Finland's environmental minister to start pilot project, including setting up a joint working group, to ensure legal requirements are clear during permit process for Metsä Fibre's planned 1.3 million tonnes/year pulp mill in Äänekoski

Diane Keaton

April 28, 2014 (Esmerk News Feed (Nordic) () – In Finland, the Ministry of the Environment will start a pilot project to help to make the permit process of Metsä Fibre's planned pulp mill in Äänekoski in more fluent within the boundaries allowed by legislation. A joint working group will be formed for this purpose.

Industry Intelligence editor's note: On April 23 Metsä Fibre Oy announced that it intends to build a 1.3 million tonnes/year northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp mill at its site in Äänekoski, Finland, to start up in 2017. It said the €1.1 billion mill will be the world's first next-generation bio-product mill that can convert wood raw material into a diverse range of products.
As posted on Pulp Partners sarl’s PIG mobile app and reported by Industry Intelligence on April 27, although most of the new Äänekoski mill’s production will be NBSK, some of the output will be birch pulp. And Metsä Fibre will be taking down its existing 530,000 tonnes/year NBSK/bleached hardwood kraft pulp (BHKP) mill at the site, which will leave a net capacity of 770,000 tonnes/year. Also Metsä Group has a folding boxboard mill in Äänekoski—the website says its capacity is 240,000 tonnes/year—for which the current pulp mill provides fiber. If the new pulp mill continues to do so, it would result in that much less pulp for the market. 

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