Metso Paper steps up Service offering with major investments

Published June 6, 2007 10.00.00 +2 GMT

Metso Paper is continuously expanding its Service operations at a broad front. The four European and Asian investment projects described below are examples of Metso Paper's long-term commitment to provide its local clientele with first-class service products and know-how.

New Roll Service Center for the Iberian Peninsula

In Zaragoza, Spain, Metso Paper inaugurated a brand new Roll Service Center on 26 February. The new center is a joint venture between Metso Paper and SAICA (S.A. Industrias Celulosa Aragonesa) and will serve pulp, paper, tissue and boardmakers in the Iberian Peninsula.

Metso Paper currently employs almost 200 people in Zaragoza and has invested in new state-of-the-art equipment. The company has also strengthened its local aftermarket sales organization in Spain and Portugal.

Until now the joint venture offering has included mill maintenance, e.g. mechanical, electrical and automation maintenance capabilities and workshop services, such as servicing paper machine components. The new roll service center adds roll grinding and scheduled maintenance as an important extension to this scope.

Full-scope maintenance at Plattling Papier, Germany

At the new Plattling Papier paper mill in Germany, Metso Paper will establish and operate maintenance services through its Scandinavian Mill Service (SMS) subsidiary. The mill is scheduled to start up in the first quarter of 2008.

The agreement covers both the establishment of a maintenance infrastructure, such as building up an organization and computerized maintenance management system, and the maintenance operations themselves.

The operations consist of roll maintenance and daily maintenance, the focus being on preventive and predictive activities. SMS will be responsible for mechanical, electrical, automation and civil maintenance for the entire mill.

SMS uses the latest state-of-the-art maintenance concepts combined with Metso’s machinery, process and automation know-how, and the operator maintenance principle. Once fully operational, SMS will employ 40 people in Plattling.

The Scandinavian Mill Service Group operates and develops pulp and paper industry maintenance. The Group employs approximately 500 people in Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Czech Republic and Spain, and now also in Germany. The Group is owned by Metso Paper and Metso Automation.

New service center to Guangzhou, China

In China, where Metso Paper has supplied a large number of new production lines and machines in recent years, the company will establish its second Service Center. To be located in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, the new Center will provide advanced machinery maintenance and process development services to the pulp and paper making industry in southern China.

The new greenfield Service Center will be operational in 2008. In the beginning, the center will employ 40 service professionals - recruiting of personnel is already ongoing.

The Guangzhou Center will feature a fully equipped roll service workshop providing rolls, roll covers as well as mechanical roll maintenance for all makes and sizes of pulp and paper machines. In addition, the center will offer a full scope of spare part and mill site services.

Roll service capacity doubled in Wuxi

Also in China, Metso Paper is extending its Wuxi Service Center. Located about 100 kilometers west of Shanghai in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, the Wuxi Service Center provides advanced machinery maintenance and process development services to the Chinese fiber and paper industry.

The new extension will double the roll service capacity of the Wuxi center to serve a wider customer base and to offer more flexibile and faster service. The extension will be completed in October 2007. The Wuxi Service Center, inaugurated in September 2001, began operations with 60 employees. The number of employees has now reached over a hundred and will grow further with the extension.

The Wuxi center features a fully equipped roll service workshop that provides roll covers as well as mechanical roll maintenance for all roll types. In addition, the center provides replacement rolls and full-scale services for spare parts and tailored consumables such as doctoring products.The operations are supported by Metso Paper's Logistics Center in WaiGaoQiao, Shanghai.

To support the customers' production and maintenance operations, the Wuxi Service Center offers modular, specialist-based maintenance services. Also more comprehensive cooperation concepts like service agreements are provided. In addition to extensive back-up for Metso Paper's existing installations in China, the center’s services are also available for other makes of fiber and papermaking machinery, including panel board lines.

Metso Paper's first deliveries to China date back to the late 1950's and over the years China has emerged as one of Metso Paper's key market areas. Strengthening local service operations is a vital part of Metso Paper's continuing commitment and support to the Chinese pulp and paper industry.

Metso is a global engineering and technology corporation with 2006 net sales of approximately EUR 5 billion. Its 25,500 employees in more than 50 countries serve customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, the energy industry and selected other industries. www.metso.com

For more information, please contact: Petri Tolonen Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing Metso Paper Service + 358 40 722 0372 petri.tolonen@metso.com