Segezha signs agreement to supply tanker plywood to East Asia for construction of LNG container ships
MOSCOW. March 23 (Interfax) - 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 was quoted as saying by the company's press service.
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 partner company or the volume that it would supply.
The timber holding 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. Representatives of the latter company then visited Vyatsky Plywood Mill, where Segezha's tanker plywood production capacities are located. "The result of the meeting was a series of agreements on the use of this product in South Korea's shipbuilding sector. The first deliveries are scheduled for the end of 2025. Thanks to these agreements, the volume of special products produced at Vyatsky Plywood Mill will grow at least 25%," the Russian company said then.
LNG plywood is used to line the cryogenic reservoirs of LNG carriers or LNG-fueled 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 minimizing the evaporation of LNG during transportation.
Segezha estimates that annual global demand for LNG plywood in shipbuilding totals tens of thousands of cubic meters.
"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," Arsentyev is quoted as saying in the holding's press release.
Designed to produce 192,000 cubic meters of products per year after the full ramp-up, Vyatsky Plywood Mill produced over 180,000 cubic meters 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 Vyatsky Plywood Mill was working at 95% capacity.
