The fire, which broke out last Friday (20 November) evening at Holmen’s Hallsta Paper Mill in Hallstavik, outside Norrtälje, took place in the mill area of the pulp factory in the north of the factory site. The fire was put out by the emergency services and clean-up efforts began immediately.
The group said there were no injuries or stock damages and that the two paper machines at the mill were not damaged. However, other manufacturing and electricity equipment was damaged and paper production has been halted until activities in the factory can be resumed.
The company’s current assessment is that it will be possible to start up the factory again, at least partially, within two to three weeks.
Holmen manufactures light weight uncoated and SC paper at the mill, under the brand names Holmen View, TRND, XLNT, Plus and Book.
Holmen Paper chief executive Nils Ringborg said: “We’re initiating immediate dialogue with those customers next in line for deliveries from the mill, and we’ll be doing our utmost to ensure that our customers are affected to as minor an extent as possible.”
The cause of the fire is not yet known but an investigation to determine this, as well as the extent of the damage, is currently in progress.
The incident is expected to have a negative impact on results for the fourth quarter amounting to SEK30m (£2.28m).
A company spokesman told PrintWeek the Hallsta mill has regular shipments of book and magazine paper to the UK but that it is “too early to say what the effect will be” on UK customers.
Holmen manufactures paperboard, printing paper and sawn timber and runs forestry and energy production operations. The group has around 3,400 staff and in 2014 its net sales were SEK16bn (£1.21bn).
