Stora Enso pulp mill closed down in Kemijärvi

The last bales of pulp were conveyed from the production line of the Stora Enso mill in Kemijärvi, in Finnish Lapland, in a bittersweet atmosphere on Sunday.
      The employees who were working the final shift were unsmiling, contemplating their future, while the flags displayed to celebrate Veterans' Day appeared to emphasize their grief.
      Most of the mill’s 185 emplyees will be left without jobs at the end of May, while 14 employees will be transferred to Stora Enso’s Kemi plant and another 50 people will be entitled to enter the unemployment pathway to retirement.
     
The pulp and paper manufacturer Stora Enso intends to start dismantling the machinery and equipment as soon as possible, even though the City of Kemijärvi has asked the national government for authorisation to exercise eminent domain powers and buy the Stora Enso pulp mill that the paper company plans to close down.
      The aim of the city's administrators is to bring in another company that manufactures pulp out of wood to continue the work of the mill.
      The government is to consider the application on Wednesday.
      ”The dismantling will proceed according to the letter of intent signed by Stora Enso and the Anaika Group, and part of the equipment will be transferred to Stora Enso’s other mills. In any case, dismantling will take time”, reported Mill Director Tapio Ylikangas.
      The Mikkeli-based Anaika Group designs and manufactures equipment for the mechanical forest industry, and plans to set up a large factory to manufacture glued laminated wood beams in the factory building that is being vacated by Stora Enso. The company plans to employ 60 people in the course of the current year, and another 40 will be hired later on.
     
The protesters in Kemijärvi who have been attempting to keep the pulp mill running have imposed a blockade against the dismantling until the government has handled the application made by the City of Kemijärvi.
     
However, the employees will not fight against the dismantling procedures, as it would be an illegal industrial action, noted Seppo Kenttäkumpu, the chief shop steward of Stora Enso’s Kemijärvi mill.
      ”One cannot help being disappointed. Particularly young people are sad, as they have no future here. However, I trust that these premises will still be used for the production of pulp or bio mass”, Kenttäkumpu concluded.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Laminated beam factory to be set up in Kemijärvi pulp mill building (28.1.2008)
  Kemijärvi initiates eminent domain proceedings on Stora Enso pulp mill (9.4.2008)
  Stora Enso to shut down two factories in Finland and one in Sweden - 1,400 jobs to go (25.10.2007)

Links:
  Stora Enso
  Kemijärvi Pulp Mill