RusForest AB announced preliminary Q4 2015 and sales results for its Magistralny and Ust-Ilimsk units. The Swedish forestry company with operations in Russia increased its sawmilling and harvesting operations in the mentioned period and finished the year “on a strong note in terms of production”, according to the company’s management comments.
The new pellet mill in Magistralny and the new harvesting operations in Ust-Ilimsk started production in the Q4 2015 and are working on improving overall production. Still, the sawnwood markets, except for Japan, have declined in the last years and have represented a big challenge for the mentioned period of 2015.
In Q4 2015, RusForest harvested 117,101 m3 of sawlogs, compared with 105,038 m3 in Q4 2014 (+11%), which included 14,420 m3 of recently developed own harvesting in Ust-Ilimsk. At the same time, RusForest's subcontractors harvested 216,829 m3 of sawlogs in Ust-Ilimsk forest lease areas, compared with 106,379 m3 in Q4 2014 (+104%).
For the mentioned period, the company produced 22,488 m3 of sawnwood, compared with 21,368 m3 in Q4 2014 (+5%). The Magistraly sawmill has in 2015 been successfully running around its practical maximum annual capacity. Also, RusForest started production of pellets in Magistralny and managed to produce a total of 1,847 tonnes in Q4 2015.
In the Q4 2015, the Swedish company sold 22,589 m3 of sawnwood from Magistralny compared with 20,355 m3in Q4 2014 (+11%). Also, they sold 22,995 m3 of sawlogs compared with 19,670 m3 in Q4 2014 (+17%). Sales volumes of sawlogs increased due to better demand on the Chinese market in the quarter. A total of 1,772 tonnes of wood pellets were sold from Magistralny in Q4 2015.
RusForest made about USD 2.1 million of capital investments into the Ust-Ilimsk harvesting operations, now totaling approximately USD 4.0 million for 2015.
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