The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a loan of EUR10 million to Kyivsky cardboard and paper mill (KCPM), a leading company in the sector and based outside Ukraine’s capital. This will be a seven-year loan to boost energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, the EBRD said in a statement on July 13. The purchase of a shoe press for cardboard drying will help KCPM reduce the use of steam, increase production volumes and improve the quality of coated cardboard. The replacement of pumps will halve the electricity needs of this equipment. Combined annual savings are expected to reach up to EUR2 million.
New converting and packing lines for the production of tissues will be procured as part of the project and will allow the company to widen its range of products for use in office buildings, hotels, schools and airports. It will also help KCPM increase its domestic and export sales, including those to the EU.
KCPM will upgrade its waste-paper processing equipment, which will allow the firm to improve the quality – and reduce the cost of cardboard production. These improvements will make it possible to reprocess waste paper up to four times. This will be the first production cycle in the country to implement the EU principles of using fewer resources and increasing energy efficiency.
The investments are expected to reduce the company’s annual CO2e emissions by up to 11,000 tonnes. Kyivsky cardboard paper mill is one of the largest cardboard and paper producers in Europe. It employs almost 2,200 people. It sells produce to almost 700 companies in Ukraine, some CIS member states and the rest of the world. In 2017, the mill saw a 14.8% rise in production from 2016, to UAH 4.85 billion. The mill is owned by Pulp Mill Holding GmbH (Austria), its ultimate beneficiary is businessman Volodymyr Krupchak.
The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. Since the start of its operations in the country in 1993, the Bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost EUR 12.1 billion across some 400 projects in Ukraine.
