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IKEA plans to set up a woodworking facility in Belarus, Forestry Minister of Belarus Piotr Semashko said at the Woodworking 2009 exhibition in Minsk on 15 September.
The company will be located near the town of Borisov. The annual timber processing will make up approximately 600,000 cubic meters. According to the minister, it will be one of the largest investment projects over the recent years. The Forestry Ministry of Belarus will supply the company with raw material. The new facility will be set up jointly with the Bellesbumprom Concern.
Forestry companies are implementing several large investment projects in concert with foreign firms engaged in timber high-level processing. “We are considering a range of projects to develop timber purchasing, the use of timber in small-scale power generation and primary processing. Belarus actively cooperates with investors from the Baltic region, especially, with Lithuania,” Piotr Semashko said. The Belarusian companies that take part in these projects are to secure regular supplies of the raw material of high quality and at economically sound prices, the minister stressed.
Joint ventures are currently set up in the Grodno, Ostrovets, Begoml, Surazh forestries. Preliminary negotiations were held to build joint ventures in the Liozno and Borisov forestries.
Cooperation with Sweden is also vibrant. For the most part these investment projects are related to the production of chip fuel, briquettes and pellets. The biggest investment project will be implemented in the Vitebsk oblast. It would be a wood pellet facility with the total capacity of six tons per hour.
There are two pellet facilities in Belarus with a capacity of one ton of products per hour – in the Zhitkovichi and Stolbtsy forestries. According to the marketing research, the demand for pellets in Europe is increasing, hence the sales will be stable, Piotr Semashko said. Prices for pellets secure good profitability and high returns, he added.
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