A €50m sawmill is to be built in Latvia by Stora Enso Timber as part of its new Baltic Production Group.
The move is part of the expansion programme the company announced last year when it bought a majority shareholding in Sylvester‘s five sawmills and a component mill in Estonia and Latvia.
To be built at Krustpils, the sawmill will concentrate on European construction markets, complementing the existing product range in the timber frame business.
Executive vice-president Peter Kickinger said: “It will also support the coordination of our wood procurement, especially log supply, in the Baltic states together with Launkalne sawmill in northern Latvia and Alytus sawmill, which will start production in September in southern Lithuania.
The production capacity of the Krustpils sawmill will be 350,000m3 a year, of which 230,000m3 will be planed and partly finger-jointed and strength graded.
Construction will start in December and start-up is scheduled for November 2004.
