Värö’s expansion could happen sooner than planned
Phase one of the project to increase Värö’s capacity from just over 700,000 to 780,000 tpy was originally planned for the end of 2022 but it now looks likely that the target could be achieved by Q4 of that year, a few months early.
Project Manager Viktor Jägerström says that no additional downtime will be taken to implement the series of incremental improvements which will lead to the higher capacity: “The project involves six different sub-projects,” he explains, “from ventilation and hydraulics on the drying machine to additional screens and wash press in the fibre line. We can complete many of the jobs during normal operation and the bigger elements that do require shutdown will take place during the rescheduled maintenance break.
“We were due to implement some improvements during the shutdown planned for spring 2022, but we will now be able to install them during this year’s maintenance break in Q4. We decided to delay the latter to help our customers with pulp supply during the first half of 2021. Assuming the situation with Covid-19 will be less critical during the autumn, the supplier has a slot for us in Q4. This means we are on track to finish phase one of the expansion a few months early.
“As well as increased capacity, the project should mean that quality consistency and environmental considerations are also improved. Availability will be increased by removing bottlenecks and adding buffer zones which will lead to a more stable production.”
Once phase one is complete, the aim is to increase Värö’s capacity to 850,000 tpy at a later date.
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Subjects: Pulp
