St.Petersburg, Russia 25 April 2013 -- On April 24, the first market pulp was produced at the new softwood pulp line that was built at the Bratsk Mill of Ilim Group located in Bratsk, Russia. This is a key milestone of the Big Bratsk project. Rump up to full production will continue over the next 6 months.

«It is a great day for our company and all Russian pulp-and-paper industry. One of the largest projects in the industry for the last 30 years is reaching completion. We had successfully built the most modern softwood pulp line in the world. This will strengthen our position at our key markets», — said Paul Herbert, Ilim Group's CEO.

Total investments in Big Bratsk project exceeded 800 mln dollars. The capacity of the new mill would be 720 thousand tons of bleached softwood pulp per year. The total annual production volume in Bratsk will exceed 1 million tons. The majority of the production from the new fiber line will be exported to China.