Metsä Tissue announced earlier this year temporary production stops due to extremely high energy prices driven by the energy crisis in Europe. The situation has been continuously worsening and is impacting all of Metsä Tissue's markets in Europe, and is especially demanding on the company's Western and Eastern European mills.
During the recent weeks, Metsä Tissue has had to curtail its production both in its Zilina (Slovakia) and Kreuzau (Germany) mills for several days because of the high energy price peaks. With the high energy cost inflation, further production curtailments are likely and they may also impact the availability of daily tissue products in the markets, as substantial amounts of daily production losses will occur.
"To mitigate the situation, we have explored all possible energy efficiency improvement actions and mitigation actions to replace Russian gas with alternative energy sources are on-going," said Tobias Lüning, SVP Central Europe, Metsä Tissue. "We have also been forced to revise our offering and the crisis will also speed up the move towards fresh fibre focused strategy, which enables lower energy use in the paper making, compared to recycled fibers."
Tissue profitability will continue to be reviewed on a daily basis and the high energy costs will most likely continue to cause additional temporary production shutdowns, the company said.
Zilina Mill
The Zilina mill's product range includes toilet paper, kitchen towels and sanitary towels. The mill is equipped with two paper machines, six processing lines and one line for processing recycled paper. The plant produces approximately 80,000 metric tons of tissue paper per year.
Kreuzau Mill
The Kreuzau mill's product range includes toilet tissue, household towels and industrial rolls. The mill is equipped with four tissue paper machines, nine processing lines and two deinking systems, in which recycled paper is processed. The plant produces approximately 150,000 metric tons of tissue paper per year.
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