SWEDEN (News release) -- On 26 April 2019 Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, announced that it will launch pre-engineering for the first phase of the planned renewal of its Husum pulp mill in Sweden. The first phase of the renewal consists of a new recovery boiler and a new turbine. Metsä Board estimated earlier that the final decision on the planned investment could be made in the fourth quarter of 2019, at the earliest. The estimate was based on an assumption that the new boiler can be operated under the existing environmental permit.

The competent authority in Sweden, Länsstyrelsen, has decided that the planned new recovery boiler will require an amendment in the environmental permit. Metsä Board has readiness to apply for an amended permit immediately. Similar permit processes in Sweden have typically taken between 6 and 12 months. Based on the decision by Länsstyrelsen, Metsä Board now estimates that the final investment decision for the first phase of the renewal can be made in the second quarter of 2020, at the earliest.