UPM to begin production of coated fine paper sheets at Kymi Mill

Paper giant UPM is to begin production of coated fine paper sheets at its Finland-based Kymi Mill in Autumn 2012.

The €15m (£13m) investment includes a new sheeting, ream wrapping and pallet packaging line, along with technical changes to the handling of the reels of paper machine eight.

 Timo Suutarla, general manager for the Kymi Mill, said: "The aim of the new sheeting line is to serve customers in close-by markets such as the Scandinavian and Russian countries better and faster than before.

"The mill's annual capacity of 830,000 tonnes of coated and uncoated fine paper will not change, but rather the investment will convert our real capacity to sheets."

Coated UPM Finesse fine paper sheets are used for various graphic printing purposes, such as printed advertising material.

Currently, the mill's sheet production includes A4 size printer and copy paper made of uncoated fine paper. Expansion of the mill will begin in autumn 2011.

Last week, Chinese imports of coated fine paper were slapped with anti-dumping duties of between 8-35.1% and anti-subsidy duties of between 4%-12%.

However, Suutarla said that the company's expansion plans for the Kymi mill were in no way related to the anti-dumping outcome.