Krasnojarsk, Russia 20 September 2012 -- Angara Paper is one step closer towards its first pulp mill in Russia. The company has come to an agreement with Japanese trading firm Marubeni Corporation. Marubeni will be responsible for machinery, procurement and for overseeing the construction of the production facility in Lesnosibirsk in the region of Krasnojarsk. This was confirmed by a Marubeni spokesman.

The contract was signed on the fringe of a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Forum held in Russia on 7 and 8 September. Marubeni is the second partner Angara Paper has taken on board since 2011 when Södra Cell agreed to assume the role of project partner for the investment project in addition to marketing and distribution of pulp.

Construction work on the pulp mill is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2013, reports Angara Paper on its website. The facility is to be put into service in 2017. It will have a capacity of 1.2 million t of pulp, 900,000 tpy of which is to be accounted for by bleached hardwood pulp and 300,000 tpy by unbleached birch and aspen pulp. About 80% of the output is earmarked for export to China, Japan, and other Asian regions, reports the Japanese news agency Nikkei. The partners put the cost of the investment project at JPY280bn (€2.7bn).

Marubeni is a globally active universal trading company operating in numerous branches of industry, such as foods, energy, and metal as well as paper and pulp. Marubeni drew attention to itself in May when it took over a billion-dollar US grain merchant. In the pulp sector, the company has a capacity of approximately 1 million t of market pulp, which is manufactured at two facilities in Canada and Indonesia. It also owns majority shares in several Japanese paper and board producers.