ARKHANGELSK, May 8. /TASS/. Timber deliveries along the Northern Dvina began in the Arkhangelsk Region. Local experts forecast complicated rafting after the warm winter.

"TS Pskov has brought first barges with timber," the Titan Group of Companies’ press service said. "According to the Belomor Rafting Company, the navigation will be complicated this year. In the anomalously warm winter we were unable to create the planned number of rafts, and thus timber deliveries will be made mostly by barges."

First barges followed melting ice on the Northern Dvina. Even now some ice blocks still slide off the shores floating into the river. Others come from the Dvina’s arm — the Pinega.

In previous years, companies normally transported most wood in rafts, the press service told TASS. This year, due to the warm winter they could not prepare sites to create the rafts.

"A raft carries many more logs than a barge, thus we shall have to make more runs," the press service added.

One raft carries 12,000 to 14,000m3, while one barge takes only 1,000m3. A tugboat normally leads a caravan of 4-6 barges.

The Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill and Lesozavod 25 (wood processing plant) expect more than 600,000m3 of timber, cut in winter.