The plant is due to open in the Narva industrial park (Tööstuspark) next year and will cost €16 million, half of which will go on purchasing new machinery and equipment.

€2 million of the funding will come from the EU Just Transition Fund.

Fortaco Estonia Director Larissa Šabunova said: "Since some highly cutting-edge equipment will be coming here, we think that output productivity will also be very high, while product prices will also be highly competitive to the customers. We're talking about some large, new generation Computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools, welding robots, bending equipment etc.

The current Fortaco plant in central Narva employs around 550 people, but the company required additional production capacity, in order to meet new orders.

The expansion may boost staff payroll to about 700 people, the company says.

Šabunova added that some plant such as machined tools and welding robots have already been ordered and should arrive in the first quarter of next year, with a view to production lines starting in the second half of next year.

The Just Transition Fund is a pillar of the EU's Just Transition Mechanism, which provides support to areas of member states' expected to be the most negatively impacted by the transition towards climate-neutrality, which in Estonia's case is Ida-Viru County.

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