Botnia's Svir Timber saw mill inaugurated on 7 June 2006

Botnia has built a modern saw mill in Russia, on the banks of the river Svir
near the town of Podporodzhye, approximately 300 kilometres east of St.
Petersburg. "The saw mill is one important part of Botnia's fibre strategy and
the aim is to get experience from forest industry investments in Russia and to
create a basis for possible future investments", tells Erkki Varis, President
and CEO. The saw mill is operated by OOO Svir Timber, a fully-owned Russian
subsidiary of Botnia. 

Botnia's Board of Directors made the final investment decision in September
2004, whereafter an investment agreement was signed with Leningrad Oblast. The
construction works started in October 2004 and the installation of equipment in
April 2005. The trial runs of the mill were commenced in December 2005 and
productive operations in April 2006. The inauguration ceremony is celebrated on
7 June 2006. The main suppliers in the project were the Finnish companies
Lemcon, YIT, Heinolan Sahakoneet Oy, Tekmawood Oy, Valon Kone Oy, Wärtsilä
Biopower Oy, the Estonian company Hekotek and the Russian companies
Spetsstroimehanizatsiya and Lenenergo. 

The total investment amounted to EUR 55 million, and the saw mill employs 130
persons. The main part of the staff is Russian and in addition there are a
couple of Finnish and Estonian employees. Skilled employees are an important
prerequisite for effective production. The staff went through a wide training
programme at the owner companies, Metsäliitto Group's and UPM-Kymmene's saw
mills and the working atmosphere at the mill is very good and motivated.
Special attention was given to work and fire safety and environment care. 

The Russian wood procurement organisations of the owner companies take care of
the wood procurement to the saw mill, and in the future wood is also obtained
from Svir Timber's own cutting rights. The wood procurement by the
organisations of the owners, OOO Metsäliitto St. Petersburg and UPM Russia
Forest is running according to plans. 

The yearly capacity of the saw mill is 200,000 cubic metres of dried sawn
spruce for building industry, distribution chains and further processing. The
main markets are Central Europe, Mediterranean, Great Britain, Japan, Finland
and Russia. "The production was started at the beginning of the year and the
operations have commenced well. At the moment the production level is
approximately 14,000 cubic metres per month, which corresponds to about 75
percent of the nominal capacity. The market situation is reasonably good at the
moment", states Eero Smolander, General Manager of the saw mill. 

For additional information, please contact Jukka Laitinen, Senior Vice
President, tel. +358 500 691927 

Appendix: Technical sheet