Metsä Botnia pulp mill running at full capacity

All pulp being sold in spite of recession

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The Finnish pulp and paper company closed down its oldest mill in Finland at the same time that its newest one churns out smoke into the sky in Uruguay.
      Botnia says that the difficulties experienced by the Finnish forest industry have not affected the pulp mill in Fray Bentos. The mill, which was launched in 2007, is producing pulp at a rate of about a million tonnes a year. No employees have been laid off because of the recession.
      “It is profitable for us to operate at full capacity even when the price of pulp is low - that is how cost-efficient the mill is”, says the factory’s director Sami Saarela.
      “Demand is lower, but pulp will always get sold at the world market price.”
      He says that the company’s result is declining from what had been planned, but it will not plummet through the floor.
     
Producing pulp from eucalyptus in southern climates is the most profitable operation that Botnia has. Last year it was also had the cleanest emissions, and the number of industrial accidents is the lowest of any of the company’s facilities. Saarela says that the mill is already operating at a level that the company expected might be reached in two or three years. He expects the installation to be competitive for a long time.
      “The world’s pulp mill projects have been frozen because of the economic crisis. There is no new, modern mill coming very soon”, he says.
      Saarela expects the factory to make “quite a tidy profit” once prices start rising again.
      “Fortunately we got started at a time when demand for pulp was high. We managed to convince our customers with our quality before the market collapsed”, the director smiles.
      The recession has changed where the bales of pulp are headed. Demand in Europe has fallen, and more pulp is going to Asia than originally planned. China is buying more Uruguayan pulp than any other country.
     
The controversial mill continues to raise emotions across the river in the town of Gualeguaychú in Argentina. Tenacious opponents of the Botnia installaiton have kept the border road between the two countries closed since November 2006. Loud demonstrations continue.
      The protests led to one death last week, when an Argentine motorcyclist crashed into a roadblock in the fog. The incident led to a new dispute over the future of the blockade.
      The Argentine government has condemned the blockade, but has not taken action to remove it. The government is waiting for a decision from the International Court in The Hague on the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay.
      Argentine opponents of the plant have lost much of their credibility, as one environmental assessment after another have given the mill a clean bill of health.
      However, the opponents persist in opposing the existence of a mill on their border, even if the emissions were to stay within permissible limits.
      “Measurements are relative. In a virgin location where there have not been any factories before, things have to be measured differently. By our standards, it is already pollution for smoke to come out of the smokestack, says Raúl Melchiori of Gualeguaychú.
     
The anti-Botnia campaign, which had been waning, was revived in January, when odours spread from the mill to Gualeguaychú, which lies 35 kilometres away. The cause was repairs to the odour containment equipment.
      “The wind was in the direction of Gualeguaychú. It is unfortunate that the opponents got confirmation for their fears from a very rare event”, Saarela says.
      The opponents had not heard that pulp mills had been closed in Finland for reasons of profitability. This is news to them, as the general perception is that factories are being driven out of Europe because of the pollution.
      “We could unite with the workers of the closed factories. We have the same goal - keeping the mills in Finland”, says Susana Padin, secretary of the environmental group Asemblea Ambiental.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Botnia pulp mill in Uruguay experiences yet another delay (2.11.2007)
  Harbour handling Botnia pulp deliveries in Uruguay opened on Wednesday (30.8.2007)
  Solution to paper factory dispute between Argentina and Uruguay more remote than ever (7.3.2007)
  King of Spain to mediate in Metsä-Botnia pulp mill dispute (6.11.2006)
  Metsä-Botnia to build massive pulp factory in Uruguay (8.3.2005)

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