Although sawn and planed wood remain central to Stora Enso’s portfolio, wood-based solutions, driven by end users, such as the construction and furniture industries, will become increasingly important for the company.
For example, its Building Solutions division continues to grow.
“We’ve done a lot of development work around building systems during the last two years,” said Hannu Kasurinen, executive vice-president of Stora Enso Wood Products. “Our new cross-laminated timber (CLT)-based Urban MultiStorey concept has been not only one of the most important Building Solutions actions in strengthening our strategy, it is the dawn of a new era for construction.”
Urban MultiStorey is described as especially suitable for fast, cost-effective high-rise construction and claimed to be more competitive and flexible than alternative multi-storey solutions, notably concrete. In the next project using the system, a whole block in Helsinki is to be transformed into ”Wood City”, a complex of office, hotel and commercial buildings, the first of which are expected to be completed in 2013.
Underlining its ambitions in timber construction, Stora Enso last year acquired Finland’s market-leading large wooden element producer, Eridomic Oy. This will give its CLT-based building system basis for further growth, with Eridomic targeting primarily north European urban multi-storey.
Stora Enso has increased its CLT production capacity in Austria by investing €23m in a second manufacturing unit at its large-scale Ybbs sawmill (its original plant is in Bad St Leonhard). The new 63,500m³ capacity facility will start up in 2012 and its output will be used in the construction of single-family homes, public and multi-storey buildings in central and western Europe.
Currently most of Stora Enso’s CLT products are used in single-family houses in Austria, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland, but it will increasingly target opportunities in multi-storey construction in other markets. These include Nordic countries and the UK, where this year its CLT panels were used to build the eight-storey Bridport House in London. Overall the company forecasts annual CLT growth at 10-15%.
In terms of other processed products, Stora Enso Wood Products’ Industrial Components unit produces a wide range, such as wooden components for the window and door sector, blanks for the moulding, planing and furniture industries, and a variety of modified wood products. It has also switched exclusively to environmentally-friendly non-toxic biocide treatment for external use products.
In Effex, Stora Enso’s pre-finished ”designer” interior wall and ceiling panelling brand, the focus is on developing its ‘Industrial’ offer, a ‘technical’ northern pine range for furniture manufacturing.
And Stora Enso’s evolution will continue, with its Rethink development strategy involving “taking a fresh look at our business and all our products”. This still leaves sawn timber as a key component in its portfolio, but sets the focus ever more on ”end use-driven processed products”.
