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NEWS Weyerhaeuser Cellulose Fibers is the new name for Weyco’s pulp business. The idea is to reflect more closely its business of developing unique fibers for specific needs. Nonpaper- grade pulps account for 60% of its cellulose fiber business. Air emission credits accounted for a $C5-million gain in Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.’s 3Q04 results reported in October. Profits for the quarter were $C182 million compared with a $C70-million loss in 3Q03. At the time the $C1 = 80.46 cents US. A-C also said its Alma, QC, mill started to produce value-added paper on October 1 after a $C210-million conversion from newsprint. As well, the Port Alfred, QC, newsprint mill, closed since December 10, 2003, will stay closed for another year. The mills in Texas will also stay shut but won’t be written down. www.abicon.com. Georgia-Pacific is reported to be spending $60 million to upgrade one of its Green Bay, WI, mills by modernizing a paper machine and converting equipment. G-P will get a $500,000 forgivable grant towards funding the project. Also, the company is to construct a 200,000-sq-ft storage and distribution facility in the Portland, OR, enterprise zone. The company will spend $5.9 million and increase its 50-employee workforce by a minimum of 10. www.g-p.com. Dow increased its US schedule and off-schedule selling prices for both diaphragm (commercial) and membrane grades of caustic soda 50% solution basis (basis 76% Na2O). Diaphragm pricing increased $50/dry short ton (DST) and membrane by $60/DST. The $75/DST surcharge stays as does the order control program. www.dowcaustic.com. Sappi Ltd. presented its 2004 International Printer of the Year Award to Anderson Lithograph, Inglewood, CO, at a ceremony October 22 in Cape Town, South Africa. Anderson’s entry was the Cadillac XLR 2004 brochure printed on McCoy Gloss Cover 216 g/m2 (80 lb) which had already earned the company Sappi’s North American Printer of the Year award for 2004. www.sappi.com. The pulp mill at UPM’s Miramichi, NB, operation is to be shut down during 4Q04. The 235,000-airdried-tonne/year bleached kraft mill is said by the company to have “outlived its technological lifespan.” www.upm-kymmene.com. November 1, Cascades Inc., Kingsey Falls, QC, shut down Cascades FjordCell, its 82,000-tonne/year-capacity bleached virgin pulp mill in Jonquiere, QC, because of labor troubles. Part of its output is sold to the adjacent boxboard mill which has access to alternative sources of supply. The labor contract expired April 30. www.cascades.com. Sappi Ltd. raised the price of its US coated freesheet grades by $60 a ton in November. www.sappi.com. De La Rue, said to be the world’s largest commercial security printer and papermaker, implemented the IFS Applications™ business software at its plant in Dulles, VA and plans to introduce it to its two UK mills. www.ifsworld.com. Rayonier reported that its nearly two million acres of US timberlands were re-certified by third-party auditor BVQI as meeting the standards of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® program. Similarly, Canada’s Tembec Inc. was awarded a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate for its forest resource management practices in Parson, BC, by SmartWood, the FSC’s accredited certifier. The 350,000-acre Tree Farm Licence 14 is in southeastern BC, about 32 kilometers southwest of Golden, and is the largest industrial forest and the first in BC to be certified under the FSC-BC standard. www.rayonier.com; www.tembec.com. PI |
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