Metso Paper to supply pre-engineering for Orinoco Paper Mill

Published Feb 11, 2003 18.10.00 +2 GMT

Desarrollos Serfoca, C.A. (Serfoca), a partner of Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) has awarded Metso Paper with the pre-engineering order for the Orinoco project in Venezuela. This order covers the wood yard, the mechanical pulp plant and the paper mill, as well as the chemical and water management systems. CVG is, through its fully owned subsidiary Proforca, the main owner of forest plantations in Venezuela.

The Orinoco project will consist of a mechanical pulp plant and a 400,000 ton/year state-of-the-art newsprint paper mill. The complex will be located on the north bank of Orinoco River, close to Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela.

The owners of the paper mill will be CVG, Serfoca, other international companies and financial institutions. The raw material, Caribbean Pine, will come from CVG Proforca's planted forests, presently over 500 000 hectares, from which 145 000 hectares are allotted to the Orinoco Paper Mill Project. The partners plan to start construction work in 2003 in order for the production of paper to start in 2005.

The idea to develop an integrated Orinoco Paper Mill project originated in the beginning of 1980’s due to the necessity of commercial utilization of the vast pine plantations in the Guayana area. Since then only small and medium sized sub-projects were implemented and finally in 2001 the main Orinoco project started to develop substantially. In July 2001, CVG and Serfoca signed a letter of intent through which they formalized the interest in establishing a private sector industrial project (Orinoco Paper Mill Project) for the integral processing of Caribbean pine wood.

CVG and Serfoca are forming the Operating Company, Orinoco Paper Mill, by signing the Shareholders Agreement.

Metso Corporation is a global supplier of process industry machinery and systems, as well as know-how and aftermarket services. The Corporation's core businesses are fiber and paper technology (Metso Paper), rock and mineral processing (Metso Minerals) and automation and control technology (Metso Automation). In 2002, the net sales of Metso Corporation were EUR 4.7 billion and the personnel totaled approximately 28,500. Metso Corporation is listed on the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges.

Urbicio Velasquez, Director General Serfoca Tel.+58 212 992 3366 e-mail: urbicio@serfoca.com

Risto Turunen, Vice President, Sales Metso Paper, Paper Making Lines - South America Tel. +55 15 3235-9860, +55 19 9605-4523 e-mail: risto.turunen@metso.com