Recent Articles

UFP Industries, Inc. announced that UFP Industrial, LLC, closed on its agreement to purchase 100 percent of the equity of PalletOne, Inc. for approximately $232 million.

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. and Norbord Inc. jointly announced that West Fraser's management information circular and Norbord's management proxy circular (together, the "Circulars"), prepared in connection with the previously announced arrangement whereby West Fraser will acquire all outstanding common shares of Norbord (the "Norbord Shares") pursuant to a plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") under Section 192 of the Canada Business Corporations Act, are expected to be mailed to their respective shareholders by December 24, 2020.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, a leading global provider of marketing and business communications, issued the following statement in response to a recent article regarding the potential sale of its Asia Pacific business.

Bart Bender, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Interfor is the newly elected Chair of the Board for WoodWorks--Wood Products Council. Bender will serve a two-year term beginning in 2021. WoodWorks welcomes Keith O'Rear, Senior Vice President of Wood Products at Weyerhaeuser to the Board as the company's new representative.

Cascades Inc. announced that its 86.3% owned subsidiary, Greenpac Mill, LLC ("Greenpac") has entered into an agreement to amend and restate its existing term loan and revolving credit facility that were scheduled to mature in May 2021. The amended credit facilities will mature in December 2023.

If you were involved in any serious, time constrained performance-based projects in 2020, you may have become familiar with the term "Force Majeure."

The PM40 closed Friday, 1 January 2021, at 3579.

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 January 2021 up 9% from the 3 January 2020 level.

In this issue of Disconnected Comparisons, we evaluate Greif and Sonoco.

The Regional State Administrative Agency for Northern Finland has granted environmental and water supply permits to the Kemi bioproduct mill of Metsä Fibre. The environmental permit defines the limit values for the emissions of the new mill.

Smurfit Kappa has launched a new company called Recycling Dual GmbH in Germany. Recycling Dual offers an innovative and integrated holistic solution to track the entire life cycle of paper, cardboard and carton packaging.

After using coal for more than 100 years, Georgia-Pacific will shut down the last coal-fired boiler at its Green Bay Broadway mill next week.

The Sussex-based company cited "volume declines" for closing the plants in Oklahoma City; Nashville, Tennessee; and Fernley, Nevada.

Glatfelter Corporation, a leading global supplier of engineered materials is proud to announce that it has received the "Fine to Flush" certificate from Water UK for its improved nonwoven substrate used in dispersible wipes and moist toilet tissues.

A Menasha-based paperboard manufacturer, Dura-Fibre, announced it will be providing specialty laminated paperboard sleeves and inserts for some of the US novel coronavirus vaccines during shipment.

Toundra Greenhouse, an innovative cucumber-growing greenhouse complex in which Resolute holds a 49% interest, is expanding once again. On December 9, 2020, the organization announced its third expansion since its inauguration in 2016. The new $50-million plan brings the total invested in the joint venture's three phases to $175 million.

Borregaard has received a commitment of NOK 15.7 million ($1.8 million) in funding from the Research Council of Norway for a project for the development of biochemicals to replace petrochemical alternatives.

Innovation Norway has allocated NOK 15 million in support of building a demonstration plant for the development of fiber composite production at Norske Skog Saugbrugs. This will accelerate the on-going development work to industrialize the production of a new type of biocomposite, which can be included in furniture, packaging and car interiors. Norske Skog Saugbrugs will develop sustainable solutions related to plastic raw materials, fiber blending, technology development and testing of biocomposites.

Northern Pulp estimates it has enough money left to run until June. After that it will have to seek permission from the the court and its creditors to draw again on a $50 million financing facility set up by its parent company, Paper Excellence.

Sonoco, one of the most sustainable, diversified global packaging companies, is pleased to announce its partnership with the Digital Watermarks Initiative Holy Grail 2.0, an initiative facilitated by AIM, the European Brands Initiative, to prove the viability of digital watermarking for sorting packaging waste and the business case at scale.

UPM Biofuels has joined the BIKE project that promotes low-ILUC risk biofuels production for European Bioeconomy. The project brings together companies and research organisations who believe that novel, safe and reliable biomass value chains can be deployed to produce food, feed, biofuels and biomaterials with a low risk of generating indirect land use change.

ABB has completed a large-scale remote commissioning of winder drives, upgrading and commissioning PM5 installations at ITC's Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division mill in India.

Metsä Fibre and Doosan Škoda Power have signed a preliminary agreement on a turbine generator with an electric power of 270 MW for the planned bioproduct mill in Kemi, Finland.

SPM Instrument AB received an order for a total of 154 sensors for the replacement of an older SPM system on the drive side of the drying section on Hallsta's PM12 paper machine.

Toscotec completed a post dryer section rebuild at German containerboard producer Aviretta. The project was executed according to the original schedule, despite Covid-19 restrictions. The paper machine (PM4) produces fluting from 60 to 130 g/m².