United Panel Group: Moving the Right Direction

UPG has summed up the results for year 2006. For the company, it was a period of series important strategic decisions. The company decided and almost fulfilled the dismantling of the equipment for production 1525x1525 plywood, so called "squares". The production facilities of which are used for the machinery producing large formats, e.g. 1500х3000, 1525х3050; 1220х2440; 2440х1220; 1525х2440, 2440х1525 mm Italian short-cycle press lines "Pagnoni" were installed at Zheshart Plywood Industrial Complex which will be used to overlay wooden based panels - MDF, particleboard and plywood. Thus UPG is at realizing its strategic plans of developing a greater part of the domestic market by substituting imported material by Russian counterparts.
In the nearest future the company will be ready to offer to its domestic customers melamine film coated panels, mat and glossy surfaced with shagreen and wood pores embossing. Trial orders of films were delivered by Schattdecor, Samara Melamine Decor, SWC, and Confadecor.

The bulk of laminated MDF boards produced by UPG are surfaced with white melamine films. MDF boards are characterized by a light-coloured and smooth surface due to the use of high-quality raw material, 100% birch. As a result, covered MDF boards have high coefficient of surface whiteness.
UPG has almost completed the installation of a multiple opening press for overlaying plywood with phenol based films. The company is now carrying out the tests of the films supplied by various European manufacturers. The bulk of film faced plywood will conform to the standard specification: dark brown opaque film (weight 120-220 g/sq.m); it is planned to use both coloured phenol films and melamine films, overlaid with painting film.

Unfortunately, the year 2006 was not so successful in respect of output. The major problem was weather anomalies. In connection with that, the 4th quarter of last year was marked by low supplies of logs. The company was forced to reduce the production capacities; as a matter of fact, wood working industries throughout Russia suffered even more from the lack of raw material, for some mills it caused suspension of production. Notwithstanding, the company did its utmost to keep the activity of the logging industry in the region at the same level However, one should notice the growth of production in year 2006 for chipboards by 4,5% and MDF boards by 18% .
It should be underlined that the Zheshart Plywood Industrial Complex (UPG production subdivision) passed a SmartWood Chain-Of-Custody audit according to the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) standards. The FSC Certification assessment was accomplished by the NEPCon Company which represents the FSC accredited SmartWood programme in Russia, Eastern Europe and Scandinavian countries. As a result of the audit, Zheshart Plywood Industrial Complex was assigned the registration code SW-COC-2160.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests.

Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber and non-timber products maintains the forest's biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes. Socially beneficial forest management helps both local people and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and also provides strong incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term management plans.
Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be sufficiently profitable, without generating financial profit at the expense of the forest resources, the ecosystem or affected communities. The tension between the need to generate adequate financial returns and the principles of responsible forest operations can be reduced through efforts to market forest products for their best value.
The aim of the FSC certified chain "producer - to - end user" is in tracing the whole way the product undergoes from raw material harvested in forest to the product which receives the end user including all the consequential stages of its processing.
As it was mentioned by Nikolay Tochilov, NEPCon/SmartWood chief auditor: "The control system of the certified logs supplies implemented by Zheshart Plywood Industrial Complex is transparent and with no doubts is applicable for production FSC certified material".
Talking about future we should mention that the quality of the goods produced by UPG remains stable, while the company never stops to develop and improve the approach to our partners providing excellent service. The weather conditions being favourable, we are planning an increase of production capacities in year 2007:

+25-30% for plywood (including filmfaced plywood);
+20% for chipboards including melamine faced chipboards;
+15% for MDF boards.

This was the year 2006 for United Panel Group Company. We are sure that the coming year will be even better for fruitful cooperation with our present partners and customers, as well as making new long-term perspective alliances.