“We need strong companies that can make long-term investments even in the bad times,” said the Västernorrland County Governor Bo Källstrand, when he jointly inaugurated the new mechanical pulping line at the Ortviken paper mill in Sundsvall with SCA’s CEO Jan Johansson. The plant represents an investment of nearly SEK 1 billion.
With the new pulp plant, the Ortviken paper mill can continue to increase production of publication papers for newspapers and magazines. It will also provide the possibility of improved product quality and resources management, since the pulp can now be customized for the paper grade to be produced.
“All of our four paper machines have been supplied from one pulp plant,” says Kristina Enander, mill manager at the Ortviken paper mill. “We have then had to prepare the pulp for the paper grades we produce. Now we can do it right from the beginning. This saves money and other resources and produces a better paper.”
The Ortviken paper mill produces about 375,000 tonnes of newsprint for daily newspapers and 480,000 tonnes of coated publication papers for periodicals and magazines. Since 1996, when the latest paper machine came on stream in the mill, paper production has increased by 50%, without any major investments. Production of mechanical pulp became a bottleneck for continued production increase.
“We can continue to develop the mill and we have a favourable platform for continued investments,” says Kristina Enander.
SCA’s CEO Jan Johansson highlighted the Ortviken paper mill as a good example of how SCA has invested to increase the degree of processing and the value of the products it produces.
“We will continue to increase the portion of high-added-value publication papers,” he said. “But this involves major investments and we must choose the right time taking into account the business climate and market development.”
Sundsvall, 23 juni 2009
SCA ORTVIKEN
Communications
For further information please contact
Kristina Enander, mill manager SCA Ortviken, tel. +46 60-19 44 54
Björn Lyngfelt, vp communications SCA Forest Products, tel. +46 60-19 34 98
Anne-Sofie Cadeskog, communications manager, SCA Ortviken, tel. +46 60-19 41 33
For photos from the inauguration, please visit www.sca.com/tmp-bilder