Kemijärvi Bio Refinery construction is go as China's Shanying acquires buys stake in Finland's Borealis Bioref
The Kemijärvi Bio Refinery project in Northern Finland is going forward. The news comes from Borealis Bioref, the company behind the venture. Funding was secured by China's Shanying purchasing a majority stake in Borealis.
The capacity of the Bio Refinery is 500,000 tons and the technical planning, feasibility and commercial raw material acquirement deals are in place. As a result of the preparation work by Borealis Bioref, a holding company of China's Shanying Investment Management Co., Ltd have agreed an investment deal where Shanying will become a majority share holder in Boreal Bioref Oy.
The two companies will also be in operative cooperation as Shanying has agreed to purchase produce of the plant. The estimated cost is around 780 Million euros, with construction starting in the summer and completing in 2020. Before production can proceed the project needs to get a favourable environment permit for the facility to be located in Kemijärvi in Northern Finland.
Negotiations have been ongoing since November 2017 and visits have been done to both Finland and China by both parties of the deal. Shanying is an international paper company and the third largest domestic packaging and paper company in China. The Borealis deal is a continuation of a string of acquisitions in Europe, as the company bought the Swedish Nordic Paper in the last quarter of 2017.
Boreal Bioref is a Finnish Biofore Company that will be responsible for planning and constructing of the Bio Refinery in Kemijärvi. The company aims to produce a wide range of products including cellulose, pine oil, ethanol, bio gas and wood based sugars. The plant is expected to use a total of 2,8 Million cubic meters of wood annually. China is already Finland's largest export market for market cellulos, and this deal will allow Borealis Bioref to get into this market.
The Borealis Bioref and Shanying deal is only the latest of many business deals Finland and China have made. Cooperation between is not limited to business only, as leisure travel to Finland from China has also seen significant growth.