Metso and SAICA have made an outsourcing agreement on the mill maintenance of Saica Containerboard UK Ltd’s paper mill in Partington, United Kingdom. With this multi-year agreement, which became effective as of January 11, 2011, Metso will assume full responsibility for establishment of maintenance operations, mill maintenance and management of improvement projects for the power stations, stock and paper production facilities as well as water treatment equipment at the Partington mill. The value of the agreement will not be disclosed.

The containerboard production line of the Partington mill will also be supplied by Metso. The order for the production line was received from SAICA in 2010 and published on March 18, 2010. The line is scheduled to start up in the first quarter of 2012.

SAICA and Metso have a long history of maintenance cooperation. Since 2005, the companies operate a joint venture for the maintenance of the SAICA mills in Zaragoza, Spain. Since 2007, Metso also has a mill maintenance unit serving the SAICA Venizel mill in France. Based on this cooperation and Metso’s other maintenance references, SAICA and Metso have together developed a maintenance outsourcing model for SAICA’s Partington mill. The model optimizes the use of proactive, condition based, predictive, preventive and corrective maintenance and is based on Metso's streamlined reliability centered maintenance (RCM). The model ensures the highest possible equipment efficiency and cost optimization.

Saica Containerboard UK Ltd. is a subsidiary of SAICA. SAICA is a family owned Spanish company and is a world leader in the production of high performance lightweight corrugated papers from recovered paper and cardboard. The company currently employs over 8,000 people in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and the UK. SAICA has an annual turnover of EUR 1.9 billion.

Source www.metsopaper.com