Russian pulp and paper producer Ilim Group has commented on the announcement made by the US paper and packaging company International Paper (IP) to possibly sell its share in the joint venture.
US company IP has so far held a 50 per cent stake in Ilim. The Russian company informed the public that at present, it continued its normal business operations. The group claims to possess all necessary operational and financial resources to continue the implementation of the planned investment programme in Ust-Ilimsk, where a new kraftliner mill with a capacity of 600,000 tpy is being built for $1.3bn. Start-up of the new kraftliner machine is scheduled for the end of the current year.
According to the latest figures, Ilim Group generated operating Ebitda of $1.1bn in its past financial year. The group produced 3.6 million t of pulp and paper, 2.2 million t of which were accounted for by pulp and 815,000 t by packaging paper.
The group underlines that with an export volume of 1.4 million t, China was its main sales market, and Ilim plans to further expand its presence in all regions of China in the future. By doing so, Ilim intends to raise its total export volume to the People’s Republic of China to 2.4 million t by 2025, the company announced.
