The board of directors of Stora Enso, the Swedish-Finnish concern, is expected shortly to make final its decision to finance construction of a sawmill complex in the Leningrad region. The announcement was made by Mikhail Dedov, chairman of the Leningrad region's Forests, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Committee. He said the first stage of construction would cost Euro 90 million. The enterprise is expected to produce 500,000 cubic metres of sawn timber a year.

In 2002 Stora Enso Timber (the wood-processing arm of Stora Enso) announced plans to build three sawmill complexes in the Northwest--in Karelia, Novgorod and Leningrad region. The company said it would invest USD 130-150 million in its Russian enterprises. In August 2003 work began at the Stora Enso sawmill complex in the village of Impilakhti in the Pitkyarantsk district of Karelia. The plant has a capacity of 100,000 cubic metres a year and represents an investment of Euro 8 million. A second sawmill complex is expected to begin production by the end of this year. It is located in the village of Nebolochi in the Novgorod region. Work on the planned mill in Leningrad region has been delayed by the difficulty of choosing a site.

Stora Enso was created in 1998 through a merger of the Finnish pulp and paper manufacturer Enso and the Swedish company Stora. After the firm's merger in February 2000 with Consolidated Paper (US), Stora Enso increased its output to 15 million tonnes a year. Company sales in 2002 came to Euro 12.8 billion.

News source: www.rosbaltnews.com
Print this news