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Inside information: Valmet to supply a complete pulp mill with full-scope automation and flow control solutions to Arauco in Brazil

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Valmet Oyj’s stock exchange release (inside information) on September 25, 2024 at 01:45 a.m. EEST

ESPOO, Finland, Sept. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Board of Directors of Arauco have today approved an investment of a complete pulp mill and selected Valmet as the supplier for the project. Valmet’s scope will be the delivery of complete pulp mill including also full-scope automation and flow control solutions to Arauco. The new pulp mill will be the world’s largest single-phase pulp mill project with 3.5 million tonne per year pulp production capacity. The new mill is estimated to start-up in the second half of 2027.  The pulp mill will be built in Inocência, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

The contract is estimated to be finalized by the end of 2024.

The value of the order for Valmet is over EUR 1 billion, and it is expected to be included in Valmet’s orders received for the fourth quarter 2024. The anticipated delivery will have an important employment impact on Valmet and its subcontractors especially in Brazil, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, India and China.

“This is an important and decisive stage of our Sucuriú Project, which will feature high expertise and state-of-the-art technology. As the world’s largest single-phase pulp production project, our choice to partner with Valmet reflects Arauco’s commitment to partnering with those who share our vision for innovation and sustainable practices,” says Cristian Infante, Global CEO of Arauco.

“This investment is a significant milestone for the industry, and we are proud to be selected as the partner for Arauco in this major project. Arauco’s new pulp mill will be the largest single-phase pulp mill project in the world and will be a showcase for Valmet’s sustainable technologies. In addition, the mill will generate a significant amount of excess bioelectricity, contributing positively to the sustainable energy supply of the area,” says Thomas Hinnerskov, President and CEO of Valmet.

“With a complete mill delivery, Valmet can offer the full benefits of our innovative and comprehensive offering consisting of process technology, automation systems, flow control solutions and services. Even though the mill will be the largest ever delivered, Valmet’s delivery scope will include proven technologies creating a good foundation for this mega mill investment. The mill will feature leading process technologies, including the latest developments in our continuous cooking technology especially tailored for large hardwood mills and the most advanced automation systems and flow control solutions. Complete automation solution includes the latest Valmet DNAe automation system together with mill-wide optimization solution. The solutions are designed to deliver excellent energy efficiency, optimized end-product quality, and high environmental performance,” says Sami Riekkola, Business Line President, Pulp and Energy, Valmet.

“The development of the pulp industry in Brazil has been substantial in the past years. To meet the demands of this market and serve the customers even better in the region, Valmet has systematically strengthened its presence and competences locally. Our knowledge about the local conditions, experience in executing projects and commitment to provide long-term services for the new plant ensuring high operational efficiency and sustainability were recognized by Arauco as very important factors in their decision to partner with Valmet,” says Celso Tacla, Area President, South America, Valmet.

Details about Valmet’s technology delivery to Arauco Sucuriú pulp mill project

Valmet will deliver the full production process from wood handling to ready pulp bales to produce hardwood pulp, as well as automation system and related flow control solutions for the whole mill including features form Valmet’s Industrial Internet offering. Valmet’s delivery scope includes the engineering, procurement, and construction, including civil construction and commissioning works at the site.

Valmet’s process technology delivery will include wood handling, cooking and fiber line, pulp drying and baling, non-condensable gases (NCG) handling solution, evaporation, recovery boiler, biomass boiler, recausticizing, lime kiln, biomass dryer and gasifier.

The automation delivery will include Valmet’s latest distributed control system Valmet DNAe, advanced process controls (APC), analyzers and online measurements as well as mill-wide optimization covering all process islands. The Industrial Internet solutions scope includes simulators and connectivity to Valmet Performance Center.

The delivery will additionally include flow control solutions featuring valves and valve automation. 

Information about the customer Arauco

Arauco is a global forest industry company, originally from Chile, with a presence on five continents. Founded in 1979, it has operations in more than 75 countries and 55 mills in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and South Africa. It operates globally with over 18,000 employees guided by solid values and common vision of contributing to improving the lives of people and the planet, developing renewable forest products for the challenges of a sustainable world.  

Further information, please contact:
Sami Riekkola, Business Line President, Pulp and Energy, Valmet, tel. +358 40 542 7437
Celso Tacla, Area President, South America, Valmet, tel. +55 41 3341 458
Pekka Rouhiainen, VP, Investor Relations, Valmet, tel. +358 10 672 0020
Anu Salonsaari-Posti, SVP, Communications, marketing, sustainability and corporate relations, Valmet, tel. +358 50 453 4262

VALMET

Katri Hokkanen
CFO 

Pekka Rouhiainen
VP, Investor Relations

DISTRIBUTION:
Nasdaq Helsinki
Major media
www.valmet.com

Valmet has a global customer base across various process industries. We are a leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. With our automation systems and flow control solutions we serve an even wider base of process industries. Our more than 19,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers’ performance forward – every day.

The company has over 220 years of industrial history and a strong track record in continuous improvement and renewal. Valmet’s net sales in 2023 were approximately EUR 5.5 billion.

Valmet’s shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki and the head office is in Espoo, Finland. 

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

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New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

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