Stora Enso invests in world-class biore­finery at Sunila Mill in Finland

This will be the first step towards a new busi­ness selling lignin to extern­al cus­tom­ers. It will enable glob­al spe­cialty chem­ic­al and high-tech mater­i­al cus­tom­ers to replace fossil raw mater­i­als with renew­able altern­at­ives. Stora Enso is devel­op­ing new applic­a­tions in which lignin provides added value as a nat­ur­al poly­mer. ​“The invest­ment in Sunila Mill will accel­er­ate Stora Enso’s trans­form­a­tion into renew­able mater­i­als com­pany. The first applic­a­tions will be in, for example, the build­ing, con­struc­tion and auto­mot­ive sec­tors, where lignin offers sus­tain­able altern­at­ives for phen­ols in ply­wood glues and oth­er wood-based pan­els, and poly­ols used in foams. Oth­er applic­a­tions are also under devel­op­ment, thus cre­at­ing a sol­id plat­form for growth for sus­tain­able altern­at­ives to fossil-based products,” says Juan Bueno, EVP, Stora Enso Bio­ma­ter­i­als Divi­sion. The invest­ment includes a lignin extrac­tion plant and dry­er, lignin dust burn­ers in the lime kilns, and a pack­ing line. Pro­duc­tion is sched­uled to start up dur­ing the first quarter of 2015. The invest­ment is expec­ted to gen­er­ate annu­al sales of EUR 80 mil­lion in 2017 and over time clearly exceed Stora Enso’s ROCE tar­get of 13%. The tech­no­logy also has the poten­tial for future scalab­il­ity at oth­er Group pulp mills. Sunila Mill has an annu­al capa­city of 370 000 tonnes of soft­wood pulp. The mill employs approx­im­ately 230 people.

About Stora Enso

Stora Enso is the glob­al rethinker of the paper, bio­ma­ter­i­als, wood products and pack­aging industry. We always rethink the old and expand to the new to offer our cus­tom­ers innov­at­ive solu­tions based on renew­able mater­i­als. Stora Enso employs some 28 000 people world­wide, and our sales in 2012 amoun­ted to EUR 10.8 bil­lion. Stora Enso shares are lis­ted on NAS­DAQ OMX Hel­sinki (STEAV, STERV) and Stock­holm (STE A, STE R). In addi­tion, the shares are traded in the USA as ADRs (SEOAY) in the Inter­na­tion­al OTCQX over-the-counter mar­ket. Source: Stora Enso Oyj