UPM (company)


UPM-Kymmene Oyj is a Finnish forest industry company. UPM-Kymmene was formed by the merger of Kymmene Corporation with Repola Oy and its subsidiary United Paper Mills Ltd in 1996. UPM consists of six business areas: UPM Fibres, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Communication Papers and UPM Plywood. The Group employs around 17,000 people and it has production plants in 11 countries. UPM shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki stock exchange. UPM is the only paper company listed in the global Dow Jones Sustainability Index and also a member of the United Nations Global Compact organization.
UPM is the owner and maintainer of the Verla mill, which has been a museum since 1972 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

History

The company's oldest mill was Papeteries de Docelles located in northeastern France, which produced traditional handpaper at the end of the 15th century. The mill got its first paper-making machine in the 1830s. UPM Docelles was disbanded in 2014.
The company has a long tradition of forest industries in Finland. The company's first paper mills and sawmills were put into operation in the beginning of the 1870s. Pulp manufacturing began in the 1880s and paper converting in the 1920s. The company started manufacturing plywood in the 1930s. Several Finnish forest industry companies have merged with the forerunner companies of UPM, such as: Walkiakoski, Jämsänkoski, Kaukas, Halla, Kajaani, Toppila, Kymmene, Kuusankoski, Kymi, Voikkaa, Lohjan Paperi Oy, Wilh. Schauman, W. Rosenlew, Raf. Haarla and Myllykoski.
The company logo, the griffin, was designed by Hugo Simberg in 1899. It is probable that the griffin was chosen as the company logo because it represents a guardian of the northern forests. The griffin logo is the oldest continuous company logo in Finland.

2000–2010

Due to worldwide overproduction of paper, UPM announced a cost reduction program in 2006. The Voikkaa paper mill in Kuusankoski was closed and nearly 3,000 employees in Finland were laid off. After the closure, the area was transformed into the Voikkaa business area.
The Miramichi paper mill in New Brunswick, which UPM acquired in 2000, was closed in 2007. Also a number of plywood mills and sawmills were closed during the years. In December 2008 UPM closed Kajaani paper mill and Tervasaari pulp mill in Valkeakoski. 1,100 employees were laid off. The former premises of the Kajaani mill were turned into a business park called Renforsin Ranta.

2011–2020

The overcapacity continued in graphic paper business and in 2011, UPM acquired Myllykoski Corporation and Rhein Papier GmbH, which consists of seven publication paper mills in Germany, Finland and the United States. In France, UPM closed Stracel paper mill in 2013 and Docelles paper mill in 2014. Madison paper mill in the USA was closed in 2016.The Schwedt paper mill in Germany was sold in 2017. Specialty paper production expanded to China and Germany in 2015 and 2019, respectively. Kaipola paper mill in Finland was closed in 2020.
In 2015, the production of wood-based biofuels started at the biorefinery in Lappeenranta, Finland.
In July 2019, UPM announced that it will invest US$2.7 billion in a eucalyptus pulp mill near Paso de los Toros in central Uruguay. The new pulp mill was started up in April 2023 with a total investment of US$3.47 billion and has a production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of pulp per year. This is the second pulp mill the company opened in Uruguay, after the UPM Fray Bentos, which makes 1.3 million tonnes of pulp per year.
In January 2020, UPM announced that it will invest EUR 550 million in an industrial scale biorefinery to convert solid wood into next-generation biochemicals: bio-monoethylene glycol and lignin-based renewable functional fillers. The biorefinery will also produce bio-monopropyleneglycol and industrial sugars. The total annual capacity of the biorefinery will be 220,000 tonnes. The facility is scheduled to start up by the end of 2023. The capital expenditure estimate has been increased to EUR 750 million.

Businesses

Business areas

UPM manufactures fibre products, wood products, molecular bioproducts and low-emission energy in six business areas. These business areas are connected with a common idea: to create value from renewable and recyclable raw materials by synthesizing them with know-how and technology.
  • UPM Fibres
  • UPM Energy
  • UPM Raflatac
  • UPM Specialty Papers
  • UPM Communication Papers
  • UPM Plywood

    UPM Fibres

UPM Fibres consists of pulp and timber businesses. UPM has five modern pulp mills: three in Finland and two in Uruguay, and also four sawmills in Finland. The pulp mills produce 5.8 million tons of high quality pulp annually. 27% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Fibres in 2022.
In July 2019 UPM announced that it will invest US$2.7 billion in a eucalyptus pulp mill near Paso de los Toros in central Uruguay. In January 2022, UPM updated the total investment estimate to US$3.47 billion. The new pulp mill was started up in April 2023.

