Metsä Group plans to invest EUR 30 million in upgrading Metsä Wood’s Vilppula sawmill
Metsä Group Press Release 14 May 2012
Metsä Group will launch an investigation into upgrading Metsä Wood’s Vilppula sawmill. The planned investment includes building a new sawmill line and a new green sorting line as well as renovating other parts of the sawmill.
The new sawmill line would enable the use of diverse sawing patterns as well as the efficient use of small logs in addition to large ones. The replacement of two sawmill lines with a new line would significantly enhance production efficiency. The investment is estimated to approximately EUR 30 million, and it would be carried out in 2013. The capacity of the sawmill would not change significantly.
“The investment project would enable us to offer more highly processed products that are customised precisely to customers’ needs, based on their product ranges and production processes. We want to help our customers improve their competitiveness while creating as much added value as possible for our owners' wood raw material," says Timo Karinen, Group Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood.
Adding value, improving cost-efficiency and investing in product and service development are essential parts of Metsä Wood’s business strategy. “The investment would create better opportunities for further processing our own sawn timber and serving demanding industrial customers,” says Karinen.
If implemented, the project would decrease personnel at the Vilppula sawmill, which is why Metsä Wood will start statutory labour negotiations. According to the notice given today, the negotiation proposal concerns 140 employees, and the process will begin on 21 May 2012. The number of personnel is expected to decrease by 40 at the maximum. The investment decision will not be made until the labour negotiations are completed.
The Vilppula sawmill is located in the town of Mänttä-Vilppula. Its annual capacity is about 450,000 cubic metres with five weekday weekly production.
METSÄ GROUP
Group Communications
For more information, please contact:
Timo Karinen, Group Executive Vice President, Metsä Wood, tel. +358 10 465 4173
Olga van Iterson, Marketing and Communication Manager, Metsä Wood, tel. +358 50 325 2376
www.metsagroup.com
Metsä Group is a responsible forest industry group whose products are part of people’s everyday lives and promote sustainable well-being. Metsä Group produces high-quality products mainly from renewable Nordic wood and wood fibre. The Group’s business areas are tissue and cooking papers, board and paper, pulp, wood products as well as wood supply. Metsä Group’s sales totalled EUR 5.3 billion in 2011, and it employs approximately 12,500 people. The Group operates in some 30 countries.
Metsä Wood offers competitive and eco-efficient wood-based solutions for industrial construction customers, other industrial customers and the home and lifestyle sectors. We manufacture products from Nordic wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Our sales were EUR 940 million in 2011, and we employ about 2,900 people. Metsä Wood is part of Metsä Group.