Through its holding in The Navigator Company
Navigator is an integrated forestry, pulp, paper, tissue and energy producer whose business is rooted in large-scale modern factories with cutting-edge technologies, serving as a benchmark in quality for the sector. Navigator’s business model revolves around a raw material of excellence – Eucalyptus globulus − whose intrinsic features allow a strategy of differentiation to be pursued, based on high-quality products which today are an international benchmark in this sector.
Leader in uncoated woodfree paper production
With a total production capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of paper per year, the Group is Europe’s biggest producer of uncoated woodfree (UWF) printing and writing paper, and the sixth largest in the world. Navigator is also Europe’s top manufacturer of bleached eucalyptus pulp (BEKP), producing 1.6 million tons each year, of which roughly 80% is integrated into paper production. Navigator recently entered into the tissue business, and currently as a production capacity of 65,000 tonnes of finished product per year at the Vila Velha de Ródão Industrial Complex, and 55,000 tonnes the new Aveiro Industrial Complex. The Group is also a key producer of energy, producing around 2.5 Twh of electricity each year, and accounting for around 4% of Portugal’s power production and 52% of energy produced from biomass.
With sustainability as a central pillar of its operations
Navigator is Portugal’s third largest exporter, accounting for approximately 1% of GDP and 2.4% of all Portuguese exports of goods. Navigator has more than 110,000 hectares of woodlands under its management and Europe’s largest certified nursery facility, able to produce 12 million plants a year. With a vertically integrated forestry business, the Group has its own Forestry Research Institute, called RAIZ, a worldwide benchmark in the genetic improvement of Eucalyptus globulus and manages vast tracts of Portuguese woodlands, 100% certified under the international FSC® (FSC C010852) and PEFC™ (PEFC/13-23-001) schemes.
Developing new opportunities for growth and diversification
As part of its growth and development strategy, Navigator purchased the Portuguese tissue manufacturer AMS, located in Vila Velha de Ródão, in 2015. At the start of 2017, Navigator decided to move forward with a new tissue line with a 70,000 tonne production capacity, incorporated into the Aveiro pulp mill, which was launched starting in the second half of 2018. One of the expansion and development projects completed in 2018 was increasing the pulp capacity at Figueira da Foz by roughly 70,000 tonnes. Following the construction of a chip mill, Navigator also has a long-term project to create a forestry base in Mozambique, including the option of building a high-capacity pulp mill.