ATLANTA, Ga. --- The Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) of Atlanta, Ga., has taken the first step in expanding its membership to include companies operating outside North America. The Institute, which is financially supported by 54 North American companies in the paper and related services industry, has historically focused its membership solely on the North American paper industry. With the ongoing globalization of the paper industry, the Board of Trustees of the Institute established a new international membership strategy to support paper mills of U.S. companies operating outside North America as well as non-North American companies.

Following Board approval of international membership in November 1998, the Institute has successfully recruited UPM-Kymmene of Helsinki, Finland, the world's third largest papermaking company.

"We are looking forward to serving our first international member and are extremely pleased to be working with such a forward-looking and technically progressive company.  The Internet will be heavily used in maintaining contact with this set of new customers," said IPST President James L. Ferris.

UPM-Kymmene produces over 8 million metric tons of paper in four paper-oriented divisions: Magazine Papers, Newsprint, Fine Paper, and Converting and Specialty. Sixty percent of the UPM-Kymmene production capacity is located in Finland with the remainder located in Western Europe, the United States, China and Indonesia. UPM-Kymmene purchased Minnesota-based Blandin Paper Company in 1997.

IPST is an independent graduate school, research organization and information center for science and technology concerned mainly with manufacture and uses of pulp, paperboard, and other forest products and byproducts. Established in 1929, the Institute provides research and information services to the wood, fiber and allied industries in a unique partnership between education and business. The Institute is certified by the Georgia Department of Education, accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and allied with the Georgia Institute of Technology as well as other institutions of higher education.