Austrian firm to invest $360 mln in Turkey

Austrian packaging firm Hamburger Containerboard GmbH is set to invest 300 million euros in a paper production plant in the western province of Kütahya.

“This investment is noteworthy because it shows that foreign direct investments in Turkey are continuing and that international capital still has confidence in our country,” Kütahya Governor Ahmet Hamdi Nayır said on Sept. 19 at a signing ceremony of a deal to grant the Austrian company land for the construction of the plant. 

The investment will contribute 180 million euros to the balance of payments of the country annually, he said. 

The facility, with a capacity to produce 480 tons of paper - 18 percent of Turkey’s current production - is expected to begin operating in 2020, said Velişan İner, the general manager of the planned facility. The vast majority of the production will be offered to the domestic market, he said.  Hamburger Containerboard - one of the largest packaging firms in the European market - is part of the Austrian Prinzhorn Holding Company.