UPM Stracel mill to be sold to Blue Paper in March

|
|

Today, UPM announced it has signed an agreement on the sale of the assets of the Stracel paper mill. After a rebuilt, the mill is to produce fluting and testliner as of September 2013.

UPM has signed an agreement on the sale of assets and part of the land of the UPM Stracel paper mill site with Blue Paper SAS, the joint venture company of VPK Packaging Group NV and Klingele Papierwerke. The transaction is expected to be closed during March 2013 once all legal and administrative conditions are fulfilled.

According to UPM, Blue Paper will convert the mill to produce recycled fluting and testliner. The production is expected to start after completing investments in September 2013. Blue Paper is to create 130 new jobs at the mill that are to be offered to former Stracel employees.

The sale of Stracel was part of UPM’s plan to adjust its magazine paper and newsprint paper capacity originally announced in August 2011. UPM had stopped production of coated magazine paper at the mill on 4 January 2013.

After the takeover of Myllykoski in August 2011, UPM took several measures to reduce its capacities and restructure its paper business. In the course of this process UPM took 1.3 million t of publication paper capacity from the market. Its German Albbruck mill that was shut down in January 2012 produced 320,000 tpy of LWC paper. The company also closed the Finnish Myllykoski mill which used to produce 600,000 tpy of LWC and SC paper as well as the PM 3 in Ettringen with a capacity of 110,000 tpy of newsprint.

Just recently, UPM announced to take another 580,000 t of magazine and uncoated fine paper capacity from the European market. The company will shut down a PM in Rauma, Finland, and in Ettringen, Germany. Its Docelles mill in France is to be sold.


⇒ Find this article in its entirety and any associated background information in EUWID Pulp and Paper no. 05.

Our weekly newsletter's print and e-paper versions keep busy professionals up-to-date on the latest news from European pulp and paper markets.

⇒ Test EUWID Pulp and Paper free of charge and without any obligation by clicking here.


- Ad -
- Ad -