Recent Articles

A move by the U.S. Commerce Department to increase preliminary tariffs on softwood lumber imports from Canada, if finalized, will raise producer costs and cut into their profits but is unlikely to affect prices to consumers of wood products, analysts say.

Stora Enso and Vogue Scandinavia have formed a strategic partnership to replace plastics in magazine packaging. As a part of the partnership, Stora Enso will provide Vogue Scandinavia with sustainability and packaging design expertise. A renewable, carbon neutral eco-package concept will be available for the first issue of Vogue Scandinavia, to be published in August this year.

Notably in 2020, containerboard capacity expanded, continuing a decade-long trend, and reaching a record high of 40.4 million tons. Tissue paper capacity has also been trending upward, increasing for the past five years, as well as eight of the last 10 years.

Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc., the oldest continuously operating paper mill in the United States, is expanding its popular Envi Card Stock portfolio with the introduction of Envi PC 100 Card 28 pt., crafted from 100% post-consumer waste fibers.

R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company announced that its Board of Directors (the "Board") has approved an amendment of the Company's stockholder rights plan (the "Rights Plan"). The amendment raises from 10% to 15% the level of beneficial ownership of RRD common stock the acquisition of which by a person or group (other than certain passive institutional investors) would result in the rights becoming exercisable.

Sonoco ThermoSafe, a unit of Sonoco and the leading global provider of temperature assurance packaging, and Cathay Pacific Cargo, one of the world's largest air cargo carriers, announced an expanded global partnership agreement for the leasing of the new Pegasus ULD® temperature controlled bulk shipping container. The agreement enables pharmaceutical freight forwarders to lease Pegasus ULD® containers directly from Cathay Pacific Cargo.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, a global leader in marketing and business communications, announced it has been named to Forbes' list of America's Best Employers for Diversity 2021.

Andritz has successfully started up a complete, innovative reject handling line as well as key stock preparation equipment at Sun Paper Savannakhet, Savannakhet Province, Laos.

Nine Dragons Paper, the biggest manufacturer of packaging paper in China, has commissioned Voith to build and deliver three XcelLine paper machines for the production of high performance testliner and white top testliner. The three lines will further strengthen the paper manufacturer's leading position in the packaging paper segment. The commissioning of the machines is planned for 2022 and 2023.

Kemira has opened a new dry polymer production plant in Ulsan, South Korea in May 2021. The plant produces high quality dry polyacrylamide (DPAM) products primarily for retention and drainage applications which are critical in modern, fast paper and board production. The investment is a joint venture between Kemira and Yongsan Chemicals.

Andritz Ingeniería, SA, part of international technology Group Andritz, has received an order from Smurfit Kappa Nervion to provide industrial maintenance services for their mill in Iurreta, Spain.

Global technology company ABB has been contracted by manufacturer of forest products, Arauco, to modernize its Licancel cellulose plant in Chile to deliver faster response times, greater cyber security, upgraded operator interfaces, enhanced process reliability and flexibility for remote working.

Valmet has been chosen as the third most attractive employer by engineering students in Finland. The ranking was published in Universum's annual survey, which is the biggest employer survey in Finland. In 2020, Valmet was ranked fifth in the same category.

Valmet will supply drying technology to Spinnova-Suzano joint venture textile fibre factory in Jyväskylä, Finland. The facility, producing SPINNOVA® fibre, is the first step towards scaling production volumes to one million tonnes annually within ten years. Spinnova's annual capacity could be 50,000 tonnes of textile fibre by 2024.

Americans are awash in boxes from a pandemic-induced push to online shopping. But how do consumers feel about those boxes? Baby Boomers, the generation that came of age amid the first Earth Day in 1970, are the most motivated to recycle those leftover boxes, according to a nationwide poll by global packaging leader DS Smith. And the majority of consumers (57%) don't mind the extras, because "you can never have too many boxes" for re-shipping, storage and other purposes.

Lumber prices and tariffs

Reported insider trading since the last issue of PaperMoney.

Domtar Corporation announced it will expand its Jesup, Georgia based Engineered Absorbent Materials (EAM) facility. The project will play an integral role in helping the company grow its position as a leading global absorbent materials and technology business offering fluff pulp and airlaid nonwoven materials.

Graphic Packaging Holding Company, a leading vertically-integrated provider of sustainable fiber-based consumer packaging solutions, and CVC Capital Partners Fund VI today announced a definitive agreement under which Graphic Packaging will acquire AR Packaging Group AB ("AR Packaging"), Europe's second largest producer of fiber-based consumer packaging, for approximately $1.45 billion in cash, subject to customary adjustments.

BTG Pactual announced that a consortium led by its Timberland Investment Group (TIG), along with British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), one of Canada's largest institutional investors, and APG, one of the world's largest pension providers, has agreed to acquire Chilean timberland assets from Arauco for US$ 385.5 million.

UPM has signed an agreement to sell its Shotton newsprint mill site in North Wales, United Kingdom and all related assets to Eren Paper Ltd, a subsidiary of Modern Karton Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.Ş., the containerboard and corrugated packaging business of the Turkish industrial conglomerate Eren Holding ("Eren").

Gov. John Bel Edwards and Weyerhaeuser announced the company plans to make a two-phased capital investment in its Holden facility. The project would result in approximately $157 million invested over several years to upgrade equipment and modernize the sawmill. Phase one includes nearly $19 million to upgrade lumber kiln-drying capacity, while the second phase will include a major investment of approximately $138 million to completely modernize the facility.

The unit will be built in the municipality of Ribas do Rio Pardo, in Mato Grosso do Sul state, and should start production by the end of the first quarter of 2024. The project estimates industrial investments of R$14.7 billion, making it one of the largest private-sector investments currently under development in Brazil.

One person was taken to the hospital after a chemical spill at the Solenis water treatment plant in Chicopee Thursday morning.

Governor Brian P. Kemp announced that Interfor, a forest products company and the largest lumber producer in the state, will invest $30 million in expanding their sawmill operations in Perry.