Stora Enso is selling paper mill Stora Enso Maxau to Schwarz Produktion, a company belonging to the Schwarz Group. Schwarz Produktion has previously been largely involved in food production for supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland. The agreement made public on 13 September uses a company value of around €210m as a basis for the transaction. After all necessary approvals have been granted, the sale is to be concluded by the beginning of 2023 at the latest. Schwarz Produktion intends to continue production in Maxau and to retain the 440 employees.
According to the Stora Enso announcement, the Maxau mill has two paper machines and an annual capacity of approximately 530,000 t SC paper. Waste paper, wood pulp and cellulose are used as raw materials. Recycled fibres are obtained in a de-inking system designed for an annual capacity of approximately 270,000 t. Using this system, the waste paper proportion can be increased to up to 100%. According to the latest available environmental report, in 2020 Stora Enso used 268,143 t of waste paper, 65,650 t of a. d. pulpwood for mechanical pulping and 22,052 t of cellulose to produce 364,024 t of paper in Maxau. At that time, production had been cut back as a consequence of the corona pandemic. Maxau has its own thermal power station. In connection with a new steam turbine commissioned in 2020, the proportion of the energy yield attributable to biomass was stated to be 80%.
