Metsä Group's and Valmet's 3D fibre product demo plant was inaugurated in Äänekoski
Metsä Group press release 22 August 2022
The 3D fibre product demo plant jointly owned by Metsä Group's innovation company Metsä Spring and Valmet was inaugurated in Äänekoski on Monday, 22 August 2022. The demo plant was inaugurated by Minister of Science and Culture Petri Honkonen, President and CEO of Metsä Group Ilkka Hämälä and CEO of Valmet Pasi Laine.
The new Muoto® product, which is manufactured by the demo plant, is a significant new opening in the packaging market. Made from renewable and sustainably grown wood raw material, Muoto is an excellent alternative to plastics in many end uses, for example food packaging of different sizes and shapes.
"It is important that new types of value-added products are developed from Finnish pulp, of which Muoto is a great example. It is a packaging material made from fossil-free raw materials for people's everyday life. We continue the development work towards a broader business," says Ilkka Hämälä.
"Valmet wants to continuously develop new innovations to speed up the green transition. In the 3D fibre product, together with Metsä Group, we have combined our expertise seamlessly, and it is a pleasure to continue this significant development work together in the demo plant that is now being inaugurated", says Pasi Laine.
The construction of the approximately 20 million euro demo plant for the Muoto product began in Metsä Group's Äänekoski integrated mill site at the end of 2020 and the test production was initiated in May 2022.
The properties of the Muoto product and the production method are now further developed by using the demo plant and the product's potential is also tested on the market. If the market interest and product functionality can be demonstrated on the current scale, Metsä Group will consider building a larger production facility.
METSÄ GROUP
For further information, please contact:
Jarkko Tuominen, VP Projects, Metsä Spring Oy, tel. +358 40 778 7328
Juha Laine, Senior Vice President, Communications, Metsä Group, tel. +358 10 465 4541
Metsä Spring
www.metsaspring.com
Innovation company Metsä Spring invests expertise and financial resources into initiatives with the ambition to reshape the forest-based bioeconomy, aiming to increase the value for Metsä Group’s stakeholders in the long-term.
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Metsä Group
www.metsagroup.com
Metsä Group is leading the way in advancing the bioeconomy. We invest in growth, bioproduct development and a fossil free future. The raw material for our products is renewable wood from sustainably managed northern forests. We focus on the growth sectors of the forest industry: wood supply and forest services, wood products, pulp, fresh fibre paperboards, as well as tissue and greaseproof papers.
Metsä Group’s annual sales amount to approximately EUR 6 billion, and we have around 9,500 employees in 30 countries. Our international Group has its roots in the Finnish forests: our parent company is Metsäliitto Cooperative which is owned by nearly 100,000 forest owners.
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