Exchange mechanisms allow us to build efficient chains in the timber market.

Exchange mechanisms allow us to build efficient chains in the timber market.

Evgeny Rozhentsev, Director of Lesnoy Resurs LLC, member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Commodity Market Participants (NAUTOR), shares his experience in the forest market, talks about the development of exchange mechanisms in Russia and the role of digital tools in building transparent and efficient supply chains.

From state forestry to stockbroking

    Before talking about exchange mechanisms, I consider it necessary to talk a little about the development of timber trading in Russia, an area in which I have been working for 26 years.

    I started my career as a marketing engineer at the Novosibirsk Region State Forestry. Literally in the first year of operation, all the production workshops of the enterprise reached full capacity. It became clear that the regional market needed packaging, and work began on its implementation. Then neighboring forestry enterprises, commercial companies and other regions joined this direction. This is how our trading company was formed first, and then the opportunity arose to acquire a timber company. It was a city-forming enterprise, on which several settlements depended. He was brought out of the pre-bankruptcy state.

Formation of an industry view

    His work experience in the expert advisory council on the forestry complex under the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy has allowed him to take a broader look at economic processes not only from the perspective of an individual company, but also from the point of view of the interests of the industry and the economy as a whole.

Digital platform as a response to market challenges

    In 2011, the Russian timber market was going through a difficult period, and new approaches to trade organization were needed. At that time, the marketplace model was actively developing. However, it was not possible to export through foreign portals.: They were too complicated for Russian companies.

    Then the idea came up to create our own service, a B2B platform for finding partners and developing timber trade. During its operation, it brought together market participants from more than 150 countries, and the number of registered users reached 25 thousand. Today, the site is among the top 10 global B2B resources in its industry.

The synergy of the exchange and digital instruments

    The combination of exchange trading and digital counterparty search tools in the forest market makes our work particularly effective. Thanks to this, we can work with the widest possible range of participants: state forestry enterprises are required to sell products only through the stock exchange, and digital services help them find buyers who might otherwise not be interested in participating in organized auctions. At the same time, the transaction itself is already concluded through the exchange.

    As brokers, we also suggest using an exchange mechanism in cases where transactions between private companies are involved. In addition, we help build full-fledged supply chains that begin on the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange. For example, a company purchases roundwood from a forestry company, and then through our service it can find a buyer for the next conversion of products – lumber.

    Largely due to this synergy, we have become one of the leading brokers in timber stock trading and regularly occupy the first places in the ratings. We help forestry enterprises to sell significant volumes of products and provide access to the portal for free.

The international dimension. Security and trust

    In international activities, the exchange acts as a guarantor of a safe and transparent transaction. She is trusted by both Russian and foreign partners. We actively cooperate with the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange: we purchase timber there for entrepreneurs from Tajikistan, and through the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange we sell timber to buyers from Kazakhstan. Exchange mechanisms make it possible to build such chains faster and more reliably: without them, this process would be much more difficult and risky.

    There are successful examples of the development of organized commodity markets in international practice. One of them is Belarus. There is a single exchange platform, common trading standards and a single mechanism for interaction between participants. Everyone works according to clear and unified rules. In Russia, the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange solves the same tasks by developing organized commodity markets, improving exchange mechanisms and forming transparent price guidelines for participants. This confirms that similar principles underlie stock trading regardless of the national market model.

    The St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, as a guarantor of international transactions, ensures transparency and security of transactions, sets uniform trading standards as the basis of trust in any national market.

Diversification: timber, cement, metal and utilities

    As brokers, we work on the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange not only with timber. We are actively developing cement sales in the Central and Siberian Federal Districts. We support transactions with metal products, including for major market players, for example, the Metallservice Group of companies. JSC United Metallurgical Company regularly puts up large lots, and we go in and buy them back. We are also currently setting up a deal for Municipal Unitary Enterprise Gorvodokanal of Novosibirsk, which plans to purchase pipes using an exchange mechanism.

    Companies operating under 223-FZ can use the exchange mechanism as an additional procurement tool. I am confident that this will create significant potential for improving the efficiency of procurement procedures, especially in areas such as housing and communal services.

Price indicators: objectivity through data

    If we talk about price indicators, then the market needs them, although not all participants are fully aware of this yet. The government is doing the right thing here by obliging companies to submit data on over-the-counter transactions. Without this, it is impossible to form an objective picture of the market. The indicators of the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange are just the tool that will allow businesses to see real prices, rather than guessing about them.

    Of course, the mechanism still needs to be developed, and market participants are not always in a hurry to share information. But without this step, it is impossible to form an efficient and transparent market. The more data is used to calculate the indicators, the more accurate they become and the more benefit all participants receive.

Key points of the interview:

NAUTOR as a dialogue platform

    And in this sense, I see great prospects in the work of the National Association of Commodity Market Participants (NAUTOR), whose Board of Directors I joined. I am closely following the activities of my colleagues from the Petroleum Products section and see which regulatory and self-regulatory approaches can be adapted for the forest market. I am confident that NAUTOR will become an effective platform for dialogue between market participants and regulators and for the formation of common approaches to the development of commodity markets.

The accuracy of the indicators directly depends on the amount of information on over-the-counter transactions. The more participants provide data, the more effective the pricing mechanism is for the entire market.

Tags: #Russia #forest market #stock trading #St. Petersburg Stock Exchange #digital platforms #brokerage services #pricing #NAUTOR

Edited Moderator (Aug. 23, 2026 20:18:51)