NORWAY (News release) -- Norway's Prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre and the Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre visited Viken Skog's Follum mill in Hønefoss. The plan of BillerudKorsnäs and the Norwegian forest owner group Viken Skog to establish production of bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp (BCTMP) in Norway attracts large interest.

Viken Skog and the Swedish packaging manufacturer BillerudKorsnäs are collaborating to establish a wood pulp facility in Treklyngen Industripark, the area Viken Skog bought after Norske Skog Follum shut down paper production in 2012. Through a long-term partnership with Viken Skog, BillerudKorsnäs will secure both tailormade BCTMP and wood supply supporting the strategy for sustainable and profitable growth in paperboard. The Follum mill already has much of the infrastructure needed to establish such a production line and is in an area with competitive and sustainable wood supply and good transports to BillerudKorsnäs' board mills. The ongoing feasibility study is expected to be completed during the first half of 2023.

"BillerudKorsnäs strategy has a clear goal - to deliver sustainable growth in packaging materials. To get the opportunity to develop the new mill in Follum as a state of the art sustainable operation is in line with our strategy. We aim for negative CO2 footprint in production with bio gas and carbon capture," says Christoph Michalski, President and CEO at BillerudKorsnäs.

The mill will be developed to a sustainable operation with high energy efficiency and low carbon-foot print from the operation and product in the value chain. The concept will include production of biogas, use of excess heat for district heating, and possibly also carbon capture. All these activities will be developed with their domain partners. This project is well aligned with the Norwegian governments ambition to raise new green industry in Norway based on forest and wood resources. In addition, the project is one of the rare large industry projects in the center of Norway, rather than at the coast.

BillerudKorsnäs is one of the leading manufacturers of packaging paper made from virgin fibers.

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