The number of furniture manufacturers has more than doubled in Belarus, Chairman of the Belarusian timber, woodworking, pulp and paper industry concern Bellesbumprom Mikhail Kasko said at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers on 18 August, BelTA learned from Bellesbumprom press service.
“The introduction of new woodworking capacities in Belarus gave rise to new small and medium-sized businesses. Since 2015, when Bellesbumprom launched new wood panel factories, the number of furniture manufacturers has more than doubled in the country to make up some 1,300 companies today,” said Mikhail Kasko.
The Bellesbumprom head stressed that the sector's industrial policy is based on the availability of domestic raw materials and their efficient use through deep processing and production of high value-added products. For this purpose, there are appropriate technologies and production facilities. Almost the entire range of products of Bellesbumprom's companies is both import-substituting and export oriented.
Import substitution measures are in place for those commodity items (as of today there are 43 of them), where the import is on the rise or where the country has no such production. These are goods such as wood boards, plywood, cellulose, paper, cardboard and others. Import-substituting products are made by 26 Bellesbumprom enterprises.
According to Mikhail Kasko, in 2019 the production of import-substituting goods more than doubled compared to 2015. Over the five years, the output of such products made up $1.9 billion.
Last year, the supply of import-substituting products to the domestic market went up 1.6 times as against 2015.
At present, Bellesbumprom is implementing new promising projects of import-substituting industries.
The Svetlogorsk Pulp and Board Mill keeps increasing cellulose production and mulls over the installation of a paper-making machine to launch the production of paper for packing flour, sugar, milk powder, formula feed, cement, and dry building mixes. The production capacity of the machine will make up at least 100,000 tonnes a year.
The Shklov Newsprint Mill is competing the project to launch the production of base paper for decorative facing materials. The production capacity will reach 30,000 tonnes per year.
The project to start the production of coated and uncoated cardboard is almost complete in Dobrush. These cardboard production capacities will fully satisfy the country's consumer market. The facility will be commissioned by the end of 2020.
Thank to the implementation of the technical re-equipment and reconstruction projects, the total production volume is projected at the level of $540-560 million in 2020.
Given the successful implementation of the projects to set up new enterprises in 2020-2024 the production of import-substituting products will reach $3.2 billion with the growth rate of 168% against the previous five-year period.