FINLAND (News release) -- Metsä Fibre has filed the environmental permit application concerning the Kemi bioproduct mill with the Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland.

The supervisory authority, the Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland, will communicate the application via a public notice. After this, the concerned parties may file statements concerning the application. The permit authority will make a decision on the matter after hearing the applicant in relation to the possible statements. The company expects the bioproduct mill's environmental permit to be granted in early 2020.

The environmental permit is one of the preconditions for a decision to invest in the new bioproduct mill. The final investment decision will be made in the summer of 2020 at the earliest, in which case the bioproduct mill would start up during the first half of the 2020s.

If implemented, the approximately Euro 1.5 billion bioproduct mill planned by Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group, would be the largest ever forest industry investment in Finland. The mill's pulp production capacity would be 1.5 million tonnes a year, in addition to which the mill would also produce other bioproducts. The mill would be built in Metsä Group's existing mill site in Kemi, Finland, and it would replace the existing pulp mill.