November 23, 2012
Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov plans to invest up to $2 billion in the establishment of a pulp mill in the St. Petersburg region. The new plant is expected to be built in the Podporozhsky area of the the St. Petersburg region and may take up to 15-20% of the Russian pulp market, which in recent years has significantly increased, mainly due to exports.
The possibility of the implementation of the project has already discussed by the investor and previous authorities of the St. Petersburg region, however due to its ecological risks the investment proposal was declined. At the same time the new governor of the region supports the project.
At present wood processing assets of Mordashov are comprised of 6 plywood mills, which produce more than 1.2 million m3 of wood boards a year, 920 thousand m3 of plywood and 310 thousand m3 of particleboard.
Alexei Mordashov has long considered the launch of pulp production. In 2008 he considered investing up to EUR 1.2 billion in the establishment of pulp facility with the capacity of 800,000 tons per year in the Vologda region.