Stora Enso is proceeding with its plans to reduce newsprint
capacity by another 475,000 tpy before the start of price negotiations for the
second half of the year. Negotiations on job cuts in Hylte and Kvarnsveden
still ongoing. Yesterday, Stora Enso has stopped production on two
newsprint machines in Sweden, PM 2 at the Hylte mill and PM 11 at the company’s
Kvarnsveden mill. In February, Stora Enso announced it would permanently shut
down the two machines during the second quarter due to continuing structural
weakening of newsprint demand in Europe.
According to Stora Enso, newsprint production on the 205,000
tpy PM 2 in Hylte has been closed down for good, but determination negotiations
with employee representatives on the total number of job cuts have not been
concluded yet. The outcome of these proceedings is expected for June. In the case of the 270,00 tpy PM 11 in Kvarnsveden, the
company explained it had halted production for the time being in what is said
to be a market related stoppage. Negotiation between the company and employee
representatives regarding the permanent shut down of PM 11 and the total number
of jobs affected by the closure were still going on.
