Metsä Group Celebrates the Opening of Its New Bioproducts Mill in Kemi, Finland

On Wednesday, Metsä Group celebrated the opening of its new bioproduct mill in Kemi, Finland. On hand for the celebration were President of Finland Alexander Stubb, Jussi Linnaranta, chair of Metsäliitto Cooperative’s Board of Directors, and Ilkka Hämälä, President and CEO of Metsä Group.

Since 2015, Metsä Group has invested more than EUR 6 billion, most of it in Finland. The largest is the Kemi bioproduct mill, worth approximately EUR 2 billion. The mill increases Finland’s annual exports by approximately half a billion euros, and its annual positive income impact in Finland will also be about half a billion euros. The bioproduct mill employs approximately 250 people, with a total of around 500 persons working in the mill area. The mill’s direct value chain in Finland employs approximately 2,500 people, mainly in wood supply.

Metsä Group’s principle is to build mills that take energy production, environmental efficiency, and the manufacturing of wood-based products to a new level. The Kemi bioproduct mill, which does not use fossil fuels, operates below the emissions limits of the old mill’s environmental permit while having more than double the production capacity of the previous mill. The mill generates two terawatt hours of electricity per year, equivalent to the combined annual consumption of 100,000 electrically heated detached houses.

The bioproduct mill will produce 1.5 million tons of softwood and birch pulp per year. The pulp will be used to manufacture numerous renewable products for the everyday needs of millions of people: paperboard, tissue paper, specialty paper, and printing paper. In addition to pulp, the bioproduct mill will significantly increase the production of co-products, namely tall oil, turpentine, and bioenergy. Other products manufactured for sale or for Metsä’s internal use include product gas, pellets, sulfuric acid, heat, and steam. In time, space for the manufacture of new products will become available on the site of the old pulp mill.

Metsä Group’s bioproduct mill and expanded paperboard mill started operations in Kemi on September 20th, 2023. After an interruption caused by an explosion at the bioproduct mill’s evaporation plant, the mill resumed production in June. The mill’s second year of operation is now starting from a solid foundation.