Baikal pulpmill stopped production

Baikal pulp and paper mill has stopped production. According to the bankruptcy supervisor Alexander Ivanov, conservation of the enterprise is now being prepared. “In the near future the project of dismantling some of the buildings of the mill will be ready,” said Ivanov. The conservation of equipment will take three months; two more years are needed for the gradual closure of the mill in compliance with all ecological norms.

After the shutdown of the mill, first dismissals started. Some workers are ready to leave on their own. Employees will receive severance pay in the amount of five monthly salaries.

Irkutsk authorities have informed that they are willing to finance conversion training of laid-off professionals from the budget. Job applications are also proposed by the Irkutsk heavy machinery plant, Selenginsky pulp and board mill and Tikhvin wagon works. In addition, this area homes the special economic zone “Gates of Baikal”, where the Russian government intends to develop tourism.

The closure of the mill has led to another problem: timber companies in the region have lost a large consumer of waste wood, Kommersant paper writes.

The Baikal pulpmill consumed about 500,000 m3 of raw materials for the production of pulp, and the released amount of wood wastes now can’t be redirected anywhere.

The situation may change after the new line of Ilim Group in Bratsk reaches its rated capacity (720,000 tonnes of softwood pulp). According to the company, this will happen within half a year.

However, experts consider that this capacity is not enough for the disposal of all waste wood. The way out of this for the companies of Irkutsk region may lay in the use of biomass in other fields as energy generation, pellet and briquette production, and wood-plastic composites.

In February this year, the government announced its decision to close the Baikal pulpmill and move the production to other enterprises. In December 2012, bankruptcy administration was introduced at the mill, VEB bank became the charge lender of the enterprise.