Metsä Fibre starts pre-engineering project to build a new bioproduct mill in Kemi

Type of post: NEWS.

After the great success of the Äänekoski Bioproduct Mill, Metsä Fibre is commencing the pre-engineering activities to create conditions for building a bioproduct mill with an annual production capacity of approximately 1.5 Mtons of softwood and hardwood pulp to in its current mill site in Kemi.

Press release: “Metsä Fibre starts pre-engineering related to investments worth EUR 1.7 billion”, 26/4/2019.

Related posts: “Bioproduct mills – Pillars of the new forest bioeconomy”, 16/10/2017.

Figure 1. Kemi pulp mill (taken from the press release)

Background

The Kemi pulp mill related prefeasibility study, launched in May 2018 has been finalized. The study included two alternatives: building a totally new bioproduct mill that would be clearly bigger in size than the current Kemi pulp mill or alternatively extending the life cycle of the current mill by modernizing several departments. In the study, the availability of wood raw material and the development potential of Kemi's industrial infrastructure and logistic connections were examined in particular. Building a new bioproduct mill in Kemi was chosen for future development.

Available data

Location	Kemi (Finland).
Total investment	1,500 M€.
Feedstock and processing capacity	7.6 Mm3 (roughly 4.5 Mm3 more compared to the consumption of the current mill) of pulpwood from Finland. This mill would be the biggest wood processing unit in the Northern hemisphere. Securing the wood sourcing for the mill requires further studies to maximize the share of domestic wood.
Products and production capacity	1.5 Mtons of softwood and hardwood pulp. In addition to pulp, the mill would produce various other bioproducts. The pulp production volumes would be sold to European and Asian customers as well as to Metsä Board’s, also a part of Metsä Group, linerboard mill located at the same mill site in Kemi.
Employment effect	The Kemi bioproduct mill would directly employ approximately 250 people and, in its entire direct value chain, roughly 2,500 people in total (increase of 1,500 people compared to the current situation). The employment impact in the construction phase would be almost 10,000 person-years of which over half in Kemi.
Investment decision	Summer 2020.