The WoodWorking industry of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has traditionally been a strong industry of this region, long before the fall of the Berlin wall the export of timber and Valve added products have been a good generator of hard currency for company’s and governments of Central and Eastern European countries. CeeIndustrial has been helping introduce Woodworking technology to the Central and Eastern Europe region since the early 90's and connecting key decision makers with in the Woodworking technology sector to Manufactures from around the world who can supply the technology they require.

Poland has had a strong Furniture manufacturing base since the 60's a strong catalyst for this was the Furniture and retail giant Ikea need to find a manufacturing base outside of Sweden and Poland was its destination of choice. Poland is the worlds 5th largest exporter of furniture and 54% of its exports go to the traditional EU counties and Furniture is Poland 2nd largest export to the UK and 3rd to Germany. Poland has over 8.7m Hectares of forest (27% of its territory) so it can offer a sufficient supply of timber. Poland’s export of timber products has been steady growing over the last few years and now has a total value of the export of timber and timber derived products at over €7 billion. German, Swedish and Finnish companies tend to be the leaders in investing in Poland and after the beginning of the 1990's this investment has been increasing with companies from Italy, UK and USA also showing a interest to further invest in this wood working industry. Due to its supply of local timber 40% of exports of furniture is of solid wood and the balance of 60% of Polish furniture is manufactured from wood derivative materials, mostly chipboard with an increasing share of MDF.

Poland has quite a modern dynamically segment with in the board industry such as OSB,MDF, Plywood Veneers etc but on the other hand, there are strongly dispersed sawmills in need for capital development, consolidation and modernization of production technologies. The Forecast for the Polish Woodworking and Furniture industries is good and Poland has greatly benefited from its accession into the EU as this has helped Polish manufacturers of Wood related products to compete on a equal basis with other companies from with in the EU. There has never been a better time to develop your WoodWorking Technology business in the Polish market and CeeIndustrial can help you establish long term tradepartners there. We see great potential in the Polish market for technology for the '' engineered wood'' industry so technology providers should focus on finding trading partners there.

Russia has been increasing its export duties on the Russian roundwood since 2009 to simulate the manufacture of Value added products using wood. The Russian government has been heavily increasing its investment in companies wishing to manufacturer Furniture, Windows, Doors, OSB boards, Plywoods, wood-based panels and associated products and Valve added timber products. Russia needs to up scale its modernization of the Woodworking Industry so the need for a wide range of Woodworking technology is clear, Companies who wish to import Wood Working technology can obtain very competitive loans and incentives from the government, We all so see the EBRD and EIB take a keen interest in helping this industry  . A spokesperson for CeeIndustrial commented '' Why export the raw materials when there better profits in adding Value to wood and manufacturing the finished products yourself, take the finished products to market and add the value yourself''. With Russia's 82 billion cubic meters of forest which is one quarter of the worlds forest and implementation of modern woodworking technology and practices and the increased invest into the Woodworking technology sector then Russia is sure to be a leader in the export of Furniture, Windows, Doors, OSB boards, Plywoods, wood-based panels and associated products and Valve added timber products.

Slovak is another country with Hugh timber resources as 40% of its territory is covered by forest. The rapid growth of the Furniture industry started at the beginning of the 20th Century and soon exceeded the needs of Slovakia. The Woodworking Industries that are strong in Slovakia are Timber production for houses, Pinewood processing, Wooden furniture, upholster furniture etc. The present timber and furniture-making industry in Slovakia has been producing a wide range of wooden products for domestic and foreign markets. The most important products of these fields include saw-wood, glued timber, floorings, agglomerated materials, veneer, cross-ties, glued constructions, windows, wooden constructions, wooden chairs, wooden furniture (kitchens, bedrooms, living room cabinets, furniture for children, office furniture, tables, furniture for halls and bathrooms), upholstered furniture (sofas, couches, mattresses) and other wooden products.

Slovak produces approximately 6mil m3 of timber annually and since 2008 to 2009 there has been a total investment of €2.5 billion euros in the Wood working industry and two thirds of this has been invested for Wood working machinery investment. One of the largest investors has been Swedwood (member of ikea group) ,Spartan a.s produce fiber wood office furntire and Trnavna as well. Thers has been further investment from companys such as Hofatex who invested SKK 200 million into the extension of its production base of fibre wood boards. Kronospan has also started production of Fiber-wood and glued natural and engineered wood boards. Rettenmeier Tatra Timber is one of the market leaders due to its modern use of technology and its high processing capacity as it has the biggest saw mill in Slovakia.

The Czech republic has large forest areas which cover 35% of its territory of which 905 are conifers, the reserves for wood biomass are estimated at 670 million m3. The Czech Republic is ranked 12th among European countries in forest coverage and fourth in timber resources by hectare. Czech has a very well developed primary timber production in Sawmills. Ligna is a leading company in the export of OSB and engineered boards. Czech is very strong overall in the board industry but its furniture industry tends to be dominated by SME's but there are several large sawmills. There are over 200 000 people employed with in the wood working industry in Czech in terms of exports € 1.9 billion worth of timber and timber products is exported. CeeIndustrial see High potential for consolidation with in the Wood Working industry as the country is dominated by SME this needs to happen so that Czech can compete and invest in the most modern Woodworking technology.
 In other Cee Countries we see great growth in Belarus and the Ukraine. Austrian Kronospan Holdings Ltd has just announce its plans to invest in Belarus and is investing € 120 million into its faculties to manufacturing Laminate flooring, chipboard, impregnated paper and OSB. The Belarus manufacturing plant will turn over € 100  million and the project will provide 300 + jobs

According to Kronospan Holdings Ltd owner and executive director Peter Kaindl, Belarus is a country with big raw material potential and necessary highly-qualified personnel. “You have wonderful timber and a rich experience in furniture production,” he said.

The problem is always finding reliable tradepartners in Russia and with CeeIndustrial in depth knowledge of the CeeIndustrial region we can help business with the right wood working technology find the right tradepartners in the Central and Eastern European region.