Rebuilding project to raise quality at Stora Fors

At today's meeting of the STORA Group's Board of Directors, the decision was made to implement a program of improvements to raise quality on Board Machine No 3 at Stora Fors. The bulk of the project, which is estimated to cost in the region of SEK 400-450 million, will be carried out in 1998. The project is part of STORA's strategy to continue to streamline and focus on STORA's pro- duction units. The objective of the rebuilding work, which will include measures to modernize the plant's coating, calendering and slitter-winder, is to improve the surface and gloss properties of the board for printing. This is of major importance in many applications where the packaging plays an important role in the marketing of the product it contains. Furthermore, board stiffness is improved by 5-10 percent and winding quality is also enhanced. These improvements will enable Stora Fors to further increase its competitive- ness within the high-quality board segment. In 1995, Stora Fors, which is part of the Stora Paperboard Division, produced approximately 243,000 tonnes of high-quality board. About 35,000 tonnes was liquid packaging board, which will now be transferred to Stora Skoghall in connection with the commissioning of STORA's new board machine, the KM8.