ceilings, and partitions, as well as for decorative purposes. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, North America imported 20 million cubic feet of Russian Baltic birch plywood in 2021 alone but following the sanctions imposed by both Canada and the US, builders, craftspeople, architects, and designers are now searching for viable alternatives.

Reports from The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) indicate that Russian Baltic birch is still being imported into North America through southeast Asia to avoid paying duties. This severely undermines government efforts to penalize Russia and risks companies’ Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifications, which Russian timber no longer holds.

Garnica, a world leader in premium plywood, renowned for its eco-friendly certifications and sustainable focus, offers the ideal alternative with its line of Reinforced plywood. This product rivals Russian Baltic birch plywood in terms of strength and durability, but with the added benefit of being roughly 10% lighter and sustainably sourced and produced in Europe. Garnica plywood has received numerous recognitions that demonstrate their commitment to sustainable practices including a silver medal in EcoVadis, an ISO 14001 certification and their ongoing participation in the Global Compact. All Garnica products are subject to rigorous manufacturing processes, which ensure that each panel is of the highest quality and consistency.

Manufacturers, carpenters and designers who are accustomed to using Russian Baltic birch are always impressed when they compare it to Garnica plywood which does not warp nor bend under pressure. In terms of strength, durability and uniformity, Garnica products are a viable alternative to Russian Baltic birch and there is also a steady and reliable supply available in North America. Their Reinforced plywood line is highly versatile and each variation serves a unique purpose, from decorative to load-bearing appliances.

nbcnews.com/…/us-tariffs-russian-plywood-ukraine-…

Plywood imported from Russia and Belarus is typically higher-grade, often made from Baltic or Russian birch, and used mostly in construction and furniture.

The largest single U.S. importer of Russian plywood identified by EarthSight is PG Wood Imports based in suburban Atlanta, which imported a third of the Russian timber products arriving at U.S. ports during the past six months, averaging three shipping containers a day.

Company officials did not respond to requests for comment. NBC News confirmed that at least 100 plywood shipments to PG Wood Imports came directly from Russia, according to import data from Panjiva, a supply chain research group.

One of PG Woods Russian suppliers is Vyatsky Plywood, a subsidiary of Segezha Group, which is mostly owned by the Moscow-based conglomerate Sistema Group. Sistema was founded three decades ago by Vladimir Yevtushenkov, with stakes in telecommunications, hotels, online retail and pharmaceutical concerns.

Yevtushenkov is close enough to the regime that he was among the inner circle of 37 oligarchs who met with Putin in the Kremlin on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. In April, he was personally sanctioned by the U.K. The U.S. has not sanctioned either Yevtushenkov or his companies.

Vyatsky Plywood was among the largest plywood suppliers from Russia to the U.S. in recent months, with shipments topping 1,200 cubic meters a month, according to EarthSight’s analysis of Russian export and U.S. import records.

Lawson called for further sanctions on Yevtushenkov and his companies. “The flow of money to him needs to stop,” Lawson said.

Yevtushenkov did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

tal, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Apparently Canada does export birch plywood to the US, but based on this page, it sounds like either it’s not considered as desirable or Canadian mills don’t have the capacity to produce plywood with the same number of layers?

midtownlumber.com/baltic-birch-plywood-canadian-b…

Canadian Birch Plywood is a popular option. It is more expensive than MDF, but also stronger and looks nicer especially if you want your piece to look like wood and do not plan on painting.

Last, but definitely not least and very popular with our design clients…Baltic Birch Plywood!

The main upgrade here…more plies! So, definitely stronger and also it’s a look with a lot of design appeal.

There are 13 plies here people…Canadian birch has 5 plies, and Baltic birch plywood has 13 plies.

Baltic birch plywood is our most high end option, but to create a one of a kind piece it’s awesome.

us.eia.org/wp-content/…/russian-birch-report.pdf

Shortly after the invasion, the international timber certification bodies FSC and PEFC declared any timber emanating from Russia and Ukraine to be “conflict timber,” and suspended any certifications for the duration of the invasion. The European Union took even stronger measures, banning all timber imports from Russia and from Russian origin, responding to evidence the timber revenues benefit oligarchs and could be used to finance the conflict. U.S. legislators voted to strip Russia of its most-favored nation status, causing a tariff rate increase for nearly all imports from Russia, and raising tariffs on Russian birch plywood in particular to 50%.

Notably, while most imported plywood to the U.S. has a tariff duty rate between 5% and 8%, birch-faced plywood has long enjoyed a special zero-tariff treatment.

These tariffs had one desired effect: direct birch plywood imports from Russia dropped 40% between March and April, and have continued to drop, according to U.S. customs data. But if the goal was to stop or deter all Russian timber imports, these tariffs have missed the mark.

