Metsä Board to Close Tako Board Mill in Tampere, Finland in 2Q 2025

March 10, 2025 - Metsä Board has concluded the change negotiations that began in January to improve the company's profitability and cost competitiveness. As a result of the negotiations, Metsä Board will permanently close Tako board mill and enhance the operational efficiency of Kyro board mill.

The measures will lead to a total reduction of 208 jobs.

The Tako board mill has two folding boxboard machines with annual production capacities of 70,000 and 140,000 tonnes. This represents approximately 13% of the company's current annual production capacity of approximately 1.6 million tonnes of folding boxboard.

Mika Joukio, CEO of Metsä Board, said, "The change negotiations with the personnel were conducted in a constructive spirit. Finding new jobs for the people being laid off is our primary goal, and we also aim to help with employment by offering reemployment training and support."

Production at the Tako board mill is planned to end by the end of the second quarter of 2025 at the latest. The closure of the mill will not affect customer deliveries, as Metsä Board's total annual folding boxboard production capacity is sufficient to meet current demand. After the mill closure, Metsä Board's annual folding boxboard capacity will be approximately 1.4 million tonnes.

Metsä Board estimates that the measures now decided will improve the annual comparable EBITDA by approximately EUR 30 million, mainly from the second half of 2025. A one-off profit impact of approximately EUR -28 million will be recorded in connection with the closure of the Tako mill, mainly related to the impairment of assets. It will be recorded in Metsä Board's operating result for the first quarter of 2025 as an item affecting comparability. The one-off cash impact is approximately EUR -1 million.

Metsä Board is a producer of lightweight and high-quality folding boxboards, food service boards and white kraftliners.

SOURCE: Metsä Board

Metsä Group’s Tissue Paper Transports in Scandinavia Switch to Renewable Fuels

Jan. 3, 2025 - Metsä Group’s tissue paper business is taking an important step towards more sustainable transports of its tissue products by arranging part of its outbound transports to customers in Scandinavia with fossil-free fuels. This shift is part of the company’s strategic Lean Supply Chain programme aiming for efficient and lean value proposition to local markets.

Approximately 40 percent of Metsä Tissue Scandinavia’s outbound transports are now powered by HVO or bio-diesel. These biofuel transports represent a vast majority of the outbound transports that Metsä Tissue organizes by itself in the region and the company’s short-term target is to extend the biofuel coverage of own transports to 100 per cent.

Also the customers that organize their own transports are encouraged to collect their tissue products from Metsä Tissue’s Swedish mills with transportations using fossil free fuels.

"By setting high standards for our transportation partners and choosing renewable fuels such as HVO, we can reduce our emissions by up to 90 percent per truck transport. This is an important step in our strategy and in reaching our ambitious sustainability targets 2030. It also demonstrates well our commitment to more responsible future in our transports - for us and for our customers," says Daniel Stenberg, Vice President Supply chain, Metsä Tissue Scandinavia.

In addition, the increased localized production with the expansion and modernisation of Metsä Tissue’s Mariestad mill will further reduce transportation emissions per transported tonne.

Today, more than 85 percent of the company’s deliveries are made within a 500-kilometer radius from the mills and the increase in local capacity will provide even more local products with shorter transport distances. Combined with the target to transition to 100% fossil-free fuels, the company continues to strengthen its efforts in achieving more sustainable transportations.

Metsä Group’s Tissue and Greaseproof Papers business, or Metsä Tissue, produces hygiene products for households and professionals, and greaseproof papers for food preparation and packaging. Its high-quality locally produced brands include: Lambi, Serla, Mola, Tento, Katrin and SAGA.

SOURCE: Metsä Tissue

Metsä Board Introduces QR Code with Recycling Information for All Its Delivery Packaging Materials

Dec. 6, 2024 - Metsä Board has launched a new solution to enhance and simplify the recycling process for packaging materials customers receive as part of Metsä Board product deliveries — QR codes on the pallet and reel labels of its products for all volumes delivered to its customers. The QR code directs customers to an intuitive app that provides detailed information on the various packaging materials used to protect the paperboard during the logistics chain. This information will assist customers in determining how each component of the delivery's packaging should be recycled.

By providing accessible and clear recycling information, the company aims to make it as easy as possible for customers to sort and recycle all the materials they receive with the product deliveries. In addition, customers will be able to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and ensure the materials are recycled as part of the local circular economy loop.

"The implementation of the new recycling QR codes on our paperboard deliveries stems from a strong commitment to sustainability and customer convenience," says Isto Hongisto, Product Safety Specialist at Metsä Board. "Recycling can sometimes be complex, and our goal is to make it as seamless and straightforward as possible for our customers. This initiative will not only save them time, but it will also ensure that the materials used in our deliveries are recycled in an optimal way."

The new initiative is part of Metsä Board's ongoing strategic commitment to sustainability and innovation in its operations. The company invites all customers to take advantage of this new feature and contribute to promoting efficient recycling practices within the packaging industry.

The QR codes have been visible on all paperboard deliveries as of November 2024.

Metsä Board is a producer of lightweight and high-quality folding boxboards, food service boards and white kraftliners. With eight production units in Finland and Sweden, the company has an annual paperboard production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes.

SOURCE: Metsä Board

Government of Quebec Announces Investments of $252 Million to Support Forestry Sector

Nov. 21, 2024 - In the fall 2024 Update on Quebec's Economic and Financial Situation, the government has chosen to support Quebec's forestry sector, which has been facing a number of challenges over the past few years, including the major forest fires in the summer of 2023 and the imposition by the United States of countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian lumber. The additional investments of $252 million over five years announced today will enable initiatives worth $540 million over the next seven years to provide support to the wood processing sector and invest in reforestation efforts.

Providing $100M to support the wood processing sector

To support certain businesses currently facing liquidity problems, notably because of the dispute with the United States over various softwood lumber products, financial assistance of up to $100 million will be granted in the form of loans.

Investing $440M in reforestation efforts

The Quebec government and the Canadian government have agreed to step up reforestation efforts and to plant more than 100 million trees in public and private forests by 2030-2031. More specifically, the Canadian government has committed to contributing $220 million under the 2 Billion Trees program to further the Québec government's efforts aimed at increasing reforestation, particularly in unproductive sites and areas affected by natural disturbances, and to ensure tree planting maintenance, bringing the total investment to $440 million.

"The forestry sector plays a key role in Québec's economy and the development of its regions. The initiatives we are announcing today bring to more than $1 billion the sums invested by our government since the fall of 2023 to help this sector," stated Eric Girard, Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for Relations with English-Speaking Quebecers

Maïté Blanchette Vézina, Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, added, "We are fully aware of the difficulties that the forestry sector has been facing in recent years. The government has chosen to support this vital sector for our regions. By combining the modernization of the forest regime with the new investments we are announcing today, we are giving the sector the means to meet these challenges. In the long term, we will offer greater flexibility, but most importantly predictability, to businesses in the forestry sector and to other forest users."

Ministry of Finance of Quebec, through its contribution to the responsible and rigorous management of public finances, intends to be recognized as a highly effective, innovative and outstanding institution which serves society as a whole and supports Quebec's equitable economic development to ensure a better quality of life for current and future generations.

SOURCE: Ministry of Finance of Quebec