Metsä Group to build €1.6bn pulp mill in Kemi in northern Finland
The new bioproducts mill will be the largest single investment ever made by the forest industry in Finland.
Forest products company Metsä Group announced Thursday that its Metsä Fibre division has decided to construct a new bioproduct mill in Kemi, an investment valued at 1.6 billion euros. The construction phase will take approximately two and a half years, and the mill is scheduled for completion during the third quarter of 2023.
The construction plan represents the largest investment ever made by the Finnish forest industry in Finland.
The new mill will replace current Metsä Group pulp production in Kemi and will be the largest forest-sector production facility in the northern hemisphere. The Kemi bioproduct mill is designed to produce some 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp per year, as well as other bioproducts.
1,500 new jobs
It will also generate 2.0 TWh of renewable electricity per year, equivalent to the annual electrical heating requirements of over 100,000 single-family homes. Most of the some 7.6 million cubic metres of wood the mill will use is planned to be procured from Finland.
Metsä Group says that the new Kemi mill will create around 1,500 new jobs across its entire direct value chain in Finland and increase the annual value of Finland’s exports by approximately half a billion euros.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Concerns about Canada’s boreal forest, The Canadian Press
Norway: WWF urges Norway to protect its Arctic forests to help fight climate change, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Old taiga forest in northwest Russia now a nature reserve, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: U.S. government signs new land swap for Alaskan wildlife refuge road, Alaska Public Media
