MM Karton drives Backwards Integration
In mid-June 2013, Mayr-Melnhof Karton has signed an agreement on the acquisition of a pulp mill near Trondheim, Norway, to secure our supply of high-quality CTMP (chemothermomechanical pulp). An annual capacity of 130,000 tons has the potential to replace external supply by self-sufficiency.
One of the key challenges in our industry is to secure the long-term availability of raw materials, and we have just overcome one such challenge by securing our own supply of high-grade wood pulp: While we have been producing mechanical pulp directly in our cartonboard mills for many years, now we are soon being able to draw on consistently checked in-house CTMP for the production of our cartonboard qualities.
Virgin fibres make up about a quarter of the fibres currently processed in all seven MM Karton mills. The mechanical and chemical pulp is obtained exclusively from sustainably-managed forests and controlled sources. Permanent measures to ensure the efficient and responsible use of resources is essential for achieving our sustainability goals. Therefore our newly acquired pulp mill may only process materials from sustainably-managed forests that are certified by international forestry standard systems like FSC® or PEFC.
Gaining a new source of high-quality wood pulp means that MMK is taking a further step ahead in its virgin fibre cartonboard products ensuring sustainable supply and improved quality. Production of wood pulp is scheduled to commence in the next few weeks with a staff of approximately 50 employees.
