“Today there is already cellulose circulating on Route 5 and also chemical inputs from the plant. We are testing the fleet and control issues. This procedure is underway, it is temporary and it is working correctly”, affirmed this Thursday the project director of UPM, Gonzalo Giambruno, consulted by The Observer. This is in relation to the gap that exists between the start-up of the Central Railroad and the beginning of the plant’s operations.
The eucalyptus pulp mill located in Pueblo Centenario began its commissioning last week. This process, which is gradual, will take several weeks to achieve stability in production levels.
The company anticipates that the first shipment of cellulose pulp destined for international markets will be completed within a month, from the specialized terminal in the port of Montevideo.
“Going out with ships fully loaded with UPM pulp is relevant in two dimensions: times to destinations are reduced, and allows us to have logistical independence. It is good to have a direct start and not depend on other competitors”, remarked Giambruno. Today the ships that leave Uruguay generally have to be filled with pulp from Brazil.
UPM
View of the specialized terminal in the port of Montevideo.
As a reference, company authorities explained at a press conference that the experience of the Fray Bentos pulp mill indicates that this mill reached design production capacity about six months after the start of operations. At the time it had the “best starting curve” in the industry, they noted. The new industrial complex has an annual production capacity of 2.1 million tons per year.
The Central Railway
“Regarding the times of the railway, this is a State project. They are the ones who can give greater precision about it, not so much us as future users of this method of transport”, said the Communications manager, Matías Martínez consulted by The Observer.
At the beginning of March, the Commercial and Operations Vice President of Saceem, a company that is part of the Grupo Vía Central consortium -together with Berkes, Sacyr and NGE-, Alejandro Ruibal, told El País that it is expected that the necessary infrastructure for the train can be list in July of this year. The executive added on that occasion that the progress of the work was 93%.
iron and concrete
The Finnish company made the decision to invest in the construction of its second plant in the country in 2019. The total investment amounted to US$ 3,470 million and also included a deep-water port terminal in Montevideo, the construction of the company’s third eucalyptus nursery in Sarandí del Yí, and investments in infrastructure and local facilities in the interior of the country.
Construction began in August 2019. During this process, 20,000 Uruguayans were employed and 300 national companies participated in the work. The concrete used is equivalent to building more than 20 Centenary stadiums, and the amount of steel used to build 10 Eiffel Towers.
“Something really big was built in the center of the country. It wasn’t easyBecause unlike the other plants where basically the equipment came on a large scale and was unloaded directly at the fluvial terminals and assembled, here we had to cross the entire country with the plant broken into small pieces, with the limit of one roadway at 14 meters and with the weight limit of the bridges”, recalled Giambruno.
Regarding the site safety results, Giambruno remarked that the frequency of accidents per million hours worked was reduced to a quarter compared to the average for the construction industry in Uruguay. And it was half compared to global projects in countries like Germany or Finland, for example.
UPM executives during the press conference.
Low conflict
Giambruno also highlighted low conflict registered in comparison to the Fray Bentos plant. “It is important that projects can be carried out on this scale and in this country. It was not with a peace clause, it was with management, leadership and conflict prevention”, he pointed out.
After 44 months of construction work, assembly tasks and testing stages of the process areas, on April 14, 2023 the new plant was commissioned. The chain that is operational today employs 7,000 people directly by UPM throughout the country, in more than 600 companies distributed in 14 departments.
“The time has come to go from a successful project to a successful operation. That means complying with the high safety standards, complying with the environmental performance that we have committed to, working on the development of the plant, and transforming it into a reference in the industry as UPM Fray Bentos has been in its 15 years of operation,” said the vice president. of Operations in Uruguay, Marcos Battegazzore.
