The grand opening ceremony of the Sudoma sawmill was held on November 14, 2015 in the village of Dedovichi, Pskov region. The plant specialization – production of environmentally friendly wood building materials – is unique for Russia. The Sudoma general investor – the GS Group holding company – invested over 1.842 billion rubles into the project. Sergei Donskoi, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Andrey Turchak, Governor of the Pskov region, and Artem Starodubtsev, Director of the GS Group forest-industry complex attended the event.
The Sudoma sawmill manufactures high-quality finish materials: thermo-treated and impregnated timber and profiled goods. The total power capacity of the sawmill will reach 61,000 m3 of wood products annually. Around 40% of manufactured wooden materials will be delivered to the Russian market, the rest of the products will be exported.
Technological equipment of Sudoma meets all current international standards. The equipment from EWD, WEINIG, Polytechnik and other leading companies is installed on the total area of over 24,000 m2. Thus, the plant is tooled up with a camera for wood impregnation and three cameras, providing the thermo treatment of the material. Sudoma is the only production in Russia applying the special French technology of heating the timber to 230° C. The sawmill is fitted with modern drying chambers and the trolleys that can significantly reduce the time of loading and unloading the ready-made products.
The new plant provided the Pskov region with over 150 jobs for both local residents and the leading engineers from all over Russia. GS Group offers professional training for its future employees.
The Sudoma sawmill is the key enterprise of the unique Dedovichi production facility complex for deep wood processing, which is developed by GS Group in the Pskov region. The forestry division provides Sudoma with the raw material – spruce, pine, aspen and birch are used for processing. Hardwood is the major material, which ensures less damage to the regional forest resources. In addition, the complex also includes a forest nursery that provides reforestation and replacement of deciduous trees by coniferous that are more valuable. After choosing the innovative technology of wood waste utilization, the complex will get the unique closed cycle production.
“The Sudoma sawmill is unique for Russia and extremely important for the Pskov region from both an economic and environmental points of view. Launching the plant is a part of the GS Group large-scale project aimed at creating the Dedovichi forest-industry complex, which should bring more than 3 billion rubles of investment to the region and provide the area with over 400 jobs. Moreover, Sudoma is among the first companies in the region that processes wood instead of exporting the rough logs. Finally, this is a bright example of a responsible forest management when production of the demanded materials is combined with reforestation by replacing the used wood with more valuable species, cultivated in the forest nursery”, – comments Andrey Turchak, Governor of the Pskov region.
"The GS Group holding company is a large diversified business where high technologies of wood processing play one of the major roles. The Sudoma sawmill is the general enterprise in the large-scale production facility complex for manufacturing the high-quality wood products in Russia. Its launch will significantly reduce the import of wooden building materials and provide the more intensive export of high-rated products to European countries”, – comments Artem Starodubtsev, Director of the GS Group forest-industry complex.
In 2014, the Sudoma sawmill was granted the status of a strategic investment project of the Pskov region.