Business News
Stora Enso Wood Products continues to invest in the future. Three development projects ongoing in Finland, Austria and Sweden
Friday 26. March 2010 - Stora Enso Wood Products is continuing to develop its business operations and investing over EUR 5 million in further developing the value-added product range in its mills at Uimaharju in Finland, Bad St. Leonhard in Austria and Ala in Sweden.
“These investments are the concrete next steps in our continuing efforts to
improve the value of our offering to our key customers and will help in
considerably strengthening these sites and their long-term competitiveness,”
says Hannu Kasurinen, EVP, Stora Enso Wood Products.
Uimaharju Sawmill investing in ThermoWood business
With the ThermoWood investment Uimaharju Sawmill will add a new product to its
portfolio. The ongoing investment at Uimaharju includes moving two existing
ThermoWood kiln chambers and a boiler from Stora Enso’s Kotka Sawmill to
Uimaharju. The kilns and the boiler were dismantled at Kotka in late January
2010 and taken to Uimaharju in mid-February. The kilns are currently being
installed and are expected to be ready for test runs by mid-May.
“Uimaharju has already taken over the ThermoWood sales, and is serving our
customer base from the existing buffer stocks at Kotka and contracted supplies
from other producers until the new unit is operational,” explains Jukka
Kilpeläinen, Product Line Manager, ThermoWood.
The relocation of the ThermoWood business will open up interesting potential for
development involving the joinery component mill at Uimaharju, and will
facilitate Stora Enso’s entry into the pine ThermoWood business. The
manufacturing process has also been upgraded in several ways to improve the
overall ThermoWood process at Uimaharju. Significant changes have been made to
the grading plant, packaging and sticking units, and the renovated and
modernised units are now in operation.
Second CNC unit and a loading centre in Austria
The second computer numerical control (CNC) unit at Bad St. Leonhard Sawmill in
Austria is already under construction, with installation of the machinery
scheduled in April. The new unit will be commissioned in early summer 2010. The
walls and ceilings of the building for the new unit are made out of Stora Enso’s
own cross-laminated timber constructions.
“The demand for customised cross-laminated elements has been growing rapidly.
This investment is intended to meet the more demanding customer requirements and
improve the flexibility and efficiency of our manufacturing process,” says
Gernot Weiss, Product Line Manager, Cross-Laminated Timber.
New high frequency press at Ala
A new high frequency press at Ala Sawmill in Sweden will ensure consistent
quality in gluing and clearly improve utilisation of the capacity of the new
vertical finger-jointing line, thereby increasing the overall output of the
lines and enabling a wider product range to be offered to customers.
“This investment will also improve our product and service quality, and further
enhance our reliability as a supplier to our customer base,” explains Janek
Antipin, Product Line Manager, Components.
The new press will be installed in July with start-up scheduled in August 2010.