S\u00f6dra has restarted parts of its planned SEK 1.5 billion (\u20ac130 million) investment at the Kindas\u00e5gen sawmill in Kisa after the Swedish Land and Environment Court ruled in favour of the company in a dispute over permitting and construction activities.<\/p>\n
The project had been frozen since January 2026 after the County Administrative Board of \u00d6sterg\u00f6tland prohibited all activities linked to the expansion, arguing that additional environmental review and revised permitting were required before construction could proceed.<\/p>\n
The decision halted one of Sweden\u2019s larger planned sawmill modernisation projects and created uncertainty around the future of the Kinda facility, which S\u00f6dra had previously said could otherwise face closure without long-term investment.<\/p>\n
S\u00f6dra appealed the construction ban, and in mid-April the Land and Environment Court overturned the earlier decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the County Administrative Board\u2019s decision in January 2026, which prohibited all activities linked to the investment, S\u00f6dra appealed the decision. In mid-April, the Land and Environment Court ruled in S\u00f6dra\u2019s favour,\u201d said Marcus \u00c5sg\u00e4rde.<\/p>\n
According to the company, work has since resumed on parts of the project, including technical analysis of the consequences of the interruption and continued discussions with authorities regarding additional permit requirements for future stages of the investment.<\/p>\n
The Kinda investment is intended to increase sawmill capacity by around 50% to approximately 300,000 m3 per year by 2028. The project includes new production lines, upgraded processing systems and supporting infrastructure designed to improve efficiency and strengthen the mill\u2019s long-term competitiveness.<\/p>\n
As part of the expansion, S\u00f6dra also plans to build a pellet plant at the site with annual production capacity of around 25,000 tonnes. The company has additionally identified opportunities linked to biochar and improved utilisation of by-products from sawmill operations.<\/p>\n
S\u00f6dra chief executive Lotta Lyr\u00e5 previously described the investment as strategically important for the group\u2019s industrial network.<\/p>\n
\u201cS\u00f6dra is stronger with the Kinda sawmill than without it. An alternative would have been closure, but instead we decided to invest in our long-term competitiveness,\u201d she said when the project was announced.<\/p>\n
The expansion forms part of S\u00f6dra\u2019s broader effort to modernise its sawmill operations and increase processing efficiency while improving energy performance and reducing climate impact.<\/p>\n
The project received an important planning approval in late 2025 when Kinda Municipality adopted a revised detailed development plan covering the Karleby industrial area outside Kisa. The zoning decision confirmed industrial land use and removed a key planning obstacle for future development at the site.<\/p>\n
Despite the latest court ruling, regulatory discussions with the County Administrative Board are continuing, particularly regarding environmental permitting and compliance requirements for the next phases of the expansion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n