Metsä Group’s new expansions in Kemi bioproduct and paperboard mill became operational. The paperboard mill’s white kraft liner production will increase to 465,000 TPA.
Sep 20, 2023
Metsä Group’s new expansions in Kemi bioproduct mill and the paperboard mill started operations on September 20, 2023. The expansion accounted for the largest investment in the forest industry in Finland, with completed, ongoing, and planned investments since 2015 totaling approximately EUR 7 billion. Pulp deliveries will begin in October 2023.
The Kemi bioproduct mill produces 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp annually. The new mill will use 7.6 million cubic meters of wood per year, 4.5 million cubic meters more than the old mill. The wood supply will be based on regenerative forestry with the aim of achieving a verifiable improvement in the state of nature by 2030. The investments made in the paperboard mill will increase the production capacity of white-top kraft liners by around 40,000 TPA to 465,000 TPA, further strengthening the Kemi mill’s position as the world’s largest producer of coated white-top kraft liners, whose products are used worldwide as a surface material for corrugated packaging.
Watch: JMC Paper Tech Launches New Subsidiary JMC Papers
The bioproduct mill uses zero fossil fuels and will be completely waste-free by 2030. Featuring cutting-edge technology, the mill operates a fully-fledged circular economy, as all the wood raw material and production side streams are efficiently used for various bioproducts and bioenergy. Owing to its efficient chemical cycles and other environmentally efficient solutions, the new mill’s emissions are lower than the limits specified in the currently valid environmental permit for the closed Kemi pulp mill, despite the considerable increase in production capacity.
The integration of the bioproduct mill and the paperboard mill, as well as the modernization of the paperboard mill’s production line, will considerably improve the paperboard mill’s water and energy efficiency. The investments will reduce the mill’s water consumption by 40 percent and energy use by 5 percent per tonne of paperboard produced.
Mr. Ilkka Hämälä, President and CEO of Metsä Group, stated, “Metsä Group’s products replace fossil materials in people’s daily lives. Pulp and paperboard are used as raw materials for numerous consumer goods, and we are able to produce them in Kemi with considerably lower emissions. Finland needs sustainable investment that creates employment, income and a strong belief in the future.”
