Stora Enso has decided to invest approximately one billion euros to convert the remaining idle paper machine at the Group’s Oulu site in Finland into a high-volume consumer board production line.
Production on the converted machine is estimated to start in early 2025.
Following the first machine conversion at the Oulu site in 2021 from paper to kraftliner, the remaining idle paper line will be converted into a highly flexible consumer board line for folding box board (FBB) and coated unbleached kraft (CUK).
The total annual capacity will be 750,000 tons of consumer board. The target end-use segments are food and beverage packaging, especially frozen and chilled, and dry and fast food, mainly in Europe and North America.
The total investment will be approximately one billion euros during 2022–2025. At full capacity, the investment is expected to meet the profitability target of the Packaging Materials division: operational return on operating capital (ROOC) of 20 percent. Annual sales are expected to be approximately 800 million euros.
The investment will support circularity by further enhancing the recycling performance of the Packaging Materials division’s product portfolio. The Oulu site’s total scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions will remain at a low level as they were already reduced by 80 percent during the first conversion in 2021.
The investment will create approximately 300 new jobs at the Oulu site and support functions, and an additional 1,500 indirect employment opportunities overall. The wood consumption of the new line will be approximately one million cubic meters of pulp wood. After the investment, the group’s market pulp position will be reduced by approximately 250,000 tons annually.
