The foundation stone of Metsä Wood’s new birch plywood mill was laid in Pärnu, Estonia. The greetings in the ceremony were delivered by the Minister of Public Administration of Estonia Mr. Jaak Aab and the President and CEO of Metsä Group Mr. Kari Jordan. “This is an important investment for Metsä Wood and the whole Metsä Group. It is done to better meet the globally growing plywood demand and to further improve Metsä Wood’s industrial efficiency. The new mill is a good example of Finnish-Estonian cooperation. Estonia has favourable business climate and it offers good logistical connections to our main markets.” said CEO of Metsä Group Kari Jordan in today’s ceremony. The annual birch plywood production capacity at the Pärnu mill will be 50 000 cubic metres and the total investment is approximately 55 million euros. Click Read More below for additional detail.

UPM Raflatac, a global supplier of innovative and more sustainable self-adhesive paper and film products, has received a new certificate of validity from leading international assurance service provider, DEKRA, for its Label Life service. This new certificate confers validity to the LCA calculation engine and the whole process of generating LCAs at scale. As a result, customers wanting to communicate their potential impact in the labeling value chain can now do so with increased assurance. With the EU in the process of developing a ‘digital product passport’ (DPP) that will be issued for all products on the market, UPM Raflatac decided to be a step ahead of the legislative requirements. The company has designed its product passport prototype (PPP), an environmental declaration, based on existing standards and norms. Generated by the newly validated Label Life service, the product passport prototype enables UPM Raflatac’s customers and brands to communicate their labeling’s potential environmental impact. It includes a wide range of metrics that are broken down into life cycle stages: cradle-to-gate, transport-to-customer, printing, and end of life.

The quarter-on-quarter improvement in Group EBITDA and overall return to profit of US$18 million was driven by strong dissolving pulp (‘DP’) prices and an excellent performance from the packaging and specialities segment. These gains were partially offset by ongoing global logistical challenges which impacted export deliveries and costs in all three regions and lower margins in Europe due to significant input cost inflation. Higher selling prices facilitated a substantial increase in EBITDA for the DP segment and sentiment generally remained buoyant on the back of steadily improving retail demand in the apparel sector. The average Chinese market price for hardwood DP increased 19% on the prior quarter to US$1,088 per ton. The EBITDA in the packaging and specialities segment reached a new record high and contributed almost half of the group EBITDA. Sales volumes increased by 23% compared to the equivalent quarter in the prior year and validate the strategic actions taken to reduce exposure to graphic paper through diversification into this segment.