Biganos, France 24 August 2012 -- Smurfit Kappa Group’s (SKG) Cellulose du Pin kraftliner and testliner mill in Biganos, France is up and running again. A company spokeswoman told EUWID that production had been restarted today after approval from local authorities had been received yesterday afternoon. Smurfit Kappa would not stop production for maintenance in September, as initially planned, since the maintenance work had already been carried out during the unintended shutdown, she added.

The mill had been standing still since 5 July when a black liquor tank burst releasing its contents onto the site. The company initially expected the mill to remain idle for four weeks but the downtime had to be extended due to the volume of maintenance and control operations.

The Cellulose du Pin mill houses two paper machines. PM 5 produces white-top kraftliner and white-top testliner with an annual capacity of 190,000 t. PM 6 has a capacity to produce 330,000 tpy of unbleached kraftliner.