“The newspaper and magazine market will not disappear all at once but will gradually get smaller,” commented Jouko Karvinen, managing director of Stora Enso, one of the industry’s leaders. “They’ll still be around for another 10 years for sure. And even in a difficult market, it’s possible to make profits.”

The investment will be particularly aimed at reducing energy costs. A new steam and electricity installation, which has already been delivered to the factory, makes newsprint from recycled paper. “Having its own energy producer makes the group less dependent on the fluctuations in fossil fuel prices and brings down the factory’s variable costs considerably,” said the new factory’s managing director Chris De Hollander. “This investment shows that Stora Enso intends to stay in Ghent for a long time.”

The power plant runs on excess recycled paper, as well as wood and plastic waste obtained from municipal dumps and from businesses in the area. De Hollander called for municipalities to take a more sustainable view of their policies for paper waste. Instead of sending it for processing locally, he said, it is sold to the highest bidder, which results in large quantities being shipped to China. “And that’s anything but sustainable, when all the costs are taken into account.”