UPM Plywood is planning to permanently close its Jyväskylä plywood mill, which is producing spruce and birch plywood. The company starts a consultation process concerning the entire personnel working at the mill.
UPM Jyväskylä plywood mill employs 167 people.
UPM Plywood is planning to scale down plywood production in Finland. The Finland plywood giant UPM Plywood has announced that it intends to close its Jyväskylä plywood mill in Finland. Despite investments as well as improvement activities, the mill’s profitability remains an issue, even during periods of high demand on the plywood. Jyväskylä mill employs 160 people and has been manufacturing spruce and birch plywood.
According to UPM Plywood, the plywood currently manufactured in the closed factory would be transferred to other UPM Plywood mills in Estonia and Russia.
The company has started a consultation process concerning the entire personnel working at the mill.
Competition in the birch plywood market is increasing constantly. Huge birch plywood capacity has been built in Russia where the plywood cost is much lower than that of Finland. If the close down realized, the planned actions would strengthen UPM Plywood’s overall competitiveness and profits in the long run. We also see an increase of birch plywood production in Far East countries like China.
“In Finland, a full run of the capacity has not been feasible due to the terms in the woodworking industry. In addition, repeated labor market disturbances have weakened the delivery reliability of the Finnish manufacturer.
UPM will recognize restructuring charges of approximately EUR 22 million as items affecting comparability in its Q2 2020 results. The planned actions would result in annual savings of approximately EUR 11 million.
Who is UPM?
UPM is a plywood manufacturer that offers WISA® plywood for construction, vehicle flooring, LNG shipbuilding, parquet manufacturing, and other industrial applications. In 2019 UPM company sales were EUR 450 million and it had around 2,300 workers. UPM has six plywood mills and one veneer mill in Finland as well as plywood mills in Russia and Estonia.
The Wisa brand birch plywood has been used in many of the most famous projects in the world. It represents high quality and performance.
UPM Presence in China
In 1998, UPM bought a majority share from the Changshu paper mill in China. In the past 20 years, UPM has invested over 2 billion US dollars in China. UPM has strongly focused on sales and marketing of its pulp, plywood and sawn timber in China.
Wisa brand plywood has been used by LNG ship manufacturers, 2018 Olympic Stadium, and Speed Train production in China. Its plywood business unit is located in Shanghai.
