Last year marked a turning point in the long history of the Schongau paper mill with the closure of paper machine 6. Plant manager Wolfgang Ohnesorg is cautiously optimistic about the future of the site.
Schongau – At the end of March it was exactly one year when the paper manufacturer spread the shocking news that PM 6 was being shut down. The reason was the massive slump in so-called uncoated papers for magazines and newspapers. 135 jobs were burned. At the end of June, the traditional machine from 1968 was shut down and has been used as a spare parts warehouse ever since.
“The negotiations with the works council went well,” says plant manager Ohnesorg. The company had the “ideal work structure” for the move, says Ohnesorg – i.e. many older employees who were able to go into partial retirement early. In fact, almost two thirds of the affected employees took advantage of this. “As we had hoped, we did not need any redundancies for operational reasons,” says Ohnesorg with relief. “That was our big goal.” Some left voluntarily, and a number of former employees also became self-employed, says Ohnesorg. UPM currently has 360 employees including trainees in Schongau.
UPM Schongau: A lot has changed in the operational process
A lot has changed in the operational process. The products that were previously manufactured on the PM 6 had to be relocated to the modern PM 9 (built in 1999), which worked well “with a few small readjustments”.
In addition, it was announced in July that UPM was completely closing its plant in Plattling, Lower Bavaria, with 400 employees. “There, too, an attempt was made to relocate the products to Schongau and Ettringen,” says Ohnesorg. For this purpose, Schongau was re-planned again: Now products should be relocated from the PM 9 to the PM 7 (built in 1989), which is actually always busy and which, according to Ohnesorg, prints classic newsprint. Some things had to be adjusted there too, which, according to Ohnesorg, was successful.
“Unfortunately, the demand for graphic paper for newspapers and magazines continues to decline, most recently by 20 percent in one year,” says Ohnesorg, shaking his head. This is due, on the one hand, to the fact that newspapers are purchasing less paper, but also to companies like Rewe, which have completely abandoned paper advertising flyers.
UPM has the highest energy consumption in the county
Nevertheless, investments are being made, as the recent spectacular heavy transport of the live steam generator for heat recovery showed. “We are currently closing the building shell and the system is scheduled to go into operation in May,” says Ohnesorg. And another new machine is scheduled to go into operation in the first half of the year, which will produce steam using electricity and no longer using gas.
The big energy price shock is now over at UPM, which has by far the largest energy consumption in the district, because prices have calmed down. “But electricity and gas are still twice as high as before the Ukraine crisis, we shouldn’t forget that,” says Ohnesorg.
Wolfgang Ohnesorg: Energy prices in Germany are significantly higher than in other countries
According to Ohnesorg, the fact that the bridge electricity price propagated by Economics Minister Robert Habeck did not materialize is not that tragic, “because it would probably have been too high anyway.” But the issue is not completely off the table yet because energy prices in Germany are still significantly higher than in other countries. “BASF, for example, has announced that it will no longer invest in Germany,” says Ohnesorg.
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That doesn't apply to UPM - and at the moment the Finnish company is probably quite happy that there are also parts of the company abroad. “Finland has been at a standstill for weeks, there are general strikes because of the planned reform of the social systems,” says Ohnesorg. The ports were also affected, and nothing left the country until April 8th. “That’s why it’s good that we have a good mix of plants in Northern and Central Europe,” says Ohnesorg.