Stora Enso Investing EUR 23 Million to Increase Containerboard Capacity at Varkaus Mill

Stora Enso's investment at the Varkaus mill in Finland will increase the flexibility of the product range available for customers and to grow the site's total capacity by approximately 10%.

Dec. 22, 2021 - Stora Enso said that it is investing EUR 23 million in its Varkaus pulp and paper mill in Finland. The aim of the investment is to increase the flexibility of the product range available for customers and to grow the site's total capacity by approximately 10%. This will also increase the use of recycled fiber in the production in addition to fresh wood fiber.

The Varkaus mill has the capacity to produce 390,000 tonnes per year of containerboard (light-weight kraftliner) and 310,000 tonnes per year of unbleached softwood pulp. In addition to pulp, the paper mill currently uses about one third of the total board packaging recycled in Finland as its raw material. The investment will further increase the use of recycled fiber in the site.

Sawn timber and veneer wood are also manufactured at the site.

"The investment will increase the capacity of our recycled fiber site and give us the flexibility to increase the use of recycled fiber in our portfolio," said Jarkko Tehomaa, Varkaus Packaging Board Mill Director for Stora Enso. "The investment will also improve production efficiency through technical changes in both the board machine and the pulp mill drying machine.

"Also, our flexibility to offer different product grades to customers improves and the capacity of the site increases slightly," Tehomaa added.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the updating of the environmental permit, as well as the preparatory work for the investment, will begin immediately. The investment will proceed while the site is in normal operation and the final installations will be carried out in connection with the annual maintenance shutdown at the site in late autumn 2022.

Did you know?

In Finland the used beverage cartons (UBC) made of liquid packaging board are recycled in the same stream as the old corrugated containers (OCC) and Varkaus is one of the modern sites recycling this fraction. In some countries the streams are separate and Stora Enso has recently invested to an UBC recycling line in Ostroleka, Poland together with Tetra Pak to recycle the used beverage cartons from Poland and the neighboring countries.

Stora Enso is a leading global provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden constructions and paper. The company has some 23,000 employees and sales in 2020 were EUR 8.6 billion. To learn more, visit: www.storaenso.com.

SOURCE: Stora Enso