Stora Enso has commenced the production ramp-up of its new consumer packaging board line at the Oulu site in Finland.
This new line is designed to enhance the company’s capabilities in producing folding box board and coated unbleached kraft, aligning with the company’s focus on renewable packaging.
The first customer deliveries from this new line are anticipated in the second quarter (Q2) of 2025.
In 2022, Stora Enso made the strategic decision to convert its remaining idle paper machine at the Oulu site into this highly flexible consumer packaging board line, which boasts a capacity of 750,000 tonnes per annum (tpa).
The company noted that the project is progressing on schedule, with the total investment amounting to approximately €1bn ($1.09bn).
Stora Enso projects that the new production line will achieve earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation breakeven by the end of 2025 and is expected to reach full capacity by 2027. At that point, annual sales are projected to reach approximately €800m.
The targeted markets for the new packaging products include frozen, chilled, and dry food, as well as beverage multipackaging, with a focus on European and North American customers.
With this investment and the prior conversion completed in 2021, the Oulu site will manufacture unbleached pulp, kraftliner, and consumer board in both reels and sheets.
With the new board production line in place, the site’s annual wood consumption will rise by approximately one million cubic metres, reaching a total of 3.5 million cubic metres.
The Oulu site, which currently employs approximately 650 people, will rely on local wood supply alongside pulp sourced from Stora Enso’s Enocell site in Finland and the Veracel site in Brazil.
Furthermore, the company’s planned acquisition of the Junnikkala sawmills is expected to bolster the long-term, cost-efficient supply of raw materials such as wood chips, pulpwood, and biomass.
Stora Enso president and CEO Hans Sohlström said: “The new line will be the most modern and cost-efficient in Europe.
“Through this investment, our Oulu unit will become Stora Enso’s largest production facility, an integrated mega-site, focusing on future packaging board grades and featuring a flexible production setup.
“This will strengthen profitability and competitiveness for our consumer board and containerboard offerings. It will also enable us to optimise production at our other sites to unlock further profitable growth, for example in liquid packaging board at our Skoghall site in Sweden.”
