Metsä Board announced its plan to strengthen its position as Europe’s leading producer of folding boxboard by increasing production capacity. The company has started pre-engineering for increasing the annual production capacity of folding boxboard machine BM1 at the Husum mill in Sweden by approximately 200,000 tonnes. The pre-engineering phase includes also an evaluation of the mill port’s capacity for increased volumes of raw materials and finished goods. The planned investment would further strengthen Husum BM1’s position as the biggest folding boxboard machine in Europe. The readiness to make the final investment decision is expected to be achieved in the summer of 2021 and if the investment is implemented the ramp-up of the additional capacity would start in 2023.

Latvijas Finieris, a global producer of birch plywood products under the brand Riga Wood, now uses bio-based glue in plywood production. The fossil-based phenols in the glue are replaced with bio-based lignin Lineo® by Stora Enso, and thanks to the long cooperation between Stora Enso and Latvijas Finieris, we are able to reduce the carbon footprint of Riga Wood plywood products without compromising their technical performance. According to Latvijas Finieris, their plywood’s potential environmental impact has been reduced by up to 49%. Across markets, there are calls for change as consumers are increasingly turning to eco-friendly products. At the same time, the business demand for renewable, bio-based and circular solutions is growing rapidly. We want to do our part and replace fossil-based materials with safer and more natural alternatives. “Plywood is usually seen as a mature product in a rather mature market. We found the idea of using a lignin-based glue interesting and we welcome new innovations. Since 2017, we have worked together with Stora Enso to test and develop the bio-based binder, and finally we are proud to say that we can replace fossil-based resins with lignin-based alternatives in our plywood production processes,” explains Māris Būmanis, Head of Development Research at Latvijas Finieris.

Stora Enso has signed an agreement to divest its paper production site in Hylte, Sweden and all its related assets to Sweden Timber, a Sweden-based sawmill and planing mill company. The enterprise value is approximately EUR 18 million. The completion of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2023. Concerning the Anjala paper site in Finland, Stora Enso has decided to discontinue the divestment process. The Hylte site transaction, along with the discontinuation of the Anjala divestment, concludes Stora Enso’s plan announced in March 2022 to divest four of Stora Enso’s five paper production sites. In line with its strategy, Stora Enso’s focus is on long-term growth for its renewable products in packaging, building solutions and biomaterials innovations. The retained Anjala and Langerbrugge sites will continue paper production and serving their respective customers. The agreement to divest the Hylte paper site to Sweden Timber has no immediate impact on production nor customer deliveries.