Metsä Board to Install New Paperboard Extrusion Coating Line at Husum Mill

Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, Finland, is investing EUR 38 million in an extrusion coating line and related infrastructure at its Husum mill in Sweden. The line, with a paperboard extrusion coating capacity of approximately 100,000 metric tpy, will start up at the beginning of 2017.

As previously announced, the company is currently installing a folding boxboard machine with a capacity of 400,000 metric tpy targeted to start up in January 2016 in Husum. Metsä Board is marketing this new volume to the Americas as well as to food service end-uses such as cups, plates, and trays globally. A substantial amount of food and food service packaging requires barrier properties against moisture and grease, and they can be produced with extrusion coating.

"Extrusion-coated paperboard based on renewable fresh forest fiber competes on many occasions with plastics. Transferring to paperboard offers food service companies an opportunity to improve their responsibility. As our paperboards are lightweight and stiff, they also bring many additional benefits to logistics and converting," said Mika Joukio, CEO of Metsä Board.

In 2015–2016, Metsä Board’s paperboards are coated by external converters. The company is also continuing development work on other barrier solutions.

Metsä Board is a producer of folding boxboards and white linerboards made from fresh forest fibers, and a market pulp supplier. In 2014, the company’s sales totaled EUR 2.0 billion, and it has approximately 2,600 employees.