BRAZIL (News release) -- Klabin held the inauguration ceremony of Puma II, a project that marked the expansion of the Puma Unit, in Ortigueira, Brazil. This is the largest investment in the Company's history and the largest private investment ever made in the State of Paraná. With an investment of R$12.9 billion for the installation of two new paper machines, the MP27 and MP28, both in operation and with a total production capacity of 910 thousand tons of paper per year, Puma II reinforces the integrated business model , diversified and flexible company.

Announced in 2019, the Puma II Project is part of Klabin's biggest growth cycle in its 124-year history. The first phase, completed in August 2021, included the construction and start-up of Paper Machine 27 (MP27), which manufactures the world's first kraftliner paper made 100% with eucalyptus fiber. Two years later, in June this year, there was the startup of the Paper Machine 28 (MP28), the second of the Project and which focuses on the production of paperboard, consolidating Klabin's position as one of the main global companies in the segment. The equipment also symbolizes Klabin's debut in the white paperboard market, reinforcing the expansion of its product portfolio. Together, the two machines increase Klabin's annual production capacity to 4.7 million tons of paper and cellulose.

Regionally, the two phases of the Puma II Project generated more than 33 thousand direct and indirect jobs.

"The Puma II represents a significant advance for the paper and cellulose industry, which seeks increasingly sustainable, circular and efficient processes. We are proud to officially open this Complex after the expansion phase. The Project is the result of the belief that we seek to make this a better world, based on the potential of the renewable packaging market and the work of our employees, customers and suppliers, and which has been transformative for the entire region, with the generation of income, jobs of work and social evolution", comments Francisco Razzolini, director of Industrial Technology, Innovation, Sustainability and Projects at Klabin.

In parallel to the development of the Puma II Project, Klabin set up a robust logistics operation in order to facilitate the flow of production for export. Next to the Ortigueira factory, a Container Terminal was built, for road and rail transport, with the capacity to take 125 thousand tons of cellulose and paper in containers per month to the Port of Paranaguá, in Paraná. In addition, the Company also began operations at the Klabin Port Terminal (PAR-01), located on the commercial pier of the Port of Paranaguá. With the capacity to receive one million tons of cellulose and paper per year, PAR-01 is part of the logistics investment package made by the Company in the State in recent years. The operation consolidates Klabin's logistics strategy in Paraná, bringing even more competitiveness, flexibility and sustainability and guarantees excellent logistics between forest, factory and port. With the completion of the second phase of Puma II, Klabin estimates it will move 2.2 million tons of paper and cellulose per year via Paranaguá.

Klabin is the largest producer and exporter of packaging paper and sustainable paper packaging solutions in Brazil.