Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene have announced sweeping changes to their business structures as they look to remain competitive in the current market.
Stora Enso plans to close operations with poor profitability, including the
170,000m³ per year Paikuse sawmill in Estonia, while simultaneously
investing €135m in areas of continued strength to “safeguard profitable
customer accounts”.
UPM is to trim its five main business areas into three business groups as part of its streamlining process.
This
will see its wood products, magazine paper, newsprint, fine and
speciality paper and label divisions condensed into energy and pulp,
paper, and engineered materials.
UPM’s timber business will now
come under the energy and pulp business group, along with forests and
wood sourcing. The engineered materials group will consist of the
company’s plywood, wood plastic composite and RFID business areas.
Growth
and development prospects continue to be interesting,” said Tapio
Korpeinen, the new president of the energy and pulp business group.
“We
want to take a more market driven approach to these business areas and
also increase their transparency towards the investors.”
Stora Enso added that it is “prepared for full Russian roundwood duty increases”,
which are scheduled to rise to €50/m³ at the start of 2009.
Through
closures, curtailments and production efficiencies, Stora Enso said it
will be able to operate without Russian roundwood logs in 2009, with
domestic wood sourcing picking up the slack.
“[We] have
transformed Stora Enso from the largest importer of Russian wood into
Finland to being ready to operate without Russian roundwood,” said
chief executive officer Jouko Karvinen.
