The Austria based W Hamburger Group is investing €70M to boost the annual waste based containerboard capacity of its European operations from 660,000t to 1Mt by 2003.
In Austria, PM 3 at the Pitten mill is to be rebuilt at a cost of €10.5M. In Germany, €15M will go into the Rieger/Trostberg board mill. The group will also spend €20M at its Hungarian subsidiary Dunapack in 2003, to boost output by 20,000 t/year.
Hamburger is to install a corrugated board unit at its existing mill in the Ukraine at a cost of €15M. A second corrugated facility is also planned for that country.
The group also plans to build a new containerboard mill at Schwarze Pumpe, in Germany, but the scheme has fallen foul of the competition authorities. The EC has initiated a formal investigation into proposed aid of €54M for the project from the Brandenburg authorities, saying it doubts the aid is compatible with the EC Treaty.