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Start-up is scheduled for early 2025.

Valmet will deliver bleached chemi-thermo mechanical pulp (BCTMP), evaporation and non-condensable gas (NCG) technology as well as an extensive automation solutions package for Stora Enso's Oulu mill in Finland. The delivery is part of Stora Enso's approximately EUR 1 billion investment to convert the remaining idle paper machine at their Oulu site into a high-volume consumer board production line.

Valmet will supply an extensive rebuild for Sappi's Somerset paper manufacturing facility in Skowhegan, Maine, USA. Previously, Valmet rebuilt the paper machine 1 (PM1) and with its success, Sappi has chosen Valmet again to rebuild the paper machine 2 (PM2).

Voith has acquired shares in the sustainability start-up Yangi, headquartered in Varberg, Sweden. Yangi's ground-breaking technology emerges from 10 years of R&D within its sister company, The Loop Factory, which focuses on the megatrends of sustainability and circular economy. As a result, the leading full-line supplier Voith is investing in new, future-oriented technologies to further drive decarbonization in the paper industry.

For more than two years now, the Italian company Toscotec has been a subsidiary of Voith and since then has been serving the business with new lines and major rebuilds in the tissue paper sector for the entire Voith Group.

ANDRITZ has received an order from Brazilian pulp producer Suzano to deliver a SulfoLoop concentrated sulfuric acid plant for its new pulp mill that Suzano is building in the municipality of Ribas do Rio Pardo, state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Valmet will deliver a fiber fractionation system to Sichuan Tianzhu Bamboo Resource Co., Ltd in the Sichuan Province in China to improve mill efficiency. The value of the order will not be disclosed. The project is scheduled to be executed in the fall 2023.

Valmet has been selected to rebuild the cooking, fiberline and evaporation plant of Andhra Paper's Rajahmundry unit in India. The delivery is scheduled to take place in December 2023, and the start-up is planned for the first quarter 2024.

Andritz has received an order from Lipy Paper Mills Ltd. to supply wastepaper processing systems to the mill in Changine, Modonpur, Kanchpur, Sonargaon. These are the first Andritz RCF (Recycled Fiber) lines for Bangladesh.

Asia Symbol (Guangdong) Paper has successfully started up its tissue production line delivered by Andritz for its mill in Xinhui district, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, China.

Closures and cutbacks

Reported insider trading since the last issue of PaperMoney.

The negotiations affect all workers at Stora Enso's packaging materials mills in Oulu, Varkaus, Heinola and Anjalankoski.

Cosmo Specialty Fibers Inc. has gained new ownership following more than 12 years since the mill was bought by The Gores Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, in 2010. The United Kingdom-based firm, Charlestown Investments, is the new owner.

The closing is expected to take place on January 31, 2023.

The pulp line is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2023 and is anticipated to impact approximately 300 positions across the organization by the end of the year.

Progroup has invested around Euro 72 million in the project at the site, which covers around 28,000 square metres, and created 50 new jobs.

Mondi plans to invest around €200 million in converting the existing lightweight coated mechanical paper machine at the mill into a high-quality, cost-competitive recycled containerboard machine with an annual capacity of around 420,000 tonnes.

International Paper intends to build a new 20,000-square-foot building at the Cedar Rapids mill that would be home to a boiler and water treatment plant. Together, they would provide steam power to the Cedar Rapids facility. Previously, the plant used the coal-powered Prairie Creek Station. However, that facility is being closed.

The indefinite curtailment of Perry Sawmill will impact approximately 126 employees and will reduce West Fraser's US lumber production by 100 million board feet.

Paper Excellence Group, a private company controlled by an Indonesian billionaire, is poised to expand in Canada's forestry industry by diversifying into the lumber sector with its contentious takeover of Resolute Forest Products Inc.

LSC Communications, which is closing two plants in Lancaster County, and will lay off about 656 people, will move the work at those two locations to its long-run print facilities in Maple Grove, Minnesota and Warsaw, Indiana.

For the third time, members from three united steel workers unions have voted to reject what Westrock paper mill representatives call the company's last, best, and final offer.

The Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) paper mill in Jackson has called employees back to work and is expected to resume production Monday, Jan. 9.

Canfor Corporation will extend sawmill curtailments in British Columbia (B.C.) due to ongoing weak market conditions and the lack of available economic fibre, company announced.