The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, today addressed representatives of Canada’s forest industry at a luncheon speech at PaperWeek 2012 in Montreal.
The Minister highlighted the importance of partnerships, innovation and market expansion to the future of Canada’s forest industry in helping to sustain jobs in rural communities across the country.
UPM sells its packaging paper production to the Swedish packaging paper company Billerud. The transaction includes two packaging paper machines; one in Pietarsaari and one in Tervasaari, Finland. The enterprise value of the transaction is EUR 130 million. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. The target is to close the transaction during the second quarter of 2012.
UPM is to invest in a biorefinery producing biofuels from crude tall oil in Lappeenranta, Finland. The industrial scale investment is the first of its kind globally. The biorefinery will produce annually approximately 100,000 tonnes of advanced second generation biodiesel for transport. Construction of the biorefinery will begin in the summer of 2012 at UPM’s Kaukas mill site and be completed in 2014. UPM’s total investment will amount to approximately EUR 150 million.
Over the 12 months of 2011, OJSC Ilim Group’s mills in Siberia (the Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk mills) manufactured 1,490,000 tons of pulp and paper products. This is 1.5% above the 2010 performance.
This includes 1,258,000 tons of market pulp, with a 1% increase over the previous year.
Market containerboard output has increased by 3% compared to previous period to reach 231,000 tons.
Sabah Timber Industries Association (STIA) said the timber industry here is facing a shortage of raw material due to over logging in the past and lack of sustainable forest management program.
In a statement yesterday in conjunction with this year’s Chinese New Year celebration, STIA president Datuk James Hwong said the critical situation has forced STIA members to depend on other means to sustain the industry.
Södra reduced the price of its softwood pulp timber by SEK 25 per m3sub. This price reduction is also applicable to the pulp timber element of its storm range. The price of all hardwood pulp timber ranges will remain unchanged for the time being, however.
"This price reduction is a reaction to the prevailing demand, and there is plenty of raw material available at all Södra pulp mills," said Håkan Svensson, Director of Forestry at Södra.
VTT Technical Research Centre and Aalto University have developed a method which for the first time enables manufacturing of a wood-based and plastic-like material in large scale. The method enables industrial scale roll-to-roll production of nanofibrillated cellulose film, which is suitable for e.g. food packaging to protect products from spoilage.
Forest machine manufacturer Komatsu Forest has signed a major deal with the new Brazilian pulp mill Eldorado Brasil in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In its entirety, the contract is worth about 1.4 billion Swedish kronor (US$ 200 million).
If you prefer to read from paper instead of an electronic screen, you're not alone. According to a recent survey commissioned by Two Sides, the fast-growing non-profit organization created to promote the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper, 70 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, say they prefer to read print and paper communications compared to reading off a screen.
Today, Georgia-Pacific has announced that it has completed the sale of the legal entity in Italy to Cartiera Lucchese (Lucart Group). A definitive agreement for the sale was announced last November and this closing concludes the sale process.
