The UPM Chudovo plywood mill expansion investment, which started in late 2017, is proceeding on schedule to the production trial run phase. The first deliveries from the new production line are currently on the way to customers in Europe and Africa. The official inauguration will be in early September 2019, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
The investment will expand the product portfolio of the UPM Chudovo mill in Russia. One new product in Chudovo, the WISA-Birch LG, has already been produced on the new production line. LG, or Long Grained, refers to the direction of the surface grain, which is positioned parallel to the long edge of the plywood panel. In traditional WISA-Birch plywood, the graining runs in the cross-panel direction. Both are used either as structural plywood in building or as visual interior elements such as walls, floors, ceilings or cabinets.
In addition to these WISA-Birch plywood products, the UPM Chudovo mill also produces coated WISA plywood for the transport industry and concrete forming, as well as uncoated birch plywood for insulating elements of LNG tankers.
The total value of the UPM Chudovo mill expansion investment is about Euro 50 million. The project consists of new plywood production lines, including all machinery needed for veneer and plywood manufacturing. A new bio heat boiler has also been built at the site. The mill's annual production capacity will increase by 45,000 up to 155,000 cubic meters per year and it is estimated that around 100 new jobs will be created - both directly at the mill and indirectly, in wood procurement and logistics, for example.
UPM Chudovo mill is one of the nine UPM Plywood mills. It employs directly approximately 630 people and the annual capacity is about 155,000 cubic metres of birch plywood.
