Valmet has received an order for a new wood handling line from Metsä Group's (Finland) Joutseno pulp mill. The expansion works are starting this year and will be completed during spring 2020. Metsä Group's investment will make it possible to process larger amounts of fiber wood.

The order is included in Valmet's first quarter of 2019 orders received. The value of the order is around EUR 10-15 million.

"Our softwood debarking capacity will increase with a third as a result of the expansion. This increases the effectivity of our operations and ensures the reliability of our debarking long into the future, and also enables the increase of the pulp production capacity in the future," says Ari Tanninen, Vice President for the Metsä Fibre Joutseno mill.

"Our high capacity wood handling line provides an energy efficient, safe and high yield solution for the Joutseno mill. We are happy to continue our good cooperation, and also have the ability to do performance monitoring through our Industrial Internet applications to further improve the performance of the mill's wood handling," says Paulo Aguiar, Vice President, Wood and Pulp Handling Business Unit, Valmet.

Valmet's delivery includes a log infeed conveyor with de-icing, hydrostatically supported debarking drum and state-of-the-art horizontal feed chipper. The capacity of the new wood handling line will be 470 m3/hour.