Last July, Finnish paper manufacturer UPM announced its intention to close its Plattling mill in Germany for good. With the participation of employee representatives now complete, the two graphic paper machines for publication will cease production by the end of November. 401 employees are affected by this closure.
The shutdown will reduce capacity by 215,000 tonnes of coated paper and 380,000 tonnes of uncoated paper.
This closure is part of "in line with the steps needed to proactively ensure competitiveness" operations of the UPM Communication Papers division and "aligning graphic paper capacity with profitable customer demand" indicated the paper group this summer.
Over the past 15 years, demand for graphic papers has steadily declined, and this trend is set to continue, he estimated. He added that the decline in demand had become more pronounced this year. "On the other hand, long-term predictability of production factors, such as energy supply, is essential for our industry. Uncertainty about the reliability and cost-competitiveness of energy supplies in Germany is currently a major challenge."
In the second quarter of this year, UPM has also stopped one of the paper machines at its Schongau mill in Germany, a machine with an uncoated graphic paper capacity of 165,000 tonnes, and production at its Steyrermühl newsprint mill in Austria, which could produce 320,000 tonnes of newsprint a year.