Americans continue importing Russian birch, indirectly

In 2020, birch plywood accounted for more than 70% of the U.S.’s timber imports from Russia, valued at over $160 million. But according to U.S. customs data, this represents only a portion of the Russian birch products that U.S. customers have been consuming. Large quantities of birch plywood are also imported from countries like Vietnam and Indonesia. For instance, in 2020, over $205 million in birch plywood was imported from Vietnam. According to the Decorative Hardwood Association, Russia is the “likely source for a substantial amount of the imports of birch plywood from Vietnam.”

In March and April 2022, U.S. birch plywood imports from Vietnam surged, increasing by more than 200%. This surge is no surprise when one realizes that all the indirect imports of Russian birch plywood from Vietnam, Indonesia, and other countries were untouched by the U.S. policy shift vis-a-vis Russia, and thus remain at zero tariff duty. EIA believes these low-profile but sizable trade flows have escaped public scrutiny and regulators, mainly because the complexity of the China-Vietnam supply chains obscures the true origin of the timber products entering the U.S. Yet, these are precisely the kind of opaque supply chains that the Lacey Act amendment is designed to shine a light on and regulate.

Some birch does grow in China, mainly in the forests of the northeast. However, China has a well-enforced commercial logging ban on domestic forests that has virtually no exceptions. Top Chinese traders, in discussions with EIA investigators, confirmed that the available quantity of domestic birch was so small as to be negligible, and moreover, Chinese birch is widely considered to be of inferior quality. Therefore, it appears that Chinese birch is not competitive with imported birch except in some extremely limited local markets.

“It’s all Russian birch… the country of origin will show it’s from China, not Russia.”

In order to confirm the origin of the birch exported from China to Vietnam, before the manufacturing and re-export to the U.S., EIA investigators spoke with the managers at the top five Chinese birch veneer exporters, representing more than half of all birch plywood imported by Vietnam. Investigators were told on multiple occasions that the vast majority of Chinese companies exporting birch veneer to Vietnam are relying on material peeled in Linyi, Shandong Province, and that more than 90% of the birch imports are sourced from Russia.

Manager from Company 1: The way we are doing now is importing Russian birch to China first (it used to go from Russia directly to Vietnam), repackaged in China, and then re-export to Vietnam.

In doing this, the products exported to Vietnam cut all ties with Russia. The country of origin will be here [China].

---

EIA: So the birch currently exported to Vietnam, do they come from Russia?

Manager from Company 2: It’s from Russia. […] The vast majority are Russian birch, only a tiny part [is harvested in China]. Almost all of the domestically harvested birch is used within China only.

EIA: Are you saying all the birch you exported to Vietnam are from Russia? Is there any Chinese birch?

Manager from Company 2: It’s all Russian birch.[…] Everyone is following the same practice. If you export from China, the “country of origin” will show it’s from China, not Russia.

EIA: The country of origin becomes China?

Manager from Company 2: Yes. The product is manufactured in China. After all, no one is tracing the origin of the raw materials.[…]

EIA: For those exported to Vietnam, the country of origin is also China?

Manager from Company 2: Yes, we can always say it’s China as the country of origin… In fact, it has cut all ties with Russia when it enters China’s border.

While this last paper on sanctions evasion was from 2022 and it’s possible that the situation has changed, it sounds like it was pretty active at that point, at any rate.

All of this does not sound entirely satisfactory from a sanctions standpoint.

tal, 1 month ago

It sounds like there is work on developing chemical fingerprints for wood based on origin:

nytimes.com/…/conflict-timber-russia-europe.html

New Method That Pinpoints Wood’s Origin May Curb Illegal Timber

The study could help identify wood from Russia, which has been banned by many countries because of the war.

Using a unique combination of old-fashioned field work and sophisticated computer modeling, scientists in Sweden have found a way to trace a single beam of lumber to the forest in Europe where it originated.

The researchers said the new method, described in a recent paper in the Nature Plants journal, could significantly curb the sale of Russian timber, which is prohibited in the European Union because of the war in Ukraine. But birch, oak, pine and other types of lumber from Russia are still finding European buyers amid surging demand.

Last month, the novel approach was used to identify large shipments of illegal Russian lumber in Belgium.

The new study looked at the chemical composition of 900 wood samples collected from 11 countries in Eastern Europe. The data was fed into a model powered by machine learning, which found patterns that could predict the geographic origin of the samples.

Overall, the model caught 60 percent of the samples that had been intentionally labeled with the wrong country of origin. The model could also narrow the wood’s origin to a roughly 125-mile radius, a remarkable feat in a continent that’s roughly 40 percent covered by forest.

The method is “very, very solid from a technical point,” said Naren Ramakrishnan, a data scientist at Virginia Tech who was not involved in the research.

tal, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Also from back in 2022:

floordaily.net/…/wood-cuts-the-impact-of-the-russ…

At the NWFA Expo, several viable alternative materials were discussed among attendees and exhibitors, but there remain challenges. According to Beakler, there are only a few mills in North America that can provide hardwood plywood that meets the exacting specifications of the preferred birch cores. In addition, pricing likely will be higher, and there is still limited capacity due to the lingering effects of Covid labor shortages, which have been prevalent in the lumber industry. In other words, there are no alternatives currently available in the quantities required.

