Pöyry Awarded Board Machine Rebuild Contract in Russia

Helsinki, Finland, 16 August 2006 -- Poyry's Forest Industry business group has signed an agreement with JSC (Joint Stock Company) St. Petersburg Cardboard and Printing Plant, (SPb KPK), for the rebuild of their board machine at the plant in Kommunar, Gatchina area, in the Leningrad region of Russia. The services will be provided in 2006-2008. The value of the assignment has not been disclosed.

The services comprise partial basic and complete implementation engineering for the rebuild of the BM 1 production line (PL BM1) and construction supervision services to be provided by several Pöyry companies in Finland, Poland, and Russia.

Pöyry's partner ZAO Giprobum Engineering will be responsible for local permitting and adaptation engineering. The objective of the project is to improve the basic quality indicators of coated packing paper grades Atlantika and Neva to correspond to their European equivalents GD-2 and GD-3. Additionally, the project aims at increasing the BM's capacity from 110,000 metric tons/year to 190,000 metric tons/year and reducing operating costs. The rebuilt board machine is scheduled for start-up in June 2008.

The main owners of JSC St. Petersburg Cardboard and Printing Plant are Ilim Pulp Enterprise and the German company Knauf. The project is a major undertaking for JSC St. Petersburg Cardboard and Printing Plant. In value terms, the rebuild engineering contract is their largest engineering project ever.

For Pöyry, the assignment represents an important opening in view of the increasing number of investments expected in the Russian pulp and paper industry. It also supports Pöyry's strategy to notably increase its presence and operations volume in Russia.

Pöyry is a global consulting and engineering firm focusing on the energy, forest industry and infrastructure and environment sectors. Pöyry's annual net sales amount to about EUR 600 million and it employs 6000 experts.