St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange to begin trading of timber in Q1, 2014, after trial period in December; expects forest products exchange to increase tax revenues, create unfavorable conditions for illegal timber trading

Wendy Lisney

MOSCOW , December 11, 2013 (Interfax Russia & CIS Business and Financial Newswire) – The St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) plans to begin trading of timber in the first quarter of 2014, exchange president Alexei Rybnikov told reporters.

"We'll try to launch trading in the first quarter of 2014, all the conditions are falling into place," Rybnikov said.

It was reported earlier that the forest products exchange being set up by SPIMEX and the Irkutsk Region Industrial Policy and Forestry Ministry will begin trial trading in December 2013.

The forest products exchange is expected to create unfavorable conditions for illegal trading of timber and protect honest forestry companies. The participants in the exchange will be logging companies, organizations and companies involved in transporting timber. One of the main objectives of the exchange is to increase tax revenues from the forest industry.

The rules for exchange trading of forest products were drafted by the Irkutsk Region Forestry Agency. There were plans to develop rules for receiving, tracking and determining whether timber is of legal origin.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.