Barcelona, Spain 15 May 2014 -- Lecta is speeding up its industrial reorganisation programme in Spain. Closure of the Uranga and Sarrià de Ter paper mill closely linked to the PM 7 investment in Zaragoza.

Spanish paper manufacturer Torraspapel, a Lecta Group company, plans to close its production site in Sarrià de Ter near Girona. The company entered into mandatory consultations with worker representatives on 30 April. It is not yet clear when production might cease.

Sarrià de Ter is one of Torraspapel's six mills in Spain. The mill houses one paper machine with a capacity of 65,000 tpy of base paper and woodfree uncoated paper. Torraspapel also runs an on-site combined heat and power plant with a capacity of 25 MW.

The potential closure of Torraspapel's Sarrià de Ter mill is said to be part of an industrial reorganisation and cost-savings programme affecting Lecta's operations in Spain, France and Italy. Like the closure of the Uranga paper mill last February, the future of the Sarrià de Ter facility is directly connected to the imminent start-up of a second-hand PM 7 at the Zaragoza pulp and paper mill.

According to Lecta, the investment in an additional paper machine in Zaragoza is meant to better integrate pulp and paper manufacturing activities at the site and thus save on the cost of drying and transporting pulp. PM 7 has an annual capacity of 80,000 tpy of base paper for speciality applications. Base papers produced on PM 7 will be processed into specialty papers at the Leitza facility in northern Spain.

The trade union CCOO (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreros) announced that 132 workers would be affected by the looming closure of the Sarrià de Ter paper mill.