Skarta Finland started work on the construction site of the Kemi bioproduct factory
24.02.21In the first half of the year, Skarta Finland Oy (former Suomen Maastorakentajat Oy) started construction work on the Metsä Fibre Oy bioproduct factory site in Kemi. Metsä Fibre Oy is part of the Metsä Group. The contract includes the construction of a drying plant, a baling plant, a chlorine dioxide plant and a workshop.
“This is a demanding foundation engineering project that includes, for example, the construction of a supported excavation of a pulper. The contract area is approximately 3 hectares, and the contract period lasts until the October of this year,” says Jari Häkkinen, Project Manager at Skarta Finland.
Giant investment of 1.6 billion
Metsä Group’s Kemi bioproduct plant is the largest investment in the history of the Finnish forest industry; it is worth EUR 1.6 billion. The environmentally, energy- and material-efficient plant operates entirely without fossil fuels.
Through its direct value chain, the plant will employ approximately 2,500 people, of whom approximately 1,500 will be new employees. The value of Finnish exports will be increased by half a billion euros a year by the Kemi bioproduct plant.
The Kemi plant is called a bioproduct plant because it produces, without fossil fuels, a variety of other bioproducts in addition to pulp, and it also produces significantly more bio-based electric energy than a traditional pulp mill. The plant produces annually 2.0 TWh of renewable electricity, with the self-sufficiency rate of the plant’s electric energy being 250 per cent. The excess electricity is delivered to the national grid.
The construction phase of the factory investment of Metsä Fibre, a Metsä Group company, will take approximately 2.5 years. The factory is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2023.
