Helsinki, Finland, 16 October 2008 – A new chemical recovery plant was inaugurated today at the UPM Kymi pulp mill in Kuusankoski. Lauri Lamminmäki, manager of change director of the New Kouvola task group, performed the inauguration by signing the charter, which acknowledges the company’s responsible and environmentally conscious operations. The other signatory of the charter was Jussi Pesonen, president and CEO of UPM.

Lamminmäki sees the investment in the plant, which started operations in the summer, as significant for New Kouvola, which will be launched at the turn of the year. "From the viewpoint of the Kymenlaakso region, it is vital that the forest industry increasingly invests in raising the degree of processing and developing new paper products as well as other products made of wood raw material. New Kouvola wants to support this development with its own actions," Lamminmäki said.

According to UPM's Jussi Pesonen, president and CEO, investment in the Kymi recovery plant accurately reflects UPM’s investment policies over the last five years. Half of UPM's strategic investments have been allocated to expanding and improving its energy and pulp capacities, which the company believes will open many future opportunities. Kymi is part of this future.

The EUR 340 million Kymi project is one of Finland’s largest industrial investments in recent years. Kuusankoski has strong know-how in forest energy and bioenergy, further boosted by the construction of the new plant.

The plant was started in June, and air emissions from the Kymi mill already have been reduced. In normal operations, sulphur dioxide emissions are so small that the measured result is zero. Fossil carbon dioxide emissions are only a fraction of the industry average. The new recovery plant makes it possible to lift the percentage of biofuels to over 90 percent in the power production of the integrated Kymi mill. “We have taken a giant leap towards making fine paper production carbon dioxide neutral,” said Yngve Lindström, general manager of the UPM Kymi mill.