On June 25, Oleg Kuvshinnikov, Governor of the Vologda Region, and Mikhail Shamolin, President and Board Chairman of Segezha Group, launched construction of the CLT manufacturing plant for modern engineer material for wooden house construction to be produced in Sokol, Vologda Region. The Governor and the Head of the company took part in a symbolic ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the future plant. Senior management also signed the address to employees to be unsealed after the enterprise starts operating at project capacity.
"It's a truly landmark event for the whole Russian timber industry, as we are laying the groundwork for development of multistory wooden housing construction here, in the Vologda Region," Oleg Kuvshinnikov, Governor of the Vologda Region, said in his welcome address. "For the first time ever a cutting-edge plant producing a unique material that has never been manufactured in Russia before will appear in Sokol. I'm sure, CLT panels will be a breakthrough in domestic construction industry, both in mass civil engineering and construction of individual houses or social facilities."
The amount of investments in a new manufacturing facility is over 3 bln rubles, and the capacity of a future enterprise is 250,000 m2 production per year.
"We are laying the first stone, a symbolic capsule to mark the start of CLT plant construction; it will be the first plant of such a quality in Russia. With a new kind of construction material, we hope, a large number of residence buildings will be built in the country soon, not individual houses only, but also multistory multifamily houses and office blocks as an alternative for concrete and brick houses. We intend to develop this area of activity. It's trendy, environmentally friendly, advantageous, good looking, interesting and beautiful," Mikhail Shamolin, President of Segezha Group, said during the solemn ceremony dedicated to commencement of construction works. "We have made a decision to invest in this project, and the amount of investments will exceed 3 bln rubles. We have already designed the plant, chosen the equipment supplier, signed the agreement and pre-paid; the equipment is being made already, and deliveries will start in the beginning of the next year. By the end of the first quarter of 2020 equipment will be fully delivered to the site. And I hope, by late summer or early autumn next year we will produce the first trial panel to turn to commercial operation in the end of the year. First lots will be exported, but we expect new terms in our Construction Standards and Regulations to be formulated by that moment. Today we witness a historic moment – both for the Sokol Integrated Woodworking Plant making a new step in development, and the construction industry of our country, where a new segment, industrial multistory wooden housing construction, will soon appear."
CLT panels are a modern construction material; cross-laminated layers of pine wood are equal to conventional concrete, steel or bricks in terms of durability, and even better in terms of ecological and operational performance and prime cost. CLT technologies are already actively applied abroad allowing building multifamily and individual houses, industrial and social facilities of more than 10 storeys. After the launch of the plant in the Vologda Region Segezha Group in cooperation with Etalon Group, its partner from Sistema JSFC, plans to work out projects of two multistory wooden houses in Moscow.
A new asset – Sokol CLT – is created within Segezha Group to implement the project. The future plant is located on the industrial site of the Russian leader by production volume of construction beams and glued laminated lumber, the Sokol Integrated Woodworking Plant. The final equipment batching for the CLT plant (over 90 items) has been bought from a leading European machine tool builder in field of woodworking – Ledinek (Austria). Ledinek technologies are notable for a high accuracy of processing and connecting elements for binding. Equipment delivery and mounting are planned for May 2020.
The decision about construction was made in May 2018, when the project was positively evaluated by the Investment Council under auspices of the Governor followed by providing a priority status and federal government support. Just before the event the project of Sokol CLT LLC, a part of Segezha Group, "Construction of a Cross-laminated Timber Panels (CLT) in Sokol" was included in the list of priority investment projects in field of forest exploitation. For the record, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation plans to expand application of engineered wooden structures in housing construction by 2020. A production facility for wooden house construction is evolving only in Russia, and Sokol CLT is the first step towards mass construction of multistory buildings from wood.
"When we speak about development of multistory wooden housing construction, we primarily mean houses of 10, 15 or 25 storeys. One may consider it exotic, but the technology is popular in the world as an alternative to concrete and brick houses; and in my opinion, it will provide better living standards. Our company has pointedly studied the market and opportunities of production development here, in Sokol. From our point of view, they are just great," Mikhail Shamolin, President of Segezha Group, noted. (Copyright: Segezha Group - 07/2019)
