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Finnforest buys Kuningaspalkki

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13.02.01


Finnforest Corporation has bought all of the shares of Kuningaspalkki Oy, which
manufactures gluelam products in Hartola. 

Kuningaspalkki's gluelam output totalled 20,000 cubic metres in 2000.
Investment programmes carried through last year make it possible to increase
production to 80,000 cubic metres. The company's main markets are in Japan and
Central Europe. Its turnover was €10 million in 2000. 

The starting point in Finnforest's building systems strategy is to assemble a
comprehensive family of products to be used in bearing structures and to sell
and market these products, and total solutions made of their combinations
through its European distribution network. 

Central products used in bearing structure are sawn timber, Kerto LVL, I-beams
and gluelam. Finnforest has decided to begin manufacturing I-beams. Gluelam
complements the Finnforest bearing structures product family in the building
systems business area and creates new possibilities in the Japanese and
South-East Asian markets. The acquisition also increases possibilities to
further raise the degree of processing in its existing sawn timber production. 

Gluelam is a wooden structure used in making pillars and beams and manufactured
by gluing together sheets of sawn timber. Gluelam consumption in Europe totals
about 1.5 million cubic metres, with Germany alone accounting for about one
million cubic metres. 

Kuningaspalkki has been making gluelam since 1993. Its founder Mr Seppo Nurmi
will continue as Managing Director. The company employs 52 people, all of whom
will stay on. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

President Ari Martonen, Finnforest Corporation, tel. +358 10 4694870, +358 50
2406 

Director Heikki Castrén, Building Systems Business Area, 
Finnforest Corporation, tel. +358 50 5987270 

Managing Director Seppo Nurmi, Kuningaspalkki Oy, +358 3 871610, +358 500 715
088 

Finnforest Corporation is a growing international company. Its core business is
producing and marketing plywood, sawn timber, and engineered wood products.
Customers include industrial end users, DIY outlets and merchants, and
suppliers of building systems. The corporation is represented in 18 countries,
with a total of 4000 employees and a turnover of EUR 1,2 billion. Finnforest
Corporation is part of the Metsäliitto-Group.

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