Turkish cardboard and corrugated packaging company Eren is redeveloping its Shotton Paper Mill in Flintshire, North Wales, UK, into a containerboard and tissue manufacturing facility.
The Shotton Mill redevelopment includes the transformation of the existing main site, expansion into the adjacent vacant land to the north of the main site, and development of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant.
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The estimated investment in the project is more than £1bn ($1.38bn). Construction on the project commenced in November 2022 and it is expected to be completed in June 2026.
The containerboard facility is set to shift the UK from being a net importer to a net exporter, while also strengthening recycling by processing around a quarter of the waste cardboard that is currently shipped overseas.
Location
Shotton Mill is located within the Deeside Industrial Park in Flintshire, UK. The site is currently accessible off Weighbridge Road and directly connects with the A548 dual carriageway and motorway network.
The site is also accessible to ports and has an existing private, clean water supply and infrastructure for renewable energy production and paper recycling.
Shotton Paper Mill redevelopment background
Eren Paper, a subsidiary of Eren, acquired the Shotton newsprint paper mill site and related assets from UPM, a Finnish paper company, in September 2021. It was sold due to a decline in the demand for newsprint products because of lower newspaper circulation. Production at the site stopped in October 2021.
Subsequently, Eren submitted a proposal to Flintshire County Council for the expansion of the paper mill and the necessary piling works.
A proposal for the development of a new CHP facility with a 60MW capacity at the mill was also submitted to the Welsh Government, as the plan is a Development of National Significance.
Flintshire County Council’s planning committee approved the proposal in November 2022.
In March 2025, Flintshire Council granted planning permission for a vital high-pressure natural gas pipeline to support the planned CHP plant, which is designed to operate with a 20% hydrogen blend.
The underground pipeline will link to a pressure reduction station at the Weighbridge Road site.
Together with the site’s existing renewable generation, the scheme supports the project’s goal of becoming fully self-sufficient, delivering more than 90% efficient steam and power output from on-site assets.
Shotton Paper Mill redevelopment details
The 100,000m2 (one million square feet) main site of the Shotton Mill is being redeveloped with new buildings for the integration of two principal process units equipped with cardboard paper machines and corrugating machines.
The cardboard paper machine will be the UK’s largest single machine, with the capacity to produce 750,000t of containerboard a year. The machine will utilise approach flow systems, a wire section, a press section, a drying section, a finishing section and a roll handling system for production.
Additional buildings for fibre storage tanks, auxiliary facilities, a new effluent treatment facility with anaerobic digestion and biogas capture technology, warehouses, dispatch infrastructure, chemicals, truck loading, conversion, administrative offices and reel storage will also be developed, while the existing buildings, including the materials recycling facility and a biomass plant, will be retained.
The corrugating facility will have a production capacity of 110,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of corrugated boxes. The vacant land adjacent to the main site will be developed into a tissue production and converting facility.
A new CHP facility with one 40MW unit and two 10MW units will be developed in the mill to support the expansion of the operation. The new CHP facility will supply highly efficient, low-carbon energy to the mill, making it self-sufficient in energy resources.
Phased development details
The new cardboard factory, including a new paper mill, containerboard building, warehouse, dispatch infrastructure, chemical building, CHP boiler unit, an effluent treatment plant and old corrugated containers, will be developed in the first phase of redevelopment.
The corrugated packaging facility and tissue production facility will be developed in the subsequent phase.
In March 2025, the Yankee dryer cylinder for the construction of the tissue machine (TM1) arrived at the facility.
Produced by Valmet, TM1 is expected to deliver around 67,000tpa of premium-grade tissue, running at speeds of up to 2,100m per minute.
In October 2025, two 132kV stepdown transformers were installed at the facility. The transformers will form the site’s primary power interface and support dependable distribution throughout the facility.
New manufacturing facility production details
The new containerboard-making line (PM3) will use 100% recycled paper to produce high-quality testliner and fluting grades.
The brown paper will be manufactured as 10.1m wide jumbo reels in the containerboard facility using 100% recycled paper and card. The facility will use recyclable items from homes, such as glass and plastics, and paper waste collected by local authorities across the UK to generate recycled paper and cards.
The brown paper will further pass through the corrugating machine to be strengthened by crinkling for manufacturing cardboard. The cardboard sheets will be cut according to the customer’s requirements.
A combination of virgin and recycled pulp will be used in the tissue production facility to manufacture tissue products for the UK market.
Financing details
The project secured substantial support from the UK Government through UK Export Finance, which has agreed to underwrite a £136m Export Development Guarantee.
The Welsh Government has also committed close to £13m to protect employment and strengthen the manufacture of containerboard using UK-sourced recycled material.
Contractors involved
The planning applications for the redevelopment project are being managed by environmental consultancy SLR Consulting. SLR worked with Modern Karton, the paper manufacturing subsidiary of Eren Holding, to identify potential sites within the UK for the development of a containerboard and tissue manufacturing site.
Arup, a design and engineering company based in the UK, is leading the redevelopment project, supported by architects AHR. Arup and the team will provide project management, design and engineering inputs for the development of the first phase of the project.
Valmet, a Finnish pulp and paper company, will deliver old corrugated containers (OCCs), stock preparation and PM3 for the project with the scope of automation systems, industrial internet solutions and services.
In May 2025, Valmet secured another contract to deliver a furnace upgrade for the mill.
Valmet joined forces with Fimpec, a project management and engineering company based in Finland, on a comprehensive plant engineering commission.
Fimpec will oversee plant engineering for the OCC area, stock preparation and PM3, and under separate commissions, the engineering for minor pipes in the chemical section and the machine line. The scope of work includes process, plant, steel structure, automation and process ventilation engineering.
ENKA, a construction engineering company based in Turkey, secured the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the construction of the Shotton Paper Mill project.
Premier Technical Services Group, a UK-based provider of specialist services in the construction sector, was contracted to deliver specialist electrical services to the Shotton Paper Mill redevelopment project.
Anel Group is offering electromechanical services for the project, while ALLPLAN provided 3D modelling services.
C&D Consultants was the principal designer for the decommissioning and dismantling phase of the project.
Mech NW is supplying the full mechanical and electrical package for the motor control centre building, which will feature cooling systems for the mill.
Other contractors involved in the project are Stellar Heavy Industries UK, VIG, AMB Recruitment Group, John F Hunt, Andun Engineering, Nijhuis Saur Industries, OWS Engineering, Amspec, Mersey Vent, Central Electrical NW, UKTH Group, Aberconwy Scaffolding, PipeWize and Dual Metal Cable Management.
