Espoo, Finland 16 December 2016 -- Valmet will deliver key technology for a new green field dissolving pulp mill to Sun Paper's new investment in Laos. The mill site, Muang Phin, is located in the southern province of Savanakhet. The target is to start pulp production during the 2^nd quarter of 2018.

The order is included in Valmet's fourth quarter 2016 orders received. The value of the order is around EUR 20 million.

"This is our first international investment where we are expanding beyond China. Laos has shown to be a good location for this mill from where we will supply high profit dissolving to China. China is an important market for dissolving pulp and we expect to gain higher profits from dissolving pulp compared to kraft pulp in China," says Liu Yanbo, Mill Manager at Sun Paper".

"We are very pleased to start this dissolving pulp mill project together with Sun Paper. Valmet has long experience and a wide scope of technologies in supplying equipment and processes for the production of dissolving pulp for various end products. Together with our customer we will create a mill producing pure high-quality pulp," says Pasi Mäkelä, Vice President, Pulp Mill Sales at Valmet.

Valmet has strong market position and is systematically increasing its presence at the Asia Pacific region. All of Valmet's businesses are present in the area and in 2015 it represented about 13% of Valmet's net sales, excluding China that represented another 10 % of Valmet's net sales. Valmet has 10 service points in the area and is opening a new services center in Indonesia in 2017.

Technical details about the delivery

Valmet delivery to Sun Paper's new 250 kt/year dissolving pulp mill in Laos includes key technology for various process areas. Valmet's scope of supply includes batch cooking with engineering package, brown stock and bleaching presses for the fiber line, wood powder firing, belt dryer and lime kiln. Valmet also establishes site services for all goods delivered.

The batch cooking is an ideal fit for this kind of dissolving pulp production. In batch cooking the process can utilize raw materials with varying quality. The wood powder firing solution provides fuel for the lime kiln solution and reduces the need for fossil fuels. This wood power firing implementation is first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region.

About the customer Sun Paper

Sun Paper is one of the biggest private enterprises in China, the biggest high class coated wrapping board production base and the leading enterprise of food wrapping paper board. The business of Sun Paper covers many fields such as papermaking, chemical industry, foreign trade, power, scientific research, forestry and paper industry, hotel, investment, textiles, and food. The company has more than 10,000 employees, and the annual pulp and paper production capacity of Sun Paper is around 5.7 million tons.

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 2015 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.