Botnia’s Svir Timber sawmill in Russia inaugurated on June 7, 2006

Jun 07, 2006. /Lesprom Network/. Botnia has built a modern saw mill in Russia, on the banks of the river Svir near the town of Podporodzhye, approximately 300 kilometres east of St. Petersburg. "The saw mill is one important part of Botnia's fibre strategy and the aim is to get experience from forest industry investments in Russia and to create a basis for possible future investments", tells Erkki Varis, president and CEO. The saw mill is operated by OOO Svir Timber, a fully-owned Russian subsidiary of Botnia. Botnia's board of directors made the final investment decision in September 2004, whereafter an investment agreement was signed with Leningrad oblast. The construction works started in October 2004 and the installation of equipment in April 2005. The trial runs of the mill were commenced in December 2005 and productive operations in April 2006. The inauguration ceremony is celebrated on 7 June 2006. The main suppliers in the project were the Finnish companies Lemcon, YIT, Heinolan Sahakoneet Oy, Tekmawood Oy, Valon Kone Oy, Wärtsilä Biopower Oy, the Estonian company Hekotek and the Russian companies Spetsstroimehanizatsiya and Lenenergo. The total investment amounted to Euro 55 million, and the saw mill employs 130 persons. The main part of the staff is Russian and in addition there are a couple of Finnish and Estonian employees. Skilled employees are an important prerequisite for effective production. The staff went through a wide training programme at the owner companies, Metsäliitto Group's and UPM-Kymmene's saw mills and the working atmosphere at the mill is very good and motivated. Special attention was given to work and fire safety and environment care. The Russian wood procurement organisations of the owner companies take care of the wood procurement to the saw mill, and in the future wood is also obtained from Svir Timber's own cutting rights. The wood procurement by the organizations of the owners, OOO Metsäliitto St. Petersburg and UPM Russia Forest is running according to plans. The yearly capacity of the saw mill is 200 000 cubic meters of dried sawn spruce for building industry, distribution chains and further processing. The main markets are Central Europe, Mediterranean, Great Britain, Japan, Finland and Russia. "The production was started at the beginning of the year and the operations have commenced well. At the moment the production level is approximately 14 000 cubic meters per month, which corresponds to about 75% of the nominal capacity. The market situation is reasonably good at the moment", states Eero Smolander, general manager of the saw mill.