Historic Kotka Sawmill to Close by Year's End

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The sawmill founded by Norwegian businessman Hans Gutzeit in Kotka will close at the end of the year. Completed in 1872, the mill now known as Kotkamills was the largest in Finland when it was finished.

The sawmill's 64 employees will be laid off when it closes after over 150 years in the city.

After the success of the Gutzeit's sawmill, several other sawmills sprouted in Finland's southeasetern city of Kotka in the late 1800s. Kotka tour guide Marianne Mikola credited the mills for turning the southeastern city into what it is today.

"I have often wondered whether the city of Kotka would have even existed if no one had built the sawmills," she told Yle.

Gutzeit's sawmill eventually launched the firm Enso, which later merged with the Swedish company Stora to become Stora Enso.

The high cost of raw materials and the decrease in the selling price of sawn timber were reported as the reasons for the mill shutting down.

Valle Niemi, the chief shop steward of the sawmill, said that the closing of the historic sawmill is something he still cannot fully comprehend.

"The sawmill has played a very important role in my life. I have worked at the mill for 20 years," Niemi said.

According to Niemi, what makes the sawmill meaningful is the spirit that has prevailed in the factory, as it employed generations of workers in the community over its 15 decades of history.

Courtesy: www.yle.fi