News Environment & Sustainability Pulp
Metsä Fibre signs ABB for electrification of new bioproduct mill

Metsä Fibre has signed a deal with ABB to supply electricity systems to the company’s bioproduct mill in Kemi, Finland.

ABB will supply electrification and drives technology that is developed and manufactured in Finland at ABB’s facilities in Vaasa and Helsinki.

The preliminary agreement with ABB Finland includes the electrical systems for the entire bioproduct mill, as well as installations from a high-voltage grid to the mill’s internal electricity distribution system and electric motors.

The value of the total delivery that has now been agreed would be approximately EUR 40 million.

In addition to ABB, three other main partners have already been selected for the bioproduct mill project, which is being built for approximately EUR 1.5 billion.

Valmet will supply all of the main equipment and automation, Fimpec will be the contractor for civil construction, and AFRY will be responsible for the engineering of the construction phase.

Preparatory work is ongoing at the mill area in Kemi to ensure the smooth start of the bioproduct mill’s construction immediately after the investment decisions are final in fall of 2020, and once the environmental permit process is completed.

The Kemi bioproduct mill will produce annually 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp, as well as numerous other bioproducts, employing approximately 250 people directly at the mill area in Kemi, and approximately 2,500 in its entire direct value chain in Finland.

The bioproduct mill’s annual use of pulpwood, mainly procured in Finland, would be approximately 7.6 million cubic metres, 4.5 million cubic metres more than the present pulp mill.

The design of the new bioproduct mill is based on high environmental, energy and material efficiency.

The mill will not use any fossil fuels at all, and Metsä Fibre expects its electricity self-sufficiency rate will be 250 per cent.