Sappi Europe has announced its decision to close paper machine PM 2 at the Kirkiniemi mill in Lohja, Finland by the end of the year and reduce production capacity for coated mechanical paper by 175,000 tpy.
The consultation process has been completed and the closure of the PM 2 will lead to a loss of 93 positions. Sappi will manage some of the redundancies through retirement arrangements, the company said.
According to Sappi, the shutdown of PM 2 is part of group’s strategy to "align production capacity with market demand". The closure is aimed at optimising the utilisation of the mill’s remaining paper machines and will improve the mill’s profitability and cost competitiveness.
Sappi Kirkiniemi mill employs 550 people and runs a total of three paper machines with an installed capacity of 750,000 tpy of coated mechanical paper (LWC and MWC) for heatset web offset printing. More than 90 per cent of the mill's output is exported.
In order to ensure continuous supply to customers, the paper grades produced on PM 2 will in future be produced on PM 1 and PM 3. PM 2 will therefore only be shut down once the transfer of production to the other two machines has been completed. Sappi has set the target for the closure of PM 2 for December, the company said in a response to an EUWID enquiry.
The Kirkniemi mill also runs an integrated fibre line with a production capacity of 300,000 tpy of mechanical pulp. As there was no market for the mechanical pulp produced at Kirkniemi, the pulp will be used internally to support production on PM 1 and PM 3 after the closure of the PM 2, Sappi explained.
