M-real predicts growing demand for forest fibre products

M-real Consumer Packaging expects to see demand for its fresh forest fibre products increase after completing a major rebuild of its Kyro mill.
 
The Kyro mill is where M-real manufactures the high-quality folding boxboards Carta Elega and Avanta Prima, recommended for beautycare and healthcare packaging. The rebuild increases the mill’s capacity by 40,000 tonnes per annum to 190,000, and is part of M-real’s investment programme, targeted at improving availability and service to customers.

Mika Joukio, senior vice president and head of M-real Consumer Packaging, said: ‘The increased capacity will allow us to offer our customers better service, with shorter lead times on orders and greater availability. We believe demand for our fresh forest fibre products will continue to increase, due to their purity, lightweight and sustainability.’

In a separate joint venture, M-real is building a new biopower plant next to the Kyro mill, to replace fossil natural gas with CO2 neutral wood. This is predominantly bark, chips, stumps and other discarded wood together with mill broke.
 
The biopower plant will also provide heating for the neighboring district of Hämeenkyrӧ. After start-up of the plant in autumn 2012, CO2 emissions from the Kyro mill will be reduced by approximately 100,000tpa, equivalent to the annual emissions of around 60,000 cars.

M-real’s investment programme, which will increase its total folding boxboard capacity by 150,000tpa to 935,000tpa, also includes a rebuild at the Simpele mill finalized in June 2011, and the rebuild of its Äänekoski board machine due for completion in spring 2012. Together with the €16 million invested at M-real Kemi to improve the quality of its white-top kraftliners and the biopower plant, total investment in the Consumer Packaging business area will exceed €100 million during 2011-2012.