GOST standards
Gost Standards
The word GOST (Russian: ГОСТ) is an acronym for gosudarstvennyy standart, which simply means governmental standard.
GOST standards refer to a set of industrial standards
administered by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC), a regional standards organization chartered by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). GOST standards serve as the regulatory basis for government and private-sector certification programs throughout the CIS. They typically codify the industrial production of CIS member states, including the Russian federation.
Coniferous export specifications
Across Russia, the production of (rough sawn, square-edged and kiln dried) coniferous timber (Pine, Spruce, Fir and Larch) supplied for export conforms to GOST 26002-83. The standard codifies essentially three aspects which we outline briefly.
Nominal lumber dimensions
According to GOST 26002-83, authorized nominal dimensions (Table 1) are codified by GOST 24454-80, with the additional constraint that thickness shouldn’t exceed 100 mm. Actual dimensions of the lumber cannot deviate from these nominal dimensions by more than the amounts displayed in Table 2. In addition, the amount of lumber with maximal authorized deviations cannot exceed 25% of the total the volume of lumber.
In practice, the availability of lumber in these dimensions depends highly on harvests and producers. The largest and smallest dimensions are typically harder to find or more expensive. In particular, lumber of 6m can be difficult to find and standard lengths available usually go up to 5.1m, with a disproportionate amount of lumber of length between 3m and 4.5m.
This last observation is rather important and has a practical implication: any order of lumber that includes lengths of around 3 and 4 meters will typically be easier to agree upon. In particular, Russian suppliers can sometimes require that a minimum of 10% of any order be in the length of 3m.
Shrinkage and moisture content
Standard GOST 26002-83 imposes that the nominal dimensions of lumber, described above, are established for moisture content of 20%. When the moisture content of wood is more or less than 20%, the actual thickness and width should be more or less than the nominal dimensions, within the constraints determined by the corresponding shrinkage value as codified by GOST 6782.1. In an effort to stimulate the local timber industry, the Russian Federation has implemented a new regulation (effective from January 2 to December 31, 2022), increasing the duty rates for the export of softwoods with a moisture content of more than 22% and width and thickness of more than 100mm. For such lumber, the new duty rate is 200 euros per cubic meter. Importantly, these restrictions do not apply for rough sawn and kiln-dried softwood lumber, typically dried down to about 16-20% moisture content by local suppliers.
Visual grading scale
The standard GOST 26002-83 defines a visual grading scale ranging from 1 (best quality) to 5 (worst quality) based on a detailed description and classification of wood defects. It is important to note that Russian suppliers typically sell top-quality lumber (quality 1 to 3) in the form of unsorted lumber labeled “U/ S”. The understanding (codified by GOST 26002-83) is that in lumber of quality U/S, the proportion of individual qualities (1, 2 and 3 respectively) corresponds to the natural proportions recovered after sawing. Lower lumber quality (qualities 4 and 5) is typically sold separately. Concerning the proportions of individual qualities in U/S lumber, that typically reflect the natural proportions recovered after sawing, it is worth pointing out that a good relationship with Russian suppliers, established through time, will eventually lead to orders with higher proportions of top-quality lumber. Finally, orders of quality 1 exclusively are possible but evidently more expensive, typically harder to deal with for local supplies (stock depletion), and usually reserved for older clients. From a practical perspective, anyone considering acquiring coniferous sawn timber from Russian suppliers needs to understand this standard and place an order that conforms to it. Understandably, Russian suppliers will only deviate from the constraints codified by the standards for very specific clients and in very specific scenarios. Therefore a perfect understanding of Russian constraints on lumber production and a tight relationship with suppliers is essential for a smooth interaction. Our role is specifically to be an intermediate, helping new clients outside Russia navigate these subtleties for the best possible experience. Finally, note that standard GOST 26002-83 can be understood as an analog of the European standard EN 1611-1:1999 with the amendment A1:2002. While both standards do not match perfectly as far as visual grading is concerned, they are very close in spirit and largely compatible.