The NWFA partnered with the Floor Covering Institute and the Decorative Hardwoods Association to host two webinars that provided engineered wood producers with more information and resources to help them navigate this challenge.

Prior to the first webinar, NWFA surveyed some of the organization’s engineered wood flooring manufacturers. Of those that responded, 95% currently use Russian birch. The amount of inventory these manufacturers have in stock ranged from one to six months, with the average being around three months’ worth of on-hand supply.

“It’s not as easy as snapping your fingers and being able to substitute materials,” says Beakler. “The reality is, Baltic birch is a highly stable platform, it has a good density, and it is very homogenous and predictable. Not all plywood structures that you will be able to source either domestically or from Southeast Asia will provide those same attributes. There is this element of due diligence around alternative core materials, and many in the industry have started to look at or produce solid-core engineered structures. There currently are several technologies that can be applied to help make this happen.”

Alternatives were a major part of the discussion. According to the survey, manufacturers mentioned considering Canadian red pine, domestic plywood, eucalyptus, Malaysian/Southeast Asia/Vietnamese products, and solid poplar as options.

“There are a lot of opportunities out there; it is just managing the pros and the cons of each as it applies to your customers down the line. Each option has a long list of pros and cons,” said Beakler. “Make sure you understand where the material is coming from because in this time of, ‘hey, we have got to react really quickly,’ a lot of mistakes can be made.”

Christman, who also participated in the webinar, shared data to further put the scale of the challenge into perspective. “In 2021, the U.S. imported about 1.7 billion square feet of birch plywood. It was more than 500 million square feet directly from Russia, another 653 million square feet from Vietnam, and 322 million from Indonesia,” he explained. “To put that in context, the U.S. produces about 750 million square feet of hardwood plywood of all types. So, it is a large amount of material that the U.S. would be hard pressed to make up in the short run.” He also reported that, in addition to U.S. sanctions, the European Commission has proposed somewhat of a ban on imports of Russian wood, and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has withdrawn its certifications for Russia and Belarus.

Christman added, “Folks are going to be looking harder at the potential for circumvention for bringing in material from Russia through third-party countries. I think that has the potential to have some impacts and be restricted in the future, but today, I don’t think there are any direct laws that prevent folks from using that Vietnamese and Indonesian material.”

“The other thing you have to take into account is the hardness,” said Beakler. “Am I going to replace a hard, dense birch substrate with a lower density? Maybe the plies are going to be thicker. How does that impact the performance on the surface of my product depending on the thickness of my face veneer? If I drop a mug off my countertop at 42”, is it going to indent now where it didn’t before?”

Baltic birch apparently is notable for having few voids:

forestplywood.com/…/birch-plywood-vs-baltic-birch…

Although they share a name, Baltic Birch and standard birch plywood have several key differences that can impact the strength, stability, and overall visual appeal of your next project. Discover the main differences between standard birch and Baltic birch, and find out which one is best for your needs.

Veneer Thickness

Both types of plywood showcase birch veneers on the face and back of each sheet. The veneers on Baltic birch are thicker than most plywood veneers, giving it additional heft and strength. Since each layer is made of Baltic birch, you can sand this wood down to meet your needs. Standard birch plywood, on the other hand, has thin veneers (about 1 millimeter in thickness) that can’t withstand the sanding process. Instead, standard birch plywood is a good choice when you want to paint something or don’t want to change its finish.

Voids

Standard birch plywood is more prone to voids (holes in the ply layers). Voids can affect the structural integrity of any project, and large holes should be filled to give the wood more durability. Conversely, Baltic birch has very few voids. When voids do appear, most wood suppliers will use a “knockout” to replace the void with an intact piece of wood. With so few voids, Baltic birch offers more stability than its standard counterpart.

Strength

When it comes to strength and stability, Baltic birch is hard to beat. The wood has about twice as many plys as standard birch plywood, and each layer is made up of birch, not MDF, particle board, or another type of core. With almost no voids, a harder core, and a consistent thickness throughout, this wood grips and holds screws tight. This gives Baltic birch stability and strength that standard birch plywood lacks, making it perfect for heavy-duty projects that need to hold weight.

Appearance

Baltic birch and standard birch create different styles when finished. Standard birch is great for painting, which can give your piece a unique look and color. Baltic birch has a consistent grain pattern that tends to become blotchy when stained. If you want to change the appearance of the wood, use a gel stain or dye. Luckily, Baltic birch has an appealing natural finish. Whether you’re displaying the consistent grain pattern of the face or back or using the exposed edges to highlight Baltic birch’s many layers, this adds a unique aesthetic to any project.

The_Che_Banana, 1 month ago

Sad trombone noises