Apparently only the batch cooking system is damaged. The continuous digester right next to it will certainly be easier to fire up.
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I wonder if they’ll even bother repairing it in this economic climate? There might be more profitable ways to invest the insurance money. A collapsed/fallen smokestack could, of course, have broken who knows what else.
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Certainly. However, these also have deductibles/waiting periods, so you usually don’t break completely even with the compensation payouts. In addition, the expenses/lost revenue hit immediately, and at least in this case, the compensation will arrive sometime next year. Based on Metsä Board’s and Metsä Group’s reports (especially Kemi, and I believe there was also something in Husum), this topic has been covered a bit too much in recent years.
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Metsä Fibre’s damages from the Kemi explosion were around €150M. They received about €67M in insurance payouts.
The destruction in Pietarsaari seems to be on such a scale that UPM’s damages could amount to tens of millions of euros. Maybe tomorrow we will get more information. At least one of the pulp lines will likely remain shut down for several months.
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Stora Enso takes a significant step forward in the commercialization of lignin/Lignode battery anodes. There is also an interview clip at the end of the Yle article.
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Here are Antti’s comments on Stora Enso’s decision to retain its Central European sawmills and initiate change negotiations.
Stora Enso announced on Tuesday that it has completed the strategic review of its Central European sawmills and building solutions operations. As we already estimated in connection with the Q3 report, selling the business at a reasonable price likely proved impossible in the prevailing, extremely weak construction cycle, and the company ended up keeping the operations as part of the group. To curb losses and costs, the company is initiating efficiency improvement measures in the unit, which will lead, among other things, to the closure of one production line in Austria and will affect up to 250 employees. The news was completely expected for us and does not create immediate pressure to revise Stora Enso’s operational forecasts.
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Came across this news regarding the European fiber-based packaging industry: one of the major players, MM Group, is deciding to exit its converting business and retain a minority stake:
Apparently, this involves as many as 52 production units globally.
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The purchase price corresponds to a fairly good EV/EBITDA multiple of 9x. Of course, MM’s packaging business is an asset-light converting operation, making it a better peer for Huhtamäki than for forest industry companies at this high level. Naturally, MM will continue operating its cartonboard business, and its balance sheet will strengthen considerably, even though the company also intends to distribute around half a billion in extra dividends from the deal’s proceeds. As such, MM would still have room for investments on the cartonboard side, but considering the current state of the board market, I wouldn’t expect particularly aggressive moves in the near future despite the increased financial flexibility.
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