TALLINN - A second aspen-wood pulp facility may be built on the territory of the Kunda wood processing plant in Estonia, Finland's business daily Kauppalehti reported.
Riia Ratnik, CFO of Estonian Cell, which is currently building an aspen-wood pulp line in Kunda, said that the company had already found the site for its second wood pulp line.
The decision on constructing a second line will by taken two or three years after the mill is launched, Ratnik said. "I believe the decision will be positive if the first line performs well, and the activity is stable in economic terms," he said.
The cornerstone to the main facility was laid on Dec. 10. It is to process 400,000 tons of aspen a year and go into operation at the beginning of 2006. The Kunda aspen-wood plant project is the second biggest foreign investment in Estonia. Construction of phase one of the facility will cost 2.4 billion kroons (153 million euros).
The pulp mill project was launched by Norway's Larvik Cell, and last year Italy's Heinzel and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development joined the project. At present Heinzel controls 37 percent of the company, with EBRD owning a 24 percent stake and Larvik a 29 percent one.
The projected capacity of the facility is 140,000 tons of pulp a year, which will be sold to Central European and Nordic paper manufacturers. The facility will provide jobs to 60 people.
