The Government of Uruguay approved in 2006 the building of two pulp mills in the city of Fray Bentos, along a bank of the Uruguay River. The first was to be managed by the Finnish company Metsa Botnia, while the Spanish ENCE had planned to build a second plant near the Finnish one but later announced it was studying plans to set up a site in Conchillas, the south-west region of Colonia, Uruguay. The activities started in 2007.