Features Bioeconomy Environment & Sustainability Paper Pulp
New Metsä company to build textile fibre plant

May 29, 2018 – A new innovation company has been established by Metsä Group to invest in new endeavours to identify and develop new business opportunities in sustainable forest-based bioeconomy and circular economy.

Metsä Spring Ltd. will join with other partner organizations to achieve its goal.

Niklas von Weymarn has been appointed CEO of the new company, transferring to Metsä Spring from the position of vice-president of research for Metsä Fibre.

The office of Metsä Spring is in the heart of the internationally-acknowledged Otaniemi innovation campus in Espoo, Finland. The establishment of the new innovation company does not affect the current research and development activities of Metsä Group’s current business areas.

”With the establishment of Metsä Spring, we want to create a new dimension to Metsä Group’s innovation activities and thereby participate more actively in the development of new business concepts in forest-based bioeconomy and circular economy,” Metsä Group’s president and CEO and Metsä Spring’s chairman of the board Ilkka Hämälä, said. “A large share of new ideas are generated outside our company and the new business concepts are increasingly developed in novel partnerships. The new innovation company enables Metsä Group to better take part in this activity.”

The first concept to be included into Metsä Spring’s portfolio is the new textile fibre production method developed by Metsä Fibre. Now Metsä Spring is planning a greenfield demo plant with the capacity of about 500 tonnes of staple fibre per year. The planning is based on the idea that the demo plant will be integrated to Metsä Group’s bioproduct mill in Äänekoski. The planning work is done by an international team and the investment decision is expected by the end of this year.

The current ways to produce textile fibres are typically burdened by a notable environmental footprint and the textile market is thus seeking new, more sustainable alternatives. The environmentally-friendly production method developed by Metsä Group is based on direct dissolution using novel compounds for the pulp dissolution stage. In contrary to the methods used commercially today, Metsä Group’s method relies on wet paper-grade pulp as the raw material.

“It is important to develop new bioproducts that expand the current product portfolio of the forest industry,” von Weymarn said. “Textile fibre is a very potential product and a natural first project for Metsä Spring. The company wants to be an active and respected player in developing new business concepts for various stages of the forest-based value chains.”