Recent Articles

Start-up is expected in the first half of 2024.

Stora Enso has signed an agreement to divest its paper production site in Hylte, Sweden and all its related assets to Sweden Timber, a Sweden-based sawmill and planing mill company. The enterprise value is approximately EUR 18 million. The completion of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2023. Concerning the Anjala paper site in Finland, Stora Enso has decided to discontinue the divestment process.

Located in Kansas City, this new 150,000 sq. ft. millwork facility is expected to begin production in June 2023.

3M, maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics, is cutting about 2,500 manufacturing jobs worldwide as it looks to align itself with adjusted production volumes.

Ohio-based printing company Multi-Color Corporation announced that it plans to permanently close its Menomonee Falls facility, resulting in layoffs for all 29 employees, according to a letter the company sent to the Department of Workforce Development's Dislocated Worker Unit.

Georgia-Pacific has given an update on a worker who was critically injured in a Thursday morning, Jan. 19, incident at the company's Pineland facility.

Late last month, the company stated it would conduct a holiday shutdown through the month of January, but the work stoppage will now carry over through the entire month of February.

The $50 million in upgrades include restarting the mill's C2 paper machine, which will now produce new water-resistant paper grades that are intended to replace single-use plastic products.

International Paper has announced formal plans to invest approximately $103 million to build and operate two natural gas power boilers to generate steam for its Containerboard Mill in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Construction is set to begin in the second quarter of this year and be fully operational by the end of 2025.

There were no injuries sustained from the fire.

Domtar's Kingsport Mill recently produced its first 100% recycled containerboard. The milestone marks the culmination of a two-year, $350 million investment project to convert the former uncoated freesheet paper mill into Domtar's first 100% recycled packaging facility.

Nobody was injured but the mill was shut down as a result.

Fibre-based consumer packaging leader Graphic Packaging International ('Graphic Packaging') has announced it is moving its Bristol, UK beverage packaging manufacturing operations to a new, state-of-the-art facility nearby, creating up to 30 new jobs in the process.

Mercer International Inc. reports that, due to a lack of appropriate fiber availability, its Celgar mill in British Columbia, Canada, is planning to take approximately three weeks of downtime. This curtailment is expected to commence in March 2023.

Amcor announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Shanghai-based MDK. MDK generates annual sales of approximately $50 million and is a leading provider of medical device packaging, a key priority growth segment for Amcor.

In the Wall Street Journal last Wednesday, there was a discussion on the decisions made by big oil. One had to read several stories to put it together, but the exercise was worthwhile and instructive. On the one hand, Chevron and Exxon have been following a strategy of staying the course and have been rewarded with eye-popping profits. On the other, BP has moved towards a mitigating climate change, ESG strategy and not performed so well. Just my luck, the one I owned in my little stock portfolio that my wife allows me to play with is BP. In the pulp and paper industry, senior management has the same sorts of decisions to make and I am not talking about climate change and ESG. What I mean is this--do you follow the crowd or do you chart your own path?

Family first, career comes in last

The PM40 closed Friday, 3 February 2023, at 5614.

Get the latest PM40 updates by listening to the weekly Nips show and the PM40 Daily Show on Pulp & Paper Radio International.

The PM40 closed 3 February 2023 up 24.4% from the 4 February 2022 level.

In this issue of Disconnected Comparisons, we evaluate 3M and Resolute Forest Products.

Port Hawkesbury Paper Wind has submitted a proposal to the province to construct a 29-turbine wind farm.

Smurfit Kappa has announced a €6 million investment at its Sanguesa paper mill in Spain, which will see the construction and installation of up to 12,000 solar panels on land adjacent to the mill. The solar panels will reduce CO2 emissions by over 3200 tonnes annually and provide significant cost savings.

The US Commerce Department plans to raise tariffs on two of Canada's largest timber companies, while reducing tariffs on most other Canadian producers.

International Paper Company announced that it entered into an agreement to sell its 50% interest in Ilim SA to its joint venture partners for $484M. The company noted that the sale is subject to regulatory approvals in Russia.

More problems at Macon's Graphic Packaging facility sent more than 100 million gallons of polluted wastewater into the Ocmulgee River.