Today Ahlstrom Corporation is celebrating the inauguration of its new glassfiber tissue production facility in Redkino, Tver Region, Russia. The plant produces glassfiber tissue for Russian construction and plastic composite industries and will initially employ 80 people. The Tver plant is Ahlstrom’s first fully owned production facility of fiber-based materials in Russia.
 
The investment, including the plant facility, glassfiber tissue machine and required infrastructure, is worth approximately €40 million. The production capacity of the plant is 250 million square meters per year, which raises Ahlstrom’s total glassfiber tissue production capacity in Europe to half a billion square meters. The plant’s main product application is cushion vinyl floor coverings; other applications include wall coverings, laminate surface layers, building panels, pipe wrapping and bitumen roofing.
 
“The Tver operation strengthens our position as a leading developer and manufacturer of specialty glassfiber tissues,” said Ahlstrom’s CEO Risto Anttonen. “We have a strong customer base in Russia, which we are now able to serve locally from the plant. Enhancing our local presence also supports our other expansion possibilities in Russia, as well as in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia,”