Metso Paper establishes a sales company in India

Published Sept 22, 2005 08.00.00 +2 GMT

Metso Paper has established a new sales company, Metso Paper India Pvt. Ltd., 

near New Delhi, India.

With the new company, led by General Manager
Manos Mukherjee, Metso Paper is able to offer the Indian pulp and paper industry
a full range of products and services from the same source, including new
machine lines, rebuilds, process improvements and aftersales service. The
company's areas of business are paper, board and tissue making lines, chemical
and mechanical pulping, and service.

The establishment of Metso Paper
India demonstrates Metso Paper's high level of commitment to the emerging Indian
market and its willingness to serve the Indian customers locally with
high-quality technology and expert services.

In 2004, the Indian paper
and board industry produced a total of 6.55 million tonnes and the consumption
was 7.24 million tonnes. In 2015, both figures are estimated to be in the 13
million tonnes range, giving an average annual growth rate of approximately 6 %
versus the global growth rate of 2.2 %. In 2004, the per capita consumption of
paper and board in India was 6.7 kg. The main grades produced are printing and
writing papers (34 %), industrial boards (47 %), and newsprint (10 %). Paper and
board production in the country is very fragmented, excluding
newsprint.

The major challenges of the Indian pulp and paper industry are
related to the low scale of operation, capacity utilization, and efficiency of
installed machine base, as well as the high cost of transportation, capital, and
raw materials. The annual capacity of an average paper machine in India is only
14,000 tonnes.

Metso Paper has supplied paper machine rebuilds,
components, and fiber systems to a number of producers all around India since
the late 1980's. The new sales office will be located in Gurgaon, near New
Delhi, the same premises with Metso Automation and Metso Minerals.

The
General Manager of Metso Paper India, Mr. Manos Mukherjee, aged 55, has worked
with the Indian paper industry for the last 35 years. Before joining Metso he
was working in Sweden for a trading house dealing with pulp and paper
machinery.

Metso is a global technology corporation serving
customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, energy
industry as well as in selected other industries. In 2004, the net sales of
Metso Corporation were approx. EUR 4 billion, and it has some 23,000 employees
in more than 50 countries. Metso's shares are listed in the Helsinki and New
York Stock Exchanges.


For more information, please
contact:
Manos Mukherjee, General Manager, Metso Paper India Pvt.
Ltd.
Tel. +91 98 99 00 41 40, e-mail: manos.mukherjee@metso.com