Update: Finnish Stevedores' Strike Closes UPM's Paper Mills in Finland

HELSINKI, FINLAND—March 4, 2010—UPM has been forced to close its Rauma paper mill due to the Finnish stevedores' strike which started today on 4 March 2010 at 6 am Finnish time. All of the mill's four magazine paper machines are closed. Production work at paper machines ends today affecting about 450 employees.

In othe UPM paper mills in Finland, preparation for machine line shut downs is ongoing. Major part of UPM's paper machines in Finland are forced to be closed by the end of this week. The last paper machine closures will take place at the beginning of next week. The company tries to operate its Finnish pulp mills until the end of next week.

When all paper machines are in standstill the financial impact of the strike on UPM's result is estimated to exceed EUR 3 million a day.

"In recent years our paper mills have worked hard to improve their competitiveness. This strike destroys the good results of that work", says UPM's Senior Vice President for Paper Manufacturing Arto Lampinen.

Transport Workers' Strike Will Close UPM's Finnish Paper Mills Within a Week

UPM's Finnish paper mills employ altogether about 4,300 persons. If all of UPM paper machines in Finland will be closed due to the strike it would mean that production work at paper machines would end impacting about 3,000 persons. In line with the Finnish Contracts of Employment Act UPM will suspend salary payment 7 days after the end of paper machine production work.

HELSINKI, FINLAND—March 3, 2010—The Finnish Transport Workers' Union strike which started on Tuesday, March 2, will stop transportation of raw materials to UPM-Kymmene's Finnish mills and seriously impede the transportation of products from mills to its customers. The strike will have an immediate impact on the operations of all UPM mills in Finland.

If the strike expands to cover the stevedores of the Finnish ports, this will in effect shut down all of the company's paper machines in Finland within a few days. The impact of the strike in its financial result is estimated to exceed EUR 3 million a day.

UPM-Kymmene will commence paper mill shut downs in Finland as soon as operations are no longer possible due to the lack of raw material and paper storage. In line with the Finnish Contracts of Employment Act, the company will suspend salary payment 7 days after the end of paper machine production work.

UPM-Kymmene says it aims to deliver customer orders from its mills located in other countries. Nearly half of the company's paper production capacity is located in Finland.