Metsä Board announces sustainable strategy
Company refocuses on paperboard packaging
Metsä Board, a paper supplier and producer of fresh forest fibre cartonboards and coated white-top kraftliners, has announced a new strategy to refocus on paperboard – the sustainable, lightweight packaging material.
The company has already increased its cartonboard capacity by 150,000 tpa to 935,000 tpa by investment at three cartonboard mills in Finland; the Metsä Board Simpele rebuild was completed in June 2011, Kyro in November 2011 and Ӓänekoski in May 2012. The refocusing of its Kemi linerboard mill’s production to coated grades, after investment made in 2011, has also been a success. As a result of this, Metsä Board’s paperboard capacity, including the Kemi mill, today totals 1.31 million tpa.
Mikko Helander, ceo of Metsä Board, emphasised that Metsä Board is committed to the development of its remaining paper business and said: “Our paper production is now focused on Husum, in Sweden, Europe’s largest fine paper and pulp integrate with a capacity of over 1.5 million tpa. We are European market leaders in wallpaper base paper, made at the Kyro mill in Finland, and Chromolux cast coated papers and boards, produced at Gohrsmühle in Germany.”
Pasi Piiparinen, newly-appointed svp and head of paperboard at Metsä Board, added: “We maintain a dialogue with customers as to how best we can develop our products to meet their needs and address specific concerns. We are confident this will help uphold Metsä Board’s leadership in paperboard development into the future.
“Sustainability is at the heart of our business and increasingly consumers appreciate the benefits of our fresh forest fibre paperboards, knowing they are made from a renewable resource that comes from responsibly managed forests, and that they are recyclable.”
