Metsä has sold the impregnating plant in Kaskinen to Aureskosken Jalostetehdas.
The company will integrate its ThermoWood production, also located in Kaskinen, into the Metsä Wood wood processing division. There were closures at the site last year but the latest move will end wood impregnation by Metsä in Finland.
The group’s further processing plants in France and the UK will continue. Metsä has announced a series of closures and divestments this year at sawmills and processing sites in Finland and Estonia.
In October it said it was cutting a further 200 jobs over the next two years as part of a performance improvement programme.
About 20 jobs are due to go at the mill in Grangemouth in Scotland, which produces decking, deck tiles and includes an MDF facility and treatment plants. It lost a contract with Alsford Timber when it took PAR and mouldings production in-house.
Production capacity at Grangemouth is to be transferred to the company’s other UK plants in Boston, Widnes and King’s Lynn, while Grangemouth will remain as a distribution centre.
In its latest financial statement Metsä said group sales for the first nine months were more or less unchanged from the previous year at €3.72bn. Sales in the third quarter were also largely similar at €1.2bn.
Metsä wood products sales were largely unchanged at €681m, but operating revenues more than doubled to €29.2m as a result of higher prices and the benefit of the restructuring and efficiencies.
Turnover at wood supply and forest services was up slightly at €1.17bn, from €1.16bn a year before, while revenues dipped to €20.1m from €20.7m.