UPM Energy

UPM Energy's power generation capacity consists of hydropower, nuclear power and thermal power. UPM Energy is the second largest electricity producer in Finland. UPM owns 47.69% of Pohjolan Voima Oyj, which is a majority shareholder in Teollisuuden Voima Oyj. UPM also owns 9 hydropower plants in Finland. 18% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Energy in 2022.

UPM Raflatac

UPM Raflatac manufactures labelling materials for branding and promotion and information labelling in the food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical and retail segments, for example. UPM Raflatac has 12 factories and 24 slitting and distribution terminals in all continents. 10% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Raflatac in 2021.

UPM Specialty Papers

UPM Specialty Papers offers labelling and packaging materials as well as office and graphic papers for labelling, commercial siliconising, packaging, office use and printing. The paper mills are located in China, Germany and Finland. 7% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Speciality Papers in 2022.

UPM Communication Papers

UPM has 13 paper mills in Finland, Germany, Great Britain, France, Austria and the United States. Several of the mills work simultaneously as recycling centres and as producers of bioenergy. In terms of revenue, paper production is still the largest business group of the company. 30% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Communication Papers in 2022.

UPM Plywood

UPM is the largest plywood manufacturer in Europe. The plywood operations consists of eight plywood mills in Finland and Estonia. 5% of the company's comparable EBIT came from UPM Plywood in 2022.

Other businesses

UPM offers a wide selection of different services for forest owners. UPM owns 522,000 hectares of forest in Finland. All of the company's forests are certified.
Most of the wood needed for the UPM factories is acquired from private forests of Finland. UPM is acquiring all kinds of wood and uses it to produce pulp, paper, plywood, sawn timber and energy. UPM refines UPM Bonvesta properties from its real estates.
UPM Biofuels, UPM Biochemicals, UPM Biomedicals and UPM Biocomposites businesses form a business unit UPM Biorefining. UPM Biofuels produces wood-based renewable diesel for all diesel engines and renewable naphtha that can be used as a biocomponent for gasoline or for replacing fossil raw materials in the petrochemical industry. UPM Biochemicals offers and develops wood-based biochemicals. The product segments are glycols, lignin products and renewable functional fillers. UPM Biomedicals develops and supplies wood-based biomedical products for various applications. UPM Biocomposites offers composite materials for outdoor building material and consumer products. UPM is currently constructing a biochemical refinery in Leuna, Germany. The biorefinery is scheduled to start production by the end of 2023. The capital expenditure estimate is EUR 750 million.

Biofore

In 2009, UPM created the term "Biofore" to describe new forest industry. The Biofore term is also used in the company's slogan: UPM - The Biofore Company. In 2018, UPM launched brand promise 'UPM Biofore – Beyond fossils'. In 2021 UPM stated its purpose: 'We create a future beyond fossils'.

Global operations

UPM's products are manufactured in 11 countries and the company has a worldwide sales network. UPM's production plants are located in
China, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Malaysia, Poland, UK, Uruguay and USA.

China

UPM has two production units in China: UPM Changshu paper mill and UPM Raflatac, Changshu Labelstock factory. Changshu is located in the Province of Jiangsu by the Yangtze River, some 100 km from Shanghai.

France

UPM has one production unit in France. The UPM Raflatac labelstock factory located in Pompey, 10 km north of Nancy and 40 km south of Metz.

Germany

UPM has seven production units in Germany.
  • UPM Augsburg paper mill, located by the river Lech in the city of Augsburg, a town in southern Germany, some 65 km from Munich
  • UPM Ettringen paper mill, in the town of Ettringen
  • UPM Hürth paper mill, located in the town of Hürth
  • UPM Nordland Papier, located in Dörpen, a village in northwestern Germany, some 250 km from Hamburg
  • UPM Plattling paper mill, located in the town of Plattling
  • UPM Schongau paper mill, located in the city of Schongau, a town in Upper Bavaria
There is also a wood plastic composite factory in Germany: UPM ProFi, Bruchsal wood plastic composite factory, located in Bruchsal approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Distance to Frankfurt is some 120 km and to Stuttgart some 80 km.

UK

UPM has two production units in the United Kingdom.