What this cluster makes
Tokat — and above all Erbaa — is the largest plywood hub on the Black Sea coast. The biggest local group runs over 70,000 m³ a year across three sites; along the Erbaa – Niksar – provincial centre axis, smaller veneer mills of some 6,000 m³ a year work right beside it.
Of the seven provinces we cover, this is the only one where processing of that size is concentrated in a single place. The other clusters are built differently: many mid-sized veneer mills in one, furniture works in another, warehousing and wholesale trade in a third. What is here is concentration.
The second thing that sets Tokat apart is its mixed profile. Veneer mills of their own operate next to the plywood plants, which means part of the industry both buys veneer and produces it. With that kind of buyer the conversation is not about whether to buy veneer or peel your own, but about which layer is covered by what:
- your own poplar goes into the core, where price decides and strength does not;
- purchased birch goes into the face layers and wherever the structure is asked to carry load.
So birch veneer here does not replace your own production — it complements it. How the recipe splits across layers: plywood production.
How the cargo gets here
| Discharge port | By road, approx. km | Route from Russia | Sea/rail, days |
|---|---|---|---|
| SamsunShortest inland leg | 145 | On request | — |
| Mersin | 660 | On request | — |
| Ambarlı (İstanbul) | 700 | Rail 40'HC → Novorossiysk → Ambarlı | 22–32 |
The largest plywood hub on the Black Sea coast: the biggest local group runs over 70,000 m³ a year across three sites.
145 kilometres to Samsun — the shortest Black Sea inland leg among the seven provinces we cover. For the neighbouring coastal cluster the same leg is 290 km, exactly twice as far.
The Marmara route is not discussed here at all: Ambarlı is 700 km away, Mersin 660. In the Marmara provinces the choice of port is a real balancing act, with the freight rate pulling one way and the kilometres the other. In Tokat there is nothing to weigh: the gap in the inland leg is close to fivefold.
One practical conclusion follows, and it is not about the port. Inland logistics stops being the item the decision is built around. The leg is invoiced per vehicle, not per cubic metre: 145 km divide across the 33–40 m³ in a container or the 34 m³ on a lorry, and the addition per cubic metre comes out around half of what the Black Sea neighbour carries. Which means the delivery unit is chosen on freight and on cash, not on the road.
There is a second side to the same fact: a short leg is precisely what makes a large lot manageable. A 2,000 m³ parcel lands at Samsun in one go and disperses to the sites in about sixty runs of 34 m³. Over 145 kilometres that distribution is bearable; over 290 it would double and eat the freight saving.
The ladder of delivery units
70,000 m³ a year is roughly 200 m³ a day. At that scale the familiar bottom step stops being a working unit: a container covers a few hours of production. Convert the routes on the logistics page into days of your own throughput and the ladder looks like this:
| Delivery unit | Lot | Transit | Freight | At 200 m³ a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40’HC container | 33–40 m³ | On request | On request | A few hours |
| Direct lorry (via Verkhny Lars) | 34 m³ | 12–20 days | 210–305 USD/m³ | A few hours, but fast |
| Railcar → Apsheronsk → 3 lorries | 102 m³ | 15–25 days | 170–255 USD/m³ | Half a day |
| Boxcar → Azov, river-sea | 2,000–3,000 m³ | 25–40 days | 55–85 USD/m³ | 10–15 days |
| Breakbulk from Novorossiysk | 3,000 m³ and up | 20–30 days | 60–90 USD/m³ | 15 days and up |
A container here is a trial unit, not a working one. At this rate 33–40 m³ are gone within a shift. For a first shipment that is the right step: the material is tested inside your own recipe with the least cash committed. As a standing rhythm for a line this size it means 50–60 clearances, handlings and dispatches a year, each carrying its own fixed cost. What fits into which box: container loading.
The railcar is the middle step. 102 m³ in 15–25 days with no port transhipment: half a day of production brought in as one delivery unit. Freight of 170–255 USD/m³ is expensive as a standing regime, but reasonable when a gap in the schedule has to be closed quickly.
