St. Petersburg Exchange To Close First China Timber Export Contract

The St. Petersburg Exchange will complete the first timber export deal with China at the end of his month, according to Alexei Ryzhikov, the Managing Director of the exchange.

He stated that “The Kazakhstan timber export project which we announced last year, is moving along nicely, and has had 44% growth this year. We have also tested out using Russian Railways as the commodity delivery operator, with clients and sellers participating. The project will be focused on Russian timber exports. The system already has Chinese representatives registered to take part in the pilot project. The project has also generated a lot of interest among Russian producers, and there is a queue of them wanting to take part once the project reaches an industrial scale.

We finished the outline of the deal with China on Friday last week (July 4). We are now competing additional information from the participants. There will be an announcement of offers very soon. After that, we will await the funds from our Chinese buyers. In my opinion, as soon as that happens and the deal has been fully evaluated, the first trainload of the exchange commodity timber will be exported. I think that will happen at the end of this month.”

Ryzhikov has previously said that the exchange would launch exports of Russian forest industry products in 2025. The exchange began experimenting with export trading in forest industry products with countries from the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and Kazakhstan in particular, in 2023. In 2024, it proposed launching a project involving the full-scale export of timber to Asian countries with Russian Railways as the commodity delivery operator.

Ryzhikov also said that some 2.037 million cubic meters of timber to a total value of ₽3.947 billion (US$51 million) had been traded on the St. Petersburg Exchange in the first half of 2025, with 427 timber supply contracts signed. Vendors from 42 Russian regions took part in organized trading sessions for timber on the exchange.

In Q2 2025, timber was purchased on the St. Petersburg Exchange by traders from 58 Russian regions, as well as Kazakhstan. Some 5,882 cubic meters were purchased by traders from outside of Russia, a 44% increase year-on-year.

China has an extensive timber processing industry and imports huge volumes from Russia, with a significant timber processing zone at Manzhouli, near the Russian border. From there, raw Russian wood is processed and exported worldwide.