“The megatrends important for a wood converter are found in the different aspects of the environment, technology and population structure.”
METSÄ FIBRE’S STRATEGY IN BRIEF We exceed our customers’ expectations We invest in long-term part- nerships and the creation of customer value. We seek market leadership in our main products, and we aim to be the preferred partner of industry leaders. Excellent performance in all operations Excellent performance requires excellent prod- uct quality and deviation management as well as the best production efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the business. We develop our operating methods continu- ously and take advantage of cutting-edge technology. The best personnel Achieving lasting excellence requires the best personnel. We want to be the most sought-after employer, with the best talent and a strong innovation culture. To achieve this, we invest in excellent leadership and supervisory work.
The added value of wood can also be increased by the development of internal industrial processes. The incin- eration of bark, for example, allows for replacing fossil fuels – oil or gas – in the energy production of pulp mills and sawmills. Pulp mills do indeed produce clearly more energy than they consume. The surplus energy of the pro- duction process is sold to the national grid. INVESTMENTS CREATE A BASIS FOR FUTURE GROWTH The needs of both pulp and sawn timber customers evolve all the time. “What our customers want above all is to develop their own production efficiency. For us this means that our products must be of an extremely consistent quality. On the other hand, our customers also demand delivery relia- bility, to which we can respond by keeping our production units in good condition and by investing in them on a regular basis,” says Nousiainen. The sawmill which will start up in Rauma in 2022 and the planned new bioproduct mill in Kemi play a key role in maintaining and improving Metsä Fibre’s competitiveness. “These investments form a basis for the company’s suc- cess dozens of years into the future.” Taking advantage of artificial intelligence and machine vision, the Rauma sawmill will be the world’s most mod- ern sawmill, operating without interruptions every day of the year. “We are taking a technological leap in the production of sawn timber by shifting the control of operations in its en- tirety to a central control room. I am already eagerly look- ing forward to the moment when the sawmill starts up.” If realised, the Kemi bioproduct mill would be the largest wood-processing mill in the northern hemisphere. “With the Kemi bioproduct mill, our ambition is to strengthen our position as a leading producer of soft- wood-based market pulp. At the same time, it would al- low us to develop our unique bioproduct concept even further.” “We would also be reducing the environmental burden, and would become an increasingly important producer of renewable bioelectricity.” The planned, combined value of the Rauma and Kemi investments is approximately 1.7 billion euros. •
TURNING POINTS ACCELERATE CHANGES What the change in population structure and the rise in living standards mean in essence is the acceleration of ur- banisation, ageing populations and a growing middle class, everywhere. In the forest industry, this change is visible in, among other things, the continuously increasing consump- tion of tissue paper and hygiene products made from pulp. “Tissue paper products play an extremely important role in promoting well-being and sanitation as well preventing infectious diseases, as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pan- demic. In the Western world, they are taken for granted, but there are a lot of countries where people cannot afford to use tissue papers,” Nousiainen explains. “I firmly believe that their consumption will grow as the standard of living improves on a global scale. We have seen major changes in the end uses of pulp over the last decade. The digital revolution is replacing print magazines with digital media and the consumption of office paper has declined.” “Over the past ten years, printing and writing papers have accounted for a clearly smaller portion of the end uses of northern softwood pulp. At the same time, tis- sue papers and packaging materials have accounted for a much larger portion of it. Turning points of this kind, which includes the coronavirus pandemic, always speed up large-scale structural changes.” NEW PRODUCTS ON A LONG-TERM BASIS Increasing the added value of the wood raw material re- quires continuous research and development work. Metsä Fibre engages in the active development of new bioprod- ucts that increase the cost-effectiveness and growth of our pulp and sawn timber business operations and create a sustainable bioeconomy and circular economy. “We develop new products out of pulp, and a close network of partners and the industrial ecosystem play a key role in this development work. Over time, these new bioproducts can grow into big product categories”, Nousiainen says. At Metsä Fibre, research aiming to produce textile fi- bres from pulp began in 2009. Now, ten years later, Metsä Spring’s demo plant, operating next to the Äänekoski bi- oproduct mill, has just started up.
Forerunner position and sustainability
We have modern and effi- cient production units, the capacity of which we ensure with systematic develop- ment work and correctly timed maintenance invest- ments and major repairs. We actively develop new bioproducts that increase the cost-effectiveness and growth of our pulp and sawn timber business and create a sustainable bio-economy and circular economy. We ensure the realisation of sustainable development throughout the value chain. We use Nordic wood from sustainably managed forests for the resource-efficient manufacture of products that can replace fossil-based raw materials.
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