Ence Shuts Down Production at Huelva Pulp Mill


Pontevedra, Spain 21 October 2014 -- Spanish company Ence Energía y Celulosa (Ence) halted production at its Huelva pulp mill for good on 19 October, 2014.

In a stock market announcement on 20 October, the company explained that it had reached a collective agreement with the 300 Huelva employees to launch the project of the plant's industrial transformation.

The Huelva plant with a capacity of 410,000 tpy of eucalyptus pulp recorded an EBITDA loss of €25 millions per year, informs Ence. It will now be converted into a biomass power plant with an output capacity of 40 MW. The closure of the pulp plant and the commissioning of the power plant is expected to result in an EBITDA improvement of €45 million for Ence. The restructuring of the Huelva mill will not affect Ence's other biomass power plant in Huelva which has been put into service in 2012 and now generates 50 MW.

The employees of all of Ence's three Spanish pulp mills had gone on strike on 11 October to protest against the closure of pulp production at the Huelva mill. On 15 October the employees at Pontevedra (430,000 tpy) and Navia (500,000 tpy) pulp mills returned to work after four days of strike. Ence reported earlier that these mills were operating profitably and it had no plans to restructure them for the time being.