SWEDEN (News release) -- The Land and Environment Court in Vänersborg has communicated its decision to grant a permit for increased production output at the Nordic Paper plant in Bäckhammar, Sweden. The new permit allows for Nordic Paper to, after investments, increase its production of paper pulp in Bäckhammar by more than 20% and of kraft papers by more than 10%. The company is now going to analyse the details of the permit in order to determine any impact on potential investment alternatives.

After successful work with production development and debottlenecking over the past years, Nordic Paper had reached the upper limit for production volume allowed by the previous permit at its Bäckhammar mill. To secure the future development of the mill, Nordic Paper handed in an application for a permit for increased output to the Land and Environment Court in 2020. In parallel with the permit process, the company has investigated the investments required for an increased output. The potential investments include a new wood handling, a tube for treated process water from Bäckhammar to the lake Vänern as well as measures internally in the pulp and paper production.

"The new production permit is an important milestone in the development of the Bäckhammar mill. We now look forward to finalizing our plans and to prepare for a potential investment decision during the year", says Nordic Paper COO Christian Persson.

At Bäckhammar, Nordic Paper manufactures unbleached kraft papers of different qualities primarily for packaging end-uses. The raw material is pulpwood from sustainably managed forests in mid-Sweden as well as sawmill chips. Products made from paper from Bäckhammar include for example sacks for flour, carrier bags and bread pouches. The main market is in Europe but the papers are shipped all over the world.