Metsä Board announced that it will start pre-engineering for a new folding boxboard mill with an annual capacity of approximately 800,000 metric tons at the Kaskinen mill site in Finland. The pre-engineering phase will include technical design, design of infrastructure and logistics solutions and tendering for the main equipment.
As part of the pre-engineering, an environmental impact assessment and an environmental permit process will be launched. The company estimates that a possible investment decision could be made in 2024 at the earliest.
In May 2022, Metsä Board announced that it would explore possibilities to increase folding boxboard capacity in Finland or Sweden in order to support its customers' growth and to strengthen its service capability.
Metsä Board's current annual paperboard capacity is approximately 2 million metric tons, of which 1.3 million metric tons is folding boxboard and 0.7 million metric tons white kraftliners.
Metsä Board said the pre-engineering for the new folding boxboard mill is based on fossil-free production and world-class resource and production efficiency. Due to the best available technology, the consumption of raw materials, energy and water per metric ton of folding boxboard produced would be significantly lower when compared with the existing mills. The product concept would benefit from Metsä Board's long-term development work in the production of premium lightweight paperboards.
"The investment, when decided, is in line with Metsä Board's strategy to grow in fibre-based materials and renew our industrial operations," said Mika Joukio, CEO of Metsä Board. "Our ambition is to have the world's most resource-efficient mill, cutting-edge competitiveness and a product concept that enables carbon footprint reduction.
"Demand for packaging made from renewable raw materials and replacing plastic will continue to grow. We want to meet this demand with more sustainable packaging solutions that promote the circular economy," Joukio concluded.
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