The company says it’s much cheaper to produce plywood products at its factory in Russia rather than Jyväskylä.
Finnish pulp and paper company UPM is closing its Jyväskylä plywood plant with the loss of 167 jobs.
The plan produces spruce and birch plywood but UPM says the profitability of the operation “has been weak for a long time, even during periods of high demand.”
The company says that despite investments in the Jyväskylä operation, and savings programmes to try and boost its operating profits, the factory never improved to a sustainable level.
“In Finland, a full run of the capacity has not been feasible due to the terms in the woodworking industry. In addition, repeated labour market disturbances have weakened the delivery reliability of Finnish mills” says Mika Sillanpää from UPM.
“According to the plan, the products currently manufactured in Jyväskylä would be produced in other UPM Plywood mills in Finland, Estonia, and Russia” he adds.
UPM has been investing in plywood capacity in Russia where it says production costs are “significantly more competitive than in Finland.”
The company has six plywood mills and one veneer mill in Finland, as well as plywood mills in Russia and Estonia.
