PPM's in Karelia may face serious competition in neighboring Finland in the upcoming years. Finnish timber company Metsa Group was granted the necessary permits for the consequent major PPM construction in Äänekoski (Finland). It is planned to go ahead with construction works this spring (2015). In 2017 the PPM valued at more than 1 bn euro is supposed to start its production activity.

It’s estimated that PPM’s pulp annual output will come up to approximately 1.3 million tons. The Finnish wood is going to be used as a raw material, which is expected to consequently lead to increasing harvesting volumes in Finland.

According to the head of the Greenpeace Russia forest department Aleksey Yaroshenko, launch of this PPM may drastically affect the European pulp and paper market and to increase competition, especially taking into consideration continuously decreasing demand for several types of paper.

"Pulp producers, using old technologies and equipment and oriented to expensive raw materials harvested from vast wild forest areas, will have particular difficulties competing with this industrial gigant. Its launch may trigger several Russian and North European PPMs' shutdown "

 

Source:http://www.ihb.de/

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