STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 28, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- AvestaPolarit has held a Capital Market Day for international analysts, investors and banks with a visit to the chromium mine in Kemi and the integrated steel plant in Tornio. After the current investment AvestaPolarit will increase the capacity at the melting shop in Tornio by 1 million tonnes annually, which means that the total slab melting capacity for the Group will increase from 1.75 million tonnes to 2,75 million tonnes annually. The cold rolling capacity increases at the same time from 1.2 million tonnes to 1.9 million tonnes annually. The total investment amounts to approx. EUR 800 million, which is one of the biggest investments ever made in Finland. The melting shop starts commissioning from August and the cold rolling plant from December this year. After this investment the Tornio site becomes the biggest plant for stainless steel in the world and AvestaPolarit the third biggest supplier for stainless steel in the world.
To further strengthen the fully integrated production plant in Tornio, the board of AvestaPolarit has agreed to further invest approx. EUR 170 million to increase the hot rolling capacity in Tornio from approx. 1 million tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes annually.
To present the new expanded and integrated plant and the chromium mine in Kemi AvestaPolarit held a Capital Market Day in Kemi and Tornio 27-28 May 2002. The presentations given by the Company's CEO Ossi Virolainen and CFO Ian Cooper and the Business unit managers Niilo Suutala (Tornio) and Harri Natunen (Kemi) are available on the company's website www.avestapolarit.com.
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