Metsä Fibre to build a new bioproduct mill in Kemi

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Type of post: NEWS.

Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group, has made the investment decision to build a new bioproduct mill in Kemi (Finland). The value of the investment is €1.6 billion and it is the largest investment ever made by the Finnish forest industry in Finland. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €200 million loan with Metsä Fibre to support part of this investment.
Press release (Metsä): “Metsä Group builds a new bioproduct mill in Kemi, Finland”, 11/02/2021.
Press release (EIB): “EIB backs Metsä Group’s new bioproduct mill”, 11/02/2021.
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Figure 1. Model of the new bioproduct mill in Kemi (taken from the press release)

Feedstock and processing capacity

Wood required by the mill will be procured from sustainably managed forests and the origin of the wood is always known.

It will use approximately 7.6 million cubic metres of pulpwood a year, which is 4.5 million cubic metres more than the current pulp mill in Kemi. Wood is planned to be procured mainly from Finland. The availability of high-quality wood raw material is supported by the strong owner base of Metsäliitto Cooperative.

The wood procurement to Kemi mill will expand to Sweden in the future, from where it is estimated that approximately one million cubic meters of wood will be procured annually.

Production capacity

It will produce 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp per year, as well as many other bioproducts.

It will also produce 2.0 TWh of renewable electricity per year, which equals to roughly 2,5% of Finnish total electricity production and together with Äänekoski bioproduct mill roughly 5%.

Main partners for the construction project

Valmet, ABB, AFRY and Fimpec.

Economic impact

Kemi bioproduct mill will increase the annual value of Finland’s exports by approximately €0.5 billion, and the positive annual income effect in Finland from wood sales and domestic purchases will also be approximately €0.5 billion.

Employment effect

The new bioproduct mill will secure the 250 jobs in the existing pulp mill in Kemi for decades to come and will create around 1,500 new jobs across its entire direct value chain in Finland, most of them in wood sourcing. All in all, approximately 2,500 people will work in the direct value chain.

During the construction phase, the employment impact will be nearly 10,000 person-years and more than half of it will be located in Kemi. The number of individual persons working in the mill area during the construction phase is estimated to be around 15,000.

Timeline

The Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland granted the environmental and water supply permits to the Kemi bioproduct mill in December 2020.

The construction phase will take approximately two and a half years, and the mill will be completed during the third quarter of 2023.

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