India has emerged as the newest haven for sanctioned wood, with Belarus now shipping large quantities of sawn timber used to manufacture timber flooring. That is according to the government-controlled Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), which reported that a Delhi-based manufacturer received the first shipment of timber through the BUCE earlier this week.
“India is certainly an attractive export destination for Belarusian wood processing companies,” BUCE spokesperson Roman Yaniv said, adding that the Putin-aligned satellite state was looking to tap into the 30 million-plus cubic metre demand for imported timber.
“Coniferous wood species, common in Belarus, are especially in demand, which opens up a wide range of opportunities for the supply of domestic saw timber products to the Indian market.“
Roman Yaniv, spokesperson for the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange on the opportunities to trade Belarusian wood through India.
As one of its top commodity exports, the regime relies heavily on trading timber across borders – with China, Azerbaijan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Singapore and now India amongst the top buyers of Belarusian timber.
“For the first ten months of 2024, 2 million cubic metres of sawn timber were sold through (BUCE) exchange trades, Mr Yaniv said, “twice as much as in the same period a year earlier.”
Russia’s timber giants also target India as Ukraine sanctions begin to bite.
In September, Wood Central revealed that Russia’s largest timber companies were also looking to ramp up sales to India (which makes up just 3% of Russia’s timber export market) to compensate for a slowdown in the Chinese economy.
It comes as Segezha Group—which in August was forced to raise funds on the Moscow Stock Exchange due to European sanctions—wants to increase trade by more than 50% with one of the few major economies that does not have sanctions against Russian timber products. According to Nikolai Ivanov, Segezha Group’s Vice President for External Relations, the Russian giant wants to grow the market for wooden house kits, biofuel, and wood pellets in addition to its mature plywood trade.
Speaking to the Eastern Economic Forum – a geopolitical forum funded by Putin and aiming to boost Far East Russian trade, Mr Ivanov described the pivot as “the start of a long-term strategy, though he acknowledged that these are still small volumes compared to the market’s full potential.”
Russia and Belarus are not alone in eyeing India as a hedge against a soft Chinese market. In February, Wood Central reported that India has emerged as one of the United States’ most important export markets, with 116,000 cubic metres of softwood lumber shipped from the West Coast to India last year alone.
- To find out how India is now searching the seven seas to meet its demand for timber, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
