Saica chooses Metso Paper as maintenance partner

Published Mar 8, 2005 13.00.00 +2 GMT

Sociedad Anónima Industrias Celulosa Aragonesa (Saica), the biggest board producer in Spain, has chosen Metso Paper as their maintenance and service partner for the successful future development of their mills in Zaragoza.

To realize the maintenance arrangement, the Metso Paper owned Scandinavian Mill Service Oy and Saica have formed a joint venture company. The new company, Scandinavian Mill Service S.L. (SMS SL), includes four existing service companies that were formerly partly owned by Saica. There will be a total of 125 maintenance professionals working for SMS SL.

In the start-up phase, the product scope of SMS SL will include mill maintenance services and workshop services. Starting in the beginning of 2006 the product scope will be enlarged to include roll services, which will be performed in new facilities near the Saica mill in El Burgo de Riebro. After the start-up of these facilities, Metso Paper becomes a major player in the Iberican service market.

The estimated new business volume for Metso Paper with this arrangement will be tens of millions EUR in the coming years.

”We look for a fruitful and interesting future together with SMS. We feel that it is good that SMS has back-up from Metso Corporation and we believe that having SMS in Spain will be positive for the Spanish and Portuguese paper markets and will also increase the businesses for Metso.” says Pedro Gutierrez, CEO of Saica.

Aftermarket operations are an important and rapidly expanding part of Metso Paper, maintenance outsourcing being one of the fastest growing areas. Today, 3,500 professionals based in over 40 service centers and service points in 30 countries support Metso Paper's aftermarket customers.

Saica is a family owned company and consists of three divisions: Recovered Paper, Paper Making and Corrugated Board. Saica has some 5,400 employees.

For more information, please contact: Kari Kalliala, President, Board Business Line, Metso Paper, Inc. tel. +358 40 540 8335 Ari Mankki, Managing Director, Scandinavian Mill Service, tel. +358 40 582 1408