This Sunday marked one month since pulp production in Paso de Los Toros started up, a key project for the Uruguayan economy.
UPM 2 Paso de los Toros It has already been a month since it started operating and by the end of May it will be able to get its first shipment of cellulose from the Port of Montevideo.
According to company forecasts, will achieve a pulp production of up to 2.1 million tons per year, increasing annual production by 50% to reach 2,066 million dollars, which will allow the location of Uruguay among the world’s leading exporters of the product.
This will have an effect on the Uruguayan economy, increasing the country’s GDP by 2%, while providing 290 million dollars of salaries net per year In this sense, it is estimated $280 million in taxes and social security contributions by year.
On the other hand, they generated 7,000 jobsin direct jobs between UPM and contractors, while 10,000 more were added through induced positions in the value chain.
While from the company they explain that they will generate more than 160 MW of surplus renewable energy that would go to the national network. As they also argue that environmental impact monitoring was carried out for more than two years with more than 600,000 monthly environmental monitoring dataenvironmental organizations are against it.
He Observatory of Multinationals in Latin America (OMAL) issued a report in which it assured that there will be contamination “even keeping the emission levels within the limits that they themselves set.” “The accumulation of pollutants will transform the region with severe losses in the quality of life, land depreciation and economic ventures, and deterioration of the health of the inhabitants of the region,” they detailed.
In 2006, Argentina appeared before the International Court of Justice in The Hague for the installation by the Uruguayan Government of the first European pulp mill on the Uruguay River, shared with Argentina. Since then, neighbors and the Environmental Citizen Assembly of Gualeguaychú have carried out marches and activities, and will carry out the next sunday april 30 a new mobilization to the General San Martín international bridge.
Source: Ambito
