UPM Declares Giant Investment in New Uruguay Pulp Mill

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Finnish pulp and paper maker UPM will invest Euro 2 billion in building a new pulp mill in Uruguay. Earlier in November 2017, the company had signed an infrastructure investment deal with the Latin American country, as part of the company strategy to shift its focus from production of print paper to pulp. The mill will be built close to the city of Paso de los Toros and will have a planned capacity of about 2 million tonnes of eucalyptus market pulp.

According to UPM press release, technical studies are being carried out and applications for necessary permits are under process. The new pulp plant is expected to start operations by around 2021 and is projected to provide significant boost to employment and regional economy, it said. Estimates project minimum 2% boost to GDP and huge prospects for development of related services in the region.

Petri Hakanen, Senior Vice President of the UPM Uruguay Development Project urged the country’s administration to speed up the construction of infrastructure facilities including rail and road network from the inland mill to the port of Montevideo and a modern pulp terminal. Uruguay is expected to invest around $1 billion in logistics development, he said. Implementation of the infrastructure projects is critically important, Hakanen reminded.

UPM’s current operations in Uruguay include the Fray Bentos pulp mill, which started functioning in 2007.