Русский
Russia’s Segezha Group plans to begin supplying LNG tanker plywood to a country in East Asia in 2026 and has signed an agreement on this with its partner company in the region, Segezha CEO Kirill Arsentyev has stated. The plywood is to be used in building fuel systems for seven container ships which run on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Segezha did not disclose the name of its client, however, and said in May last year that it was planning to sign a long-term contract to supply LNG plywood to South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries.
Samsung representatives subsequently visited Segezha’s Vyatsky Plywood Mill, where the tanker plywood production capacities are located. At the time, Segezha said that “the result of the meeting was a series of agreements on the use of this product in South Korea’s shipbuilding sector. Thanks to these agreements, the volume of special products produced at Vyatsky Plywood Mill will grow at least 25%.”
LNG plywood is used to line the cryogenic reservoirs of LNG carriers or LNG-fuelled marine vessels transporting commodities. Segezha said in a press release that plywood’s technical characteristics allowed it to withstand extreme pressure and extreme low temperatures while minimising the evaporation of LNG during transportation.
Segezha estimates that annual global demand for LNG plywood in shipbuilding totals tens of thousands of cubic metres. Arsentyev added, “This agreement will give us access to a market of strategic importance in high-tech shipbuilding, which is also in the most dynamically developing industry in a key region of the world in this area. The fact that our LNG plywood has been approved for export after multiple tests and trials confirms the quality of Segezha Group’s products on a global level and boosts our export potential in the premium segment.”
Designed to produce 192,000 cubic metres of products per year after the full ramp-up, Vyatsky Plywood Mill produced over 180,000 cubic metres of plywood in 2024, in line with the production volumes recorded prior to 2022 and above the results of 2023. It was reported in May 2024 that the company could increase production 1.5-fold in 2025, partly through increasing production of tanker plywood. Segezha has not yet published its operating results for last year but said in late November that the Vyatsky Plywood Mill was working at 95% capacity.
