OREANDA-NEWS  According to the results of the first nine months of 2023, the total investment volume of Russian enterprises involved in the forestry industry fell by 11.3 percent compared to the same period in 2022, to the level of almost 128 billion rubles. The decrease in investments in one of the key sectors of the Russian economy is reported by Kommersant with reference to statistical data from analysts of the Roslesinforg organization.

The January-September indicator also turned out to be lower than the levels of the same periods in 2021 and 2020 — by 2 and 25 percent, respectively, experts said. According to the results of the first nine months of 2023, paper producers demonstrated the greatest investment activity (86.9 billion rubles of investments).

The leaders in this indicator also include woodworkers (22.4 billion) and wood processors, added Pavel Chashchin, Director of Roslesinforg. At the same time, the vast majority of the investments of the enterprises of the forestry complex went to the purchase of equipment. These products accounted for a total of 91.6 billion rubles (71.7 percent of the total), the industry organization concluded.

The decrease in investments in the Russian timber industry occurred against the background of a sharp drop in the total volume of exports of domestic lumber abroad. Thus, according to the results of the first two months of 2023, the indicator decreased by 23.5 percent compared to the same period in 2022. In January-February, a total of 2.6 million cubic meters of lumber were exported from the country. Against this background, Roslesinforge predicted that by the end of 2023, exports of lumber and roundwood from the Russian Federation would fall by seven percent, to 25 million cubic meters.