Russia holds roughly a fifth of the world's forests, and almost all of the timber we trade comes from two belts: the Siberian taiga around Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, and the North-West around Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma and Perm. Knowing which region a grade comes from tells you a lot about what you are buying.
Species by region
- Scots pine & spruce — the backbone of construction and packaging lumber, sawn across both Siberia and the North-West.
- Siberian larch — slow-grown, dense and naturally durable; the premium choice for decking and exterior cladding, concentrated in Eastern Siberia.
- Birch — the raw material for plywood and edge-glued panels, strongest in the North-West and Volga regions.
Kiln-drying & grading
Export timber is dried to a controlled moisture level — typically KD 12–18% for lumber — and graded to GOST 8486 or to a buyer's own grade. Getting this right at origin matters: moisture, dimension tolerance and grade are what a surveyor checks on a pre-shipment inspection, and what determines whether a container clears cleanly at destination.
Container vs rail
Two routes dominate. Rail carries lumber east to the Chinese border crossings — fast and direct for the China market. Containers (FCL) leave through Baltic and Black Sea ports for the Gulf, Egypt, the Mediterranean and South Asia. The choice shapes cost, lead time and the Incoterm you contract on.
The corridors
From the mill, the product consolidates and moves along the routes that reopened after 2022: rail east to China, and sea south to Jebel Ali, Alexandria and beyond. We clear and settle these through a Dubai (DMCC) layer, which keeps documentation and payment clean across jurisdictions.
What it means for a buyer
Buy to a written specification — species, section, moisture, grade and packing — and insist on pre-shipment inspection on the first orders with a new counterparty. Match the route to the destination: rail for China, containers for the Gulf and MENA. Those two habits remove most of the risk from a Russian-origin purchase, and they are how we source every lot.
Note: regional and species detail is general guidance for buyers; exact origin, grade and availability are confirmed per contract. Forest-share and seasonality figures are indicative.