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Stora Enso leaves paper production in China

Stora Enso has signed an agreement to divest its 60% equity stake in the Dawang Mill in China, to its joint venture partner, Shandong Huatai Paper. The joint venture, Stora Enso Huatai (Shandong) Paper Company Limited operated the Dawang paper mill at Dongying in the Shandong province. Source: Timberbiz

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. After this transaction, Stora Enso will not have any paper production in China.

The mill has an annual production capacity of 140,000 tonnes of super-calendered (SC) magazine paper and other publication paper grades based on recovered fibre.

Following the transaction, Stora Enso’s net debt will decrease by approximately EUR 22 million and annual sales by approximately EUR 60 million.

“We have had a joint venture partnership with Huatai over the past 10 years of operation and believe Huatai can develop Dawang Mill for the long-term benefit of Chinese paper customers,” Kati ter Horst, EVP, Stora Enso’s Paper division said.

Shandong Huatai is a publicly-listed company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, China with sales of EUR 1.89 billion in 2018. The company is based in the city of Dongying, China and its primary products include newsprint, coated paper and offset paper.