Capacity expansion project at Metsä Board’s Husum mill progresses

To meet the growing demand for sustainably produced packaging materials, Metsä Board confirmed last year an investment to increase the annual folding boxboard production capacity at its Husum mill by 200,000 tonnes.

To extend the current capacity, detailed engineering at the mill is ongoing and civil works have been in progress for several months.  The board machine will be extended by 54m, which requires an extension of the machine hall basement as well.

Håkan Jonsson, Project Director, says, “We have built a building in the building to be able to do the extensive civil demolition works safely and at the same time to be able to continue production on BM1.”

The extension of the board machine has been planned using simulation and 3D models. The dry-end of the board machine will be renewed, and the reel handling will be fully automated. There are also several improvements to the infrastructure to enable a smooth-running operation at the site.  All the main machinery purchases for the project have been undertaken, with Valmet as our main machinery supplier.

Jonsson continues, “The team spirit is good – we are a dedicated team with a positive attitude. The cooperation with machine suppliers and main consultants has worked smoothly.”

The project organisation is now manned with 24 people and on top of that, they have some individuals working part time on the project. More resources for installation management and commissioning activities will be added later. There are presently approximately 30 contractors working on site, mainly in civil works.

Jonsson concludes, “The upcoming fully automatic reel handling is impressive and will enable smooth production flows.  We’ve conducted a simulation to make sure that there are no bottlenecks built into the system. The operators will be able to focus on the machine performance and the quality of the paperboard.”

The start up of the renewed board machine is planned for the autumn of 2023 with full production capacity estimated to be reached by the end of 2025.