The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the availability and quality challenges in recycled raw material for tissue production. This has resulted in temporary curtailments of the recycled paper production at Metsä Tissue’s Mariestad mill in Sweden. As a result of this, the fresh fibre portfolios will be prioritized in Metsä Tissue production and no wider delivery issues or tissue paper shortages are to be expected to end users, as fresh fibre raw material has a good and consistent availability.
Similar recycled material availability issues for tissue production are being experienced throughout Europe as a result of high newspaper demand for the packaging industry and a steep decline in office paper usage due to the pandemic and increased remote work. The recycled raw material shortages for tissue industry are expected to continue until further notice, leading to further temporary stops of the recycled production lines.
‘’The challenges in recycled raw material availability are not coming as a surprise to us, but the situation is accelerating faster than anticipated. The good thing is that we are still able to secure good availability of high quality tissue papers made of fresh fibres, such as our Lambi branded products’’, says Jani Sillanpää, Senior Vice President, Nordics, Metsä Tissue.
Metsä Tissue has previously announced that the company’s strategy focuses on the use of fresh fibres as the main raw material for high quality, sustainable tissue paper products. The company is currently planning an investment in the expansion of it’s Mariestad mill in Sweden, focusing on fresh fibre production.