Leading producer of bioproducts

Metsä Fibre is a leading producer of bioproducts and bioenergy whose main raw material is wood from sustainably managed northern forests. Metsä Fibre's bleached softwood and birch pulps have been developed for manufacturing high-quality boards, tissue and printing papers, and specialty products.

Metsä Fibre uses ECF bleaching for the softwood and birch pulp it supplies to Europe and China as raw material for high-quality boards, tissue and printing papers, and specialty products. In addition to pulp, Metsä Fibre makes other bioproducts from by-products: biochemicals and energy.

Metsä Fibre's brand is Botnia. Along with pulp fibre, biochemicals and bioenergy, our Botnia product family includes products and expertise to support the competitiveness of our customers and enable them to make the most of our fibres.

We produce pulp and other bioproducts at four mills in Finland: Joutseno, Kemi, Rauma and Äänekoski, which have a combined production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. Metsä Fibre built a next-generation bioproduct mill in Äänekoski, which represents the largest investment ever made in the Finnish forest industry. The bioproduct mill came into operation as planned on August 2017. Metsä Fibre also has six sawmills in Finland and Metsä Svir sawmill in Russia.

Metsä Fibre is part of the Finnish forest industry group Metsä Group. Metsä Fibre is owned by its parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative, Metsä Board and Itochu Corporation.

Demand for pulp fibre and other wood-based bioproducts and bioenergy made from renewable raw materials will rise in step with the growth of the world's population, greater urbanisation and affluence, and the accelerating transition from fossil to renewable resources. Asia is driving a substantial share of the growth in demand; Metsä Fibre delivers a quarter of its pulp to this region. Metsä Fibre's cost-efficient mills boast excellent environmental performance. Their competitiveness meets the challenges of the ever-stricter requirements set for production methods and products.

Metsä Fibre's values

Products that meet customers’ needs are made by employees who are highly competent and willing to learn and reinvent themselves. Our employees are guided by Metsä Group’s values: responsible profitability, reliability, cooperation and renewal. We operate in line with our values and let the results speak for themselves.

Responsible profitability means that we improve our profitability while also considering the environment and listening to our stakeholders. All of our other values lay the foundation for responsible profitability.

Metsä Fibre's strategy

The objective behind all our operations is to be the most sought-after provider of high-quality bioproducts and services that support our customers’ business operations. We must be our customers' most trusted partner: we know our customers and their business and work in deep cooperation with them.

We keep raising the bar for ourselves and constantly develop our operations, products and skills. Our operations are based on a fine-tuned and transparent process management model that is geared towards catering to our customers' needs.

Thanks to our cost-efficient production of northern softwood pulp, we are well-poised to meet future challenges and generate added value for our shareholders. We listen to our customers and keep ourselves informed of how our operating environment is evolving. Continuous renewal is our response to changes in the global pulp markets.

We are part of Metsä Group

Metsä Fibre is owned by its parent company Metsäliitto Cooperative (50.1 per cent), Metsä Board (24.9 per cent) and Itochu Corporation (25.0 per cent).

Metsä Fibre is part of Metsä Group, which comprises Metsäliitto Cooperative, its two businesses Metsä Forest and Metsä Wood, and the cooperative's subsidiaries Metsä Tissue, Metsä Board and Metsä Fibre. Metsäliitto Cooperative is the parent company of Metsä Group and includes about 104,000 forest owners.

Metsä Group's ownership base and business structure differentiate it positively from its competitors and provide a long-term perspective to its operations. Through Metsäliitto Cooperative's owner-members, Metsä Group has access to a substantial reserve of premium-quality raw material, providing it with a stable, long-term foundation for the development of its operations and production plants. Metsä Group is responsible for Metsä Fibre’s wood supply.

Metsä Fibre's Management Group

The chairman of Metsä Fibre's Management Group is Ismo Nousiainen, CEO of Metsä Fibre. The Management Group is responsible for operational management and prepares proposals to the Board of Directors.

Ismo Nousiainen, CEO

Jari Forss, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Ari Harmaala, Senior Vice President, Sales and Customership

Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen, Senior Vice President, Business Development

Jani Riissanen, Senior Vice President, Sawmill Business

Mikael Westerlund, CFO

Camilla Wikström , Senior Vice President, Production at Pulp Business

Over 100 years of pulp expertise

Metsä Fibre's history began in 1973, when the company was founded as Oy Metsä Botnia Ab for the purpose of building a pulp mill in Kaskinen. Pulp production began in Kaskinen in 1977, but the roots of some of Metsä Fibre's mills go back much further. The oldest part of the company, Kemi Osakeyhtiö, was founded 120 years ago. Our Joutseno mill, founded in 1908, also has long traditions. Over the years, Metsä Fibre has grown from a resource-production company supplying its owner companies to a significant supplier of market pulp and other bioproducts. Today, Metsä Fibre is one of the world's largest producers of bleached softwood market pulp.

Metsä Fibre’s four pulp mills and six sawmills in Finland and Metsä Svir sawmill in Russia are at the top of the industry. Metsä Fibre has pulp mills in Joutseno, Kemi, Rauma and Äänekoski. The combined annual production capacity of our pulp mills is 2.5 million tonnes of Elemental Chlorine Free (EFC) bleached pulp. The Wood consumption (2017)of the pulp mills is approx. 12,6 million cubic metres.

Metsä Fibre built a next-generation bioproduct mill in Äänekoski, which represents the largest investment ever made in the Finnish forest industry. The bioproduct mill came into operation on August 2017.

The Finnish sawmills were ingrated into Metsä Fibre through a group internal transaction on the 1^st of November 2016. The sawmills included in the transaction are Vilppula, Lappeenranta, Renko, Merikarvia, Kyrö and Eskola. These sawmills were previously part of the Metsä Group’s Wood Products Industry Metsä Wood (read more from the release). The sawmills have a total annual (2017) production volume of sawn timber of approximately 1.9 million cubic metres.

Efficient production
We have earned our status as one of the most efficient pulp manufacturers in the world through continuously investing in innovative technologies and operating policies, and in our people. Our mills are efficient and in good condition. They have been built using the best available technology (BAT). Their emissions comply with the BAT emission levels confirmed by the European Commission.

Metsä Fibre’s vision is to be the most efficient and the preferred supplier for high-quality bioproducts and services creating added value to its customers’ businesses. A key factor in efficiency is the continuous improvement of our mills’ performance in terms of production volumes and quality as well as environment and energy. Future investments will focus on improving the environmental performance of our mills and on the Äänekoski bioproduct mill.