Forestry companies in Russia have asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade for a three-year moratorium on bankruptcy, citing mounting financial pressure across the sector. The request was outlined in a letter addressed to First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, according to Kommersant. The draft was prepared by a committee of the Arkhangelsk Regional Legislative Assembly and submitted to the regional Duma.<\/p>\n
The authors point to a sharp deterioration in the sector\u2019s financial position. Total losses over the past three years have exceeded 15 billion rubles (approximately \u20ac150 million), while many enterprises are struggling to meet tax obligations and are accumulating arrears on mandatory payments.<\/p>\n
The situation has been compounded by a reduction in state support. Export subsidies have dropped to 550 million rubles (about \u20ac5.5 million) in 2026, compared with 7.6 billion rubles (around \u20ac76 million) in 2023, when funding was used to offset forestry export costs. Subsidies for sea shipments from Northwest ports have been fully discontinued.<\/p>\n
At the same time, companies face weaker global timber prices, a stronger ruble and rising logistics costs. According to Vladimir Butorin, owner of ULK Group, the cost of transporting lumber has increased from around $30 per cubic meter in 2025 to $70 per cubic meter, adding 2.4 billion rubles (roughly \u20ac24 million) to the company\u2019s expenses. He estimates that up to half of forest industry enterprises, including large producers, could shut down by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
To ease pressure on the sector, the letter proposes a three-year moratorium on bankruptcy proceedings initiated by creditors, along with a deferment of at least three years for tax and other mandatory payments, followed by installment plans. It also calls for a suspension of enforcement measures on tax debts accumulated as of January 1, 2026, for the same period.<\/p>\n
Support measures would be extended to systemically important enterprises, subject to the development of financial recovery programmes and approval by regional authorities.<\/p>\n
Additional proposals include freezing changes to forest lease fee calculations for three years, temporarily banning the termination of lease agreements in the event of incomplete forest regeneration measures in 2022\u20132025, and maintaining current export duty levels without introducing new tariffs in 2026. It is also proposed to reinstate subsidies for port export shipments and introduce a 0.9 reduction coefficient on railway tariffs for forest products in 2026\u20132027.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Industry and Trade declined to comment. However, Russian Kommersant sources indicate that the situation was discussed at a recent meeting with Minister Anton Alikhanov, with authorities acknowledging the need for support measures for companies in critical condition. Other sources suggest that some of the proposals could be considered to prevent mass bankruptcy in the sector.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n