Celulosa Arauco Y Constitución
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (also called CELCO or ARAUCO) is a Chilean
wood pulp Pulp is a fibrous Lignocellulosic biomass, lignocellulosic material prepared by chemically, semi-chemically, or mechanically isolating the cellulose fiber, cellulosic fibers of wood, fiber crops, Paper recycling, waste paper, or cotton paper, rag ...
,
engineered wood Engineered wood, also called mass timber, composite wood, man-made wood, or manufactured board, includes a range of derivative wood products which are manufactured by binding or fixing the strands, particles, fibres, veneers, or boards of wood, ...
and
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...
company controlled by
Anacleto Angelini Anacleto Angelini Fabbri (January 17, 1914 – August 28, 2007) was an Italian-born Chilean businessman. At the time of his death, he was South America's wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of US$6 billion. He was chairman at AntarChil ...
's economic group Empresas Copec. In 2006 CELCO/ARAUCO had five
pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ...
s in Chile and one in Argentina. Apart from pulp mills, CELCO/ARAUCO has 4 engineered wood manufacturing plants in Chile, 2 in Argentina and 2 in Brazil. The company was founded in September 1979 as a result of the fusion of Celulosa Arauco S.A. (1967) and Celulosa Constitución S.A. (1969). Both companies had been privatized during the Pinochet era from
CORFO The Production Development Corporation (CORFO, from ) is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939 by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda to promote economic growth in Chile. Originally, CORFO was responsible for the creation of ...
in 1977 and 1979, respectively.


History


Investments

In May 2009 Arauco and the Finnish company
Stora Enso Stora Enso Oyj (from and ) is a Finnish and Swedish forest industry company. It develops and produces various materials, mostly based on wood, for a range of industries and applications worldwide. It has headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, an ...
announced a €253 million deal that would make their joint venture the largest landowner in Uruguay. In September 2009 Arauco purchased the Brazilian panel company Tafisa Brasil in a deal worth US$227 million. In 2022, Arauco announced the construction of a new pulp mill in the southern region of Chile, with an estimated investment of $2.35 billion, making it one of the largest industrial investments in the country.


Pollution controversies


Valdivia

Beginning in 2004, and just months after the opening of CELCO's Valdivia plant, thousands of
black-necked swan The black-necked swan (''Cygnus melancoryphus'') is a species of waterfowl in the tribe Cygnini of the subfamily Anserinae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of ...
s in the internationally protected Ramsar site and national reserve
Carlos Anwandter Carlos Anwandter (1 April 1801, in Luckenwalde, Prussia – 10 July 1889, in Valdivia, Chile) was a German political exile who emigrated to Valdivia, Chile in 1850 after participating in the Revolutions of 1848. Biography He migrated to Valdi ...
in Chile died or migrated. The Valdivia pulp mill, located upriver, was widely blamed. The mill is located near the city of Mariquina and discharges directly into the
Cruces River The Cruces River () is a river in south-central Chile. Río Cruces originates from hills near the Villarica volcano and flows then in south-west direction. The southern and final part of the river flows in a south-south-west direction followin ...
which feeds the wetlands. The company had been dumping more
dioxins Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) are a group of chemical compounds that are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment. They are mostly by-products of burning or various industrial processes or, in the case of dioxin-like PC ...
and
heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term for metallic elements with relatively h ...
than had been approved by the regulating agencies into the river from a waste tube that had been approved by the authorities. It had also been producing far above levels approved in its Environmental Impact Assessment, and was cited for multiple violations of environmental and health laws. The scandal prompted Celco's chief executive to resign in June 2005 and the company to pledge to adopt cleaner technologies. The plant was temporarily closed by authorities but then allowed to reopen two months later at limited production capacity. Several legal actions were finally settled in the company's favor at the Chilean Supreme Court. However, it later was revealed that this decision was based on a report that CELCO had itself produced and falsely claimed was authored by the University of Concepcion. This caused Chile's president
Ricardo Lagos Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar (; born 2 March 1938) is a Chilean lawyer, economist and social-democratic politician who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. During the 1980s he was a well-known opponent of the Chilean military di ...
to declare that the company had gone too far and was harming the country's image. A report contracted by the Chilean government to the regional university (Universidad Austral de Chile) found that the company's pollution was responsible for rapid ecological change in the wetlands leading to the decline of populations of swans and other water birds. This finding was reviewed and validated by other independent entities including an international commission organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). However, scientists at the Pontifical Catholic University funded by CELCO have disputed the causality between the plant's pollution and the swan population decline. In July 2007 CELCO agreed to pay CLP$614 million to Valdivian tourism companies to avoid legal actions for supposed losses of the tourism sector of Valdivia due to contamination of Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary. In a document signed by the tourism companies CELCO was exempted from all responsibility involving the contamination of Cruces River. CELCO also promised to pay CLP$2 million monthly for three years to promote tourism. Chile's equivalent of an Attorney General's office was suing the company to compensate for the environmental harm done. By 2012 the black-necked swan population had still not recovered beyond a few hundred individuals, down from its estimated population of 7,000 individuals before the crisis.


Mataquito

In December 1999 the pulp mill Licancel (located in the coast of
Curicó Curicó () is a city located in Chile's central valley and serves as the capital of the Curicó Province, which is part of the Maule Region. Positioned between the provinces of Colchagua and Talca, the region stretches from the Pacific Ocean ...
,
Maule Region The Maule Region (, ) is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. Its capital is Talca. The region derives its name from the Maule River which, running westward from the Andes, bisects the region and spans a basin of about 20,6 ...
) was accused of causing the death of hundreds of fish due to the dumping of
wastewater Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of do ...
into Mataquito River. In June 2007 Licancel once again caused the death of fish in the river. The sanitary authorities ordered a temporary closure of the plant for 30 days, and CELCO dismissed three executives. Two weeks later of industrial waste water escaped from a broken pipeline, of which 50,000 reached the river. CELCO said that it was an industrial accident, that they would close the plant until further notice, and that the spill would not have any impact on the environment. The Secretary of State for the Environment said that, despite having large financial and technical resources, CELCO had an extremely poor environmental record.


References


External links


Celulosa Arauco y Constitución S.A
Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Celulosa Arauco Y Constitucion Los Ríos Region Environment of Chile Renewable resource companies established in 1979 Pulp and paper companies of Chile Chilean companies established in 1979 Manufacturing companies based in Santiago, Chile