SunPine and Lawter Complete Work on Tall Oil Rosin Production Facility in Sweden

Chicago, IL -- Lawter, a subsidiary of Harima Chemicals Group, Inc. and Sunpine AB completed the agreement, announced on November 7, 2012, to build a Tall Oil Rosin production facility in Pitea, Sweden. With the closure of the agreement, Lawter has now become a shareholder in Sunpine.

“It is great that we have completed the agreement and we look forward to receiving the first rosin in the second half of next year at the Lawter facility in Kallo, Belgium. This arrangement will strengthen Lawter’s position as a reliable supplier for the long term with a stable high quality and renewable raw material.”, says Nob Makino, CEO, Lawter.

A team of SunPine and Lawter engineers have jointly worked the past 1.5 years with a specialized engineering firm to model and test the optimal configuration for the integrated bio-refinery. A series of pilot testing has verified the modeled concept, therefore final project planning, will commence immediately.

“We are very pleased about the contract with Lawter. Not only will it give us another leg to stand on; it will also yield a very significant investment and 10 new jobs for our Pitea facility at Haraholmen. We’re glad that the manufacturing of this new product, rosin, makes us less dependent on political decisions. This is an important step in upgrading the Pitea facility to a true crude tall oil biorefinery." says Magnus Edin, CEO for SunPine.

It is expected that the new bio-refinery will be operational in the second half of 2015. At that time, SunPine will be producing three different products: Raw tall diesel - a raw material used in the production of renewable diesel, rosin - a raw material used in theproduction of derivatives, including printing ink and adhesives, and tall oil pitch - an energy product used in the paper industry.

About SunPine

SunPine is a world leader in the production of second-generation renewable fuels. The raw material is a residual product of paper and pulp production. Raw tall diesel from SunPine is used as raw material in the production of Preem’s Evolution Diesel product. SunPine is owned by Kiram, Preem, Sveaskog, and Sodra.

About Lawter

Lawter, part of Harima Chemicals Group, Inc., is a company strong in pine chemicals and built on products developed using pine chemical resources. Lawter serves the graphic arts, adhesives, specialty coatings, aroma chemicals and the synthetic rubber industries.