Update: Metso to open rubber parts plant in Lithuania 

Šiauliai, Lithuania - Finnish industrial machinery maker Metso Corp. is to open a new rubber parts manufacturing plant for the mining industry in northern Lithuania, the company announced 2 March.

Scheduled for operation at the end of the second quarter, the factory in Šiauliai will manufacture rubber and mill lining wear parts for conveyor belts and heavy materials handling in the mining industry.

To be fully operational by the end of 2020, the €6-million factory is expected to create 80 jobs and will employ lean manufacturing principles, said Sami Takaluoma, president, minerals consumables, Metso, in a 4 March written statement to ERJ.

The announcement comes less than three months after Metso disclosed plans to shut down a similar production operation in Ersmark, Sweden by the end of 2020.

In Ersmark, operations will be ramped down in stages from the beginning of Q2 2020 with full closure expected in Q3 2020, Takaluoma added.

“We need to actively respond to changes in our competitive environment and improve our flexibility in fulfilling our mining customers’ needs globally,” said the company official.

According to Takaluoma, Lithuania has been identified as an "attractive location" for a new manufacturing hub. 

Proximity to current customers in the Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa as well as “efficient logistics network, sustainable operational environment and favourable market conditions” were some of the key criteria in the decision making, Takaluoma added.

Metso is supplier of equipment and services for the processing and flow of natural resources in the mining, aggregates, recycling and process industries. 

As part of its expansion project in Lithuania, the company opened a new Metso business services (MBS) centre in the capital city of Vilnius. 

The MBS centre offers services for Metso’s finance operations and customer logistics and currently employs about 80 people.