Stora Ensos board has approved a 317m asset improvement programme for its Langerbrugge mill in Belgium.
The overhaul includes a new newsprint line, expected to be operational in the second half of 2003, a biofuel power plant and a newly rebuilt paper machine. Paper machine number two at Langerbrugge and paper machine number one at Summa, Finland will be shut down in due course.
Paper machine three at Langerbrugge will be rebuilt as an SC machine with an increased capacity of 165,000 tonnes a year. It will be ready to begin production at the end of 2001.
Management appointments have also been finalised, with the company announcing that senior executive vice presidents Kimmo Kalela and Jouko Taukojrvi will retire at the end of the year.
Jussi Huttunen will succeed Taukojrvi and Kalelas responsibilities will be split three ways between Pekka Laaksonen, Magnus Diesen and Nils Grafstrm.
The company has also announced that its Corenso subsidiary will buy two core factories in Sweden from Mustad Converting. A deal is expected this autumn, pending approval from competition authorities.
The two factories are capable of producing around 20,000 tonnes of heavy-duty cores a year.
Story by Fay Schopen