Stora Enso continues co-determination negotiations at Kemijärvi and Kymenlaakso, seeking economically sound alternatives
Stora Enso's co-determination negotiations with employee representatives at
Kemijärvi and Kymenlaakso are continuing. No decisions concerning potential
alternative uses of any of the assets to be closed have been or will be made
prior to the completion of the negotiations. For the sites to be closed, the
alternatives do not include the sale of the assets for their current use.
Every effort is being made to find alternatives that support the Company's
stated strategy of using more domestic wood at Stora Enso's mills, whilst
reducing purchases of excessively expensive imported wood. As previously stated,
the Company's goal is to secure access to domestic wood at the larger mill sites
in Northern Finland. At the same time the company is seeking economically viable
alternatives for the affected sites that can provide employment opportunities
for those employees unable or unwilling to seek Company-supported relocation and
new employment in other locations.
“My impression is that the local co-determination negotiations, whilst
understandably difficult and challenging, are proceeding in a constructive
atmosphere. We are committed to not only completing these negotiations in good
faith and supporting the employees affected, as we have already said, but also
actively seeking other alternative uses of the sites that we plan to stop using
in their present format of pulp or paper production,” said Stora Enso CEO Jouko
Karvinen.
“Our goal remains to find solutions for the Kemijärvi pulp mill and Summa paper
mill in a way that permanently reduces the use of expensive imported pulpwood in
Finland thus improving the future and jobs at Veitsiluoto, Oulu and other large
entities. To our delight, several parties have expressed their clear interest in
the sites affected, some of them also clearly supporting our goal of reducing
use of imported pulpwood. The negotiations on several competing alternatives
will be conducted between us and the interested parties, the moment we have
something definite to tell about real agreements we will naturally communicate
it, first to our employees,” Karvinen continued.
“As one of several parties expressing interest in the facilities in Lapland and
Kymenlaakso, Ruukki Group yesterday publicly announced their confidential offer
letter for Kemijärvi Pulp Mill. Earlier today we gave our response to them where
we stated that in our view their offer does not support our goals of using the
domestic pulpwood in our larger entities to secure their future and is therefore
as described of no interest to us.,” CEO Jouko Karvinen concluded.
For further information, please contact:
Jouko Karvinen, CEO, tel. +358 2046 21409
Kari Vainio, EVP, Corporate Communications, tel. +44 7799 348 197
Ulla Paajanen-Sainio, VP, Investor Relations and Financial Communications,
tel.
+358 40 763 8767
STORA ENSO OYJ
p.p. Jussi Siitonen Jukka Marttila