Metsä Forest
Metsä Wood
Metsä Fibre
Metsä Board
Metsä Tissue
Metsä Group conducts long-term research, development and innovation (R & D & I) activities in all business areas. The goal is to create new products and services, utilize new technologies and ensure the competitiveness of Metsä Group's business operations. In 2022, Metsä Group's financial investment in research and development totaled EUR 31.1 million, or 0.4% of the company's net sales.
Research and development
Innovation is based on knowledge, cooperation and a new way of thinking
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Metsä Group's research and development activities focus on two priority areas: creating added value with bio-based products and promoting a resource-efficient circular economy. From a product perspective, the emphasis is on developing new fibre products and improving the properties of existing products to meet future customer needs, service and system development, and the utilization of bio-based raw materials instead of fossil fuels. As a player in the circular economy, we focus on improving the sustainability of forest use and safeguarding diversity, fossil-free production, environmental efficiency and the utilization of by-products and waste.
R&D cooperation and networking
Metsä Group actively cooperates with universities, research institutes, technical solution providers and growth companies. For example, the partnership agreements concluded with the University of Oulu and the University of Helsinki aim at long-term research cooperation, which is carried out in a coordinated manner as separate project entities. Metsä Group is also active in EU research and development networks. Innovation and development programs play a key role in the new product development process.
Innovation company Metsä Spring
In 2018, Metsä Group established an independent innovation company, Metsä Spring Ltd. Metsä Spring's task is two-fold. On the one hand, it is supporting Metsä Group in the search for new business concepts, for Metsä Group, but also for the wider ecosystem. On the other hand, Metsä Spring is also supporting the research, development & innovation activities of the five current businesses of Metsä Group. Importantly, all endeavours that Metsä Spring participates in must have the potential to strengthen the Metsä Group business ecosystem in the long run.
In 2022, Metsä Spring’s portfolio comprises six projects: two demo projects, four minority investment in startup companies, as well as a significant collaboration with Fortum (ExpandFibre, see below). The on-going demo projects focuses on converting pulps into (i) Kuura™ textile fibre and (ii) 3-dimensional fibre packaging solutions. The former is a collaboration with Japanese ITOCHU Corporation, whereas the latter is a collaboration with Valmet. Kindly check out the up-to-date portfolio here: https://metsaspring.com/projects/.
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Expand Fibre
In June 2020, Metsä Group and Fortum announced the ExpandFibre collaboration and ecosystem, which aims to accelerate the development of sustainable bioproducts. Business Finland is funding the cooperation and ecosystem with a total of EUR 70 million as one of winners of the challenge competition for Finnish leading companies. The purpose of the cooperation is to develop technologies and business concepts that can be used to make textile fibres and other new bioproducts from straw and wood pulp.
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Examples of innovations and product development in Metsä Group
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Wood supply and forest services
Wood supply and forest servicesIn the field of wood supply and forest services, Metsä Group has recently focused on revamping the Metsäverkko service portal. As a member service, a new FSC® nature site service has been introduced, which makes it more meaningful for forest owners to FSC-certify their forests and target protection to the most valuable forest areas.
We also actively participate in joint development projects in the field, such as the “Sustainable forest management on peatlands” project coordinated by the Natural Resources Center, which improves the ecological and economic sustainability of Finnish forest use, and the “MIXED” project, which researches and develops mixed forests.
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Wood products
Wood productsIn wood products, the main themes of product development have been the identification and testing of new sustainable raw materials, especially for bio-based adhesives and coatings used in plywood products. In addition, we are constantly exploring solutions to improve the use of wood material and invest in the development of digital solutions for our wood product customers.
As the latest product innovation in the field of mechanical wood processing, we are involved in the development of hybrid elements combining wood and concrete. For example, the core of a concrete sandwich wall element can be replaced with Kerto LVL, which reduces the carbon footprint of construction. The aim of the hybrid element is to increase wood construction more and more in urban areas, for example in apartment buildings.
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Pulp and sawn timber
Pulp and sawn timberIn 2020, the pulp and sawn timber business has developed future technology concepts, focusing in particular on the operating model of the world's most modern sawmill in Rauma and the chemical efficiency of pulp mills. In connection with the bioproduct concept, we are evaluating the processing of methanol from raw methanol at the pulp mill together with Veolia Nordic. Last year, we also determined the stepping stones to fossil-free energy production at our production facilities.
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Paperboard products
Paperboard productsIn paperboard products, the key goal of our research and development activities is to produce even lighter folding box boards and to develop new products for food and serving packaging. In white kraftliners, we focus on maintaining and developing the competitiveness of strength and print quality.
In September 2020, we opened a new Excellence centre in Äänekoski, which combines the expertise of Metsä Board's experts in fibre-based packaging solutions with the expertise of our partners - such as material and technology suppliers, startups, universities and research companies.
Our paperboard expertise is also utilized in the ExpandFibre collaboration and the 4evergreen project, which aims to ensure and develop the circular economy of fibre-based packaging.
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Tissue papers
Tissue papersIn the development of tissue papers, we have recently focused on brand renewal and the evaluation of new technology choices. We are currently investing in the development of fiber recipes, as well as the use of alternative packaging materials, such as bio-based or recycled plastics, and the evaluation of fossil-free solutions.
