Recent Articles

Several clients and colleagues have recently remarked that, with the world coming out of Covid-19 (or a least hoping we are coming out of Covid-19), there is a new urgency and frenetic pace about work and play for that matter. This is a recipe for accidents.

The PM40 closed Thursday, 1 April 2021, at 4188.

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 1 April 2021 up 48.1% from the 3 April 2020 level.

In this issue of Disconnected Comparisons, we evaluate Mercer International and RELX Group.

Verso Corporation, owner of the now defunct Luke paper mill, agreed to clean up toxic waste that seeped into the Potomac River from the mill and pay the state of Maryland $650,000. The actions are part of a settlement to resolve lawsuits over the pollution.

Pelican Lake First Nation, Witchekan Lake First Nation, and Tolko Industries Ltd. announced that they have signed an Agreement in Principle that will enhance the ability for Pelican Lake and Witchekan Lake First Nations to further their expertise as a logging contractor.

Domtar's support of American Forest Foundation (AFF) biodiversity conservation initiatives is helping protect at-risk or endangered wildlife, especially in the Southeastern United States.

In February 2021, the Land and Environmental Court in Östersund upheld an appeal from the Skydda Skogen (Protect the Forest) association regarding a number of harvesting notifications on SCA land in Jämtland and Härjedalen. The Court also found in favor of a harvesting ban at the harvesting sites in question. SCA is now appealing this ruling to the Supreme Land and Environmental Court.

Finnish forestry products company Stora Enso says it plans to stop producing wood pulp in Joensuu for strategic and economic reasons, but did not confirm ethical factors played a role despite recent adverse publicity about exports to China.

Tetra Pak announces it is ready to deploy its portfolio of tethered cap solutions. The portfolio brings numerous benefits to food and beverage manufacturers and consumers, as the company builds on its vision of the most sustainable food package.

A fire that cost the lives of two contractors during maintenance at Canton's Evergreen Packaging paper mill ended in hefty fines for two contractors.

Smurfit Kappa has designed a new integrated packaging system following close collaboration with Signify, the world leader in connected LED lighting systems, by designing the BioShift UV-C Chamber Case, used to ship and transport UV-C lights that have significant antibacterial properties, which kill germs and viruses.

Paper Excellence already has a 49% stake in Eldorado and had sought the arbitration to be allowed to acquire the remaining stake, as determined by a 2017 sale contract.

Hygiene and health company Essity's tissue production facility in Lilla Edet, Sweden wants to become the world's first large-scale tissue facility with fossil CO2 emission-free production. By completely replacing natural gas with biogas, the production facility will reduce its fossil CO2 emissions to zero during normal operations.

Charmin has released its NFT(P) crypto collection - three original pieces of digital TP art celebrating Charmin's mission to help everyone Enjoy the Go both in real life and virtually. Charmin will be rolling out the auction of the first-ever NFT (non-fungible token) art by a toilet paper brand with proceeds benefitting Direct Relief.

Mondi, global leader in packaging and paper, has started up new production lines for melt-blown nonwoven fabric and medical face masks at its site in Gronau, Germany to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Sonoco ThermoSafe, a unit of Sonoco and the leading global provider of temperature-assured packaging solutions, and Unilode Aviation Solutions, the market leader in outsourced Unit Load Device (ULD) management and repair services, announce a partnership for the maintenance, repair and handling of Sonoco ThermoSafe's passive bulk temperature-controlled containers at several key locations. This cooperation will play an important role in enabling the safe and efficient transport of pharmaceuticals and other temperature-sensitive products around the world.

Andritz has received an order from UPM to provide industrial maintenance services for its new mill in the city of Paso de los Toros, Uruguay. The mill will have an annual production capacity of 2.1 million tons of bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp when it starts up in the second half of 2022.

Solenis, a leading global producer of specialty chemicals, will increase prices by 7 to 15 percent on all process and water treatment product lines across the EMEA region, effective immediately or as customer contracts allow.

Valmet will deliver the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) based Valmet IQ Web Inspection System (WIS) to Progroup's paper machine PM2 in Eisenhüttendstadt, Germany. The new machine vision system targets to increase the containerboard machine speed even further.

Valmet will supply Valmet IQ Moisturizer system to DS Smith Contoire-Hamel in France. The new system will be installed on DS Smith Contoire-Hamel's paper mill's paper machine PM1. The target of the investment is to improve the moisture profile of the board for better corrugated performance. The delivery is scheduled by the middle of April 2021.

Valmet has previously supplied two Advantage DCT 200TS tissue lines, started up in 2011 and 2016, to the same mill.

The Brazilian wood-based materials producer Guararapes Paineis, S/A. placed an order for an MDF plant with Siempelkamp.

Valmet will supply Valmet IQ Quality Control System and Valmet IQ Moisturizer to Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill, JSC, in Novodvinsk, Russia.

Andritz has successfully started up a complete continuous low-consistency (LC) pulping system at Papeleira Coreboard in Portugal. The new Andritz LC pulping system installed features several design upgrades: