Where technology is the recipe of success

By Renata Mercante, Editor, PPI Latin America, RISI

SAO PAULO, June 18, 2008 (RISI) - I got back to Brazil two weeks ago from the Metso Press Survivors Trip 2008 within Sweden and Finland visiting several pulp and paper mills as well as Metso’s plants. Seven editors from different countries joined the trip and we exchanged a lot of worthwhile information about the pulp and paper market.

Our first visit was to Holmen Paper’s Braviken mill in Sweden, where we had the chance to see the new Metso TMP plant. We took a very comfortable and glamorous ship to Turku, in Finland, where we visited Metso’s air and chemicals systems plant. At the same day, we went to a power plant at Pori Energy, which is quite different from pulp and paper mills.

One of the most interesting meetings to me was Metso Automation, in Tampere. That is the place where technology dominates the environment – lots of cables, wires, hardware stuff, and lights blinking all the time… Everything to make machines work independently!

The visit to Metso’s RDT and new pilot machine at Metso Paper Jyväskylä was a very good experience as well. That is a good example of how beautiful and pleasant a paper machine can be – you can even make and drink coffee while you pass through a huge machine!

At Stora Enso’s Varkaus mill we could see its revamped PM 3, the world’s first fully rope-less fine paper machine. We also had the chance to go to Botnia’s Joutseno mill, which produces 645,000 tonnes/yr of softwood pulp. Finally, we visited Metso Paper’s technology center in Anjalankoski.

Back in Brazil, I could better analyze my feelings about this great experience. I was very impressed with the cordiality and friendship that the Finns showed all of the editors on the trip. For a Brazilian like me, used to the “hot” Latin American way of dealing with people, it’s common to think that Swedes and Finns are “cold” like the ice and snow that dominates the region more than half of the year.

But I was wrong, completely wrong. Maybe they are a little bit more reserved and formal than Latin Americans, but people are very friendly and, in most cases, funny. I could feel the happiness in the atmosphere and see the smile in people’s face mainly because of the summer time. Everybody was enjoying the sun that “never sleeps”. As Metso’s guests, we could live part of their routine, enjoying their saunas, the beautiful view of the nature with thousands of lakes, and the really good food.

But the country is also well known for the technology. The largest industry is electronics, followed by machinery, vehicles and other engineered metal products. Then comes the forest products industry and chemicals. Tree plantations occupy approximately 60% of Finland’s surface and feed part of the demand of its pulp and paper mills; with most of the remaining wood supply coming from Russia and other European countries.

Finland has a population of around 5.5 million people. The most important companies in the country, which employs thousands of people, are Nokia, Stora Enso, UPM-Kymmene, Neste Oil, among others. Metso, for example, employs 9,400 people in Finland.

The pulp and paper’s industry center of gravity is shifting from Europe to Asia and Latin America where demand is rapidly increasing and production costs are much lower. But the technology still remains in Europe, where special people invent almost everything the world’s papermakers need to improve their business.

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