STORA inaugurates Europe's largest board machine

Inauguration ceremony attended by King of Sweden and President of Finland Sweden's largest industrial investment - totaling SEK 4 billion Total capacity: 320,000 metric tons; Europe and Asia the principal markets Project employed 2,000 people; mainly in Province of Värmland STORA's new board machine in Skoghall, central Sweden, was inaugurated today. H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Finland's President, Martti Ahtisaari, Sweden's Minister of Industry and Commerce, Anders Sundström, attended the ceremony, as well as members of the STORA Board, guests from business and industry, customers and suppliers from throughout the world and representatives of national and local government. The new machine, which was delivered by a Finnish company (Valmet), produces high-quality packaging board and liquid packaging board and is the largest machine of its kind in Europe, with an annual capacity of 320,000 metric tons. The increased sales capacity focuses mainly on the fast-expanding markets for board products in Europe and Southeast Asia. The total investment in the KM8 project amounted to SEK 4 billion, which includes a new pulp mill and new bleach plant. This makes the Skoghall project the largest single industrial investment made in Sweden during the current decade. The project, which was approved by the Group Board in March 1995, has been completed in less than 24 months and at its peak employed some 2,000 people, most of them from companies in the province of Värmland. In conjunction with the ceremony, H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf signed his name on a stone outside the company's office building in Skoghall. That stone had been signed earlier, in 1926, by H.M. King Gustav V of Sweden, and thus now bears witness to the mill being visited by two Royal Guests. The inauguration celebrations concluded with a gala dinner and entertainment for nearly 400 Swedish and international guests in the more than 340-meter- long machine hall.