The ship parcel — the one province of the seven where it genuinely applies. The river-sea minimum is 2,000–3,000 m³, that is 10–15 days of throughput, at a published 55–85 USD/m³. The fairest thing to weigh it against is the other published figure — 90–120 USD/m³ and 22–32 days on the container route — while remembering what that figure is: the Marmara benchmark, to Ambarlı. Container freight to Samsun we confirm per shipment. The gap between 55–85 and 90–120 stays where it is, about 35 dollars a cubic metre at both ends of the band: on a 2,000 m³ lot that is in the order of 70,000 dollars, with the saving on some fifty separate clearances and dispatches on top.
Who needs birch veneer here
| Type of plant | What is needed | Product | Grade | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-site plywood group | The birch share of the recipe, on a calendar | 1600 × 1600, railcar or ship parcel | Mixed 1–4 | 17,500 ₽/m³ |
| Own veneer mill beside the press | A complement to poplar for the face layers | 2600 × 1300 or 1600 × 1600 | Mixed 1–4 | 17,500 ₽/m³ |
| Structural plywood | Load-bearing layers | 2600 × 1300 | Mixed 1–4 | 17,500 ₽/m³ |
| Face layers bought separately | A clean surface without tone variation | Whatever suits your table | Grade 1–2 | 35,000 ₽/m³ |
| Workshop with no cutting line | Waste and cutting labour taken to zero | 420 × 420 pre-cut blanks | 50% grade 1–2 | 29,900 ₽/m³ |
The multi-site group. When buying is done by ship parcel, one lot feeds every site, and what comes forward is not the price of that lot but its uniformity. Thickness tolerance, the 5–8% moisture band and the grade distribution have to hold across the whole volume: re-tuning the drying and gluing regime site by site costs more than the discount gained. Measurement records travel with every batch.
Mixed operations. If you peel your own poplar, purchased birch covers the face and load-bearing layers rather than the whole recipe. That leaves two options: take mixed 1–4, where the grade 1–2 share is 22–27%, or buy the top grade separately. The second makes sense once you have nowhere to put the lower grade — the core is already covered by your own poplar. What the grade classes mean: grades.
Pre-cut blanks. In a small workshop with no cutting line, 420 × 420 blanks take cutting waste to zero, raise the grade 1–2 share to 50% and put 42 m³ in a container. That step is for the operations working beside the large lines in Tokat rather than inside them.
What we supply
Rotary-cut birch veneer from Russia, GTİP (Turkish customs tariff code) 4408.90, species Betula. Nominal thickness 1.5 mm, 0.9–1.7 mm on request. Moisture 5–8%. Density 620–680 kg/m³, bending strength 120–144 N/mm².
| Product | Grade | Price | Per 40’HC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1600 × 1600 mm | Mixed 1–4 | 17,500 ₽/m³ | 38 m³ |
| 2600 × 1300 mm | Mixed 1–4 | 17,500 ₽/m³ | 33 m³ |
| 420 × 420 mm pre-cut blanks | 50% grade 1–2 | 29,900 ₽/m³ | 42 m³ |
Sorted separately: grade 1–2 at 35,000 ₽/m³, grade 1 at 50,000 ₽/m³. Full range: product catalogue; current pricing: price list.
How to start
Begin with a single container even if your annual volume is counted in tens of thousands of cubic metres. Thirty-three cubic metres via Samsun commits very little — the transit and freight are costed for that shipment — and three things get tested: how the material behaves inside your own recipe, whether the moisture lands in the 5–8% band on your own meter, and whether the grade distribution matches the record.
The step up is chosen afterwards, and two numbers choose it: how many days of throughput the birch share of your recipe represents, and how much cash you are willing to hold in one lot. After that the delivery schedule goes into the contract — on a site with a daily rate, working order by order does not hold. The step-by-step process: first order. The customs side: customs clearance. What to compare offers against: choosing a supplier.