Espoo, Finland 06 July 2017 -- Valmet will deliver an EVO-56 Defibrator system to Chiping County Senqiang MDF in China. This is a new fiberboard line and the Defibrator system will produce 30 tons per hour bd (bone dry) unresinated fiber. The start-up is scheduled for June 2018.

The order was included in Valmet's first quarter 2017 orders received. The value of the order will not be disclosed. An order with this scope of supply is usually valued in the range of EUR 1.5-5 million.

"There is a huge demand of MDF and the wood-based panel industry is an upward trend. Currently, the environmental protection requirements become more and more strict. Considering the industrial restructuring and product upgrading, we have decided to invest in the continuous line to produce 300,000 m³ MDF on an annual basis. From this investment, we hope to improve our product quality, reduce consumption and operation cost, to become more environmentally friendly with less emission, to better adapt to the tough market competition and to drive the company to a higher level of development," says Mr. Xu Tao, General manager of Sensen Group.

"We carried out a very careful market investigation and visited many other MDF plants. We chose to buy from Valmet, because we believe Valmet's equipment, technology and service will meet our requirements well," Mr. Xu Tao continues.

"The EVO-56 system is specially designed for production levels up to 32 tons per hour, which is perfect in this case. Chiping County Senqiang has one existing line and this is their first EVO system from Valmet. The fiberboard market is growing in China, and Chiping County Senqiang has own flooring manufacturing and their goal is to be number one in fiberboard quality," says Leif Sundberg, Sales Manager, Pulp and Energy Business Line, Valmet.

Valmet's Defibrator system

The Defibrator system is an essential part in a fiberboard line. Valmet's defibrators are known for their reliability and provide high-quality, homogenous fiber material. The material from Valmet's system has a minimum of shives and low fines content, which is a prerequisite for successful fiberboard production.

About the customer Chiping County Senqiang MDF

The Chiping Senqiang MDF belongs to Sensen group, which was founded in 2001. The company owns five Multi opening MDF lines and the annual production is 400,000 m³. Sensen group's business covers production of formaldehyde, paper printing, lamination, MDF and flooring. Its products are sold in Chinese domestic markets in Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, Jiangsu and Anhui. Flooring is sold also for the international market, for instance US, Columbia, Russia, UK, Ukraine, Malaysia and Iran.

Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. We aim to become the global champion in serving our customers.

Valmet's strong technology offering includes pulp mills, tissue, board and paper production lines, as well as power plants for bioenergy production. Our advanced services and automation solutions improve the reliability and performance of our customers' processes and enhance the effective utilization of raw materials and energy.

Valmet's net sales in 2016 were approximately EUR 2.9 billion. Our 12,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward - every day. Valmet's head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.