On 17 November, SCA opened its new saw line at Tunadal sawmill, making it one of the most modern in Europe, from log feed to goods out.

The SEK 500,000m investment is the last stage of a renewal process that began more than 10 years ago.

“We’ve spent in total SEK 1.3bn in transforming the Tunadal sawmill into the internationally competitive facility it has to be if it is to create the maximum possible value from our forest raw materials, in order to supplement SCA’s other forest products in the region and serve as the flagship of our sawn timber business,” said Ulf Larsson, president of SCA Forest Products.

The newly built facility is not only highly cost efficient but also energy efficient, as Mr Larsson said: “We have used cooling water from the sea and heat recovery. The energy for drying is provided through close cooperation with our own production operations, and with Sundsvall Municipality’s energy system in place, it is a very energy efficient solution.”

The sawmill offers a high level of safety and a good, secure work environment for the people working there.

“Tunadal was Sweden’s first steam-powered sawmill and represented the start of the dynamic growth of the forest industry in northern Sweden. More than 150 years later, it is still a flagship in the Swedish forest industry and – in common with the rest of the forest industry – places the highest possible value on the region’s most important natural resource, its forest,” said county governor Gunnar Holmgren.