Kingsey Falls, QC-based Cascades Inc. says it sold to Arjowiggins, a subsidiary of Sequana Capital, the Greenfield SAS deinking mill in Chateau-Thierry, France. The millÕs capacity is 140,000 tonnes/y of high-end recycled pulp. Cascades also finalized the sale of its Thunder Bay, ON, coated fine papers mill to privatelyheld Thunder Bay Fine Papers Inc. Cascades will provide $C4.5million to support start-up of the operation. www.cascades.com.

Canadian billionaire Jimmy Pattison boosted his majority stake in Canfor Corp. through hiswholly owned Great Pacific Industries Inc. which bought an additional 276,000 Canfor shares taking its stake to 8.02%. Pattison, a member of CanforÕs board, now holds 25.93% of the company through three of his investment arms. www.canfor.com.

IBS Paper Performance Group has opened a new subsidiary IBS do Brasil Ltda. in Americana, Sao Paulo state. A state-of-the-art grinding machine Ð 19 m long and 1.4 m wide Ð is in operation. The production of modern dewatering elements and other key components for paper machines will be implemented, spares and consumables will be stocked and IBSwill be able to service,maintain and repair all of its products. IBS do Brasil is a member of the IBS Paper Performance Group, which unites the companies of IBS, Berger, JUD and James Ross. The company has 11 subsidiaries with close to 500 employees and over 60 representatives around the world. www.ibsaustria. com, www.ibs-ppg.com.

Rock-Tenn Co. will acquire Southern Container Corp., a private containerboard manufacturing and corrugated packaging business. The deal includes the 720,000-ton/year Solvaymill near Syracuse, NY, which produces recycled containerboard; there are also eight corrugated box plants, two sheet plants and four graphics facilities. Following bankruptcy court approval, Marcal PaperMills, Inc. said in January that it had sold its assets to an affiliate of NexBank, SSB for about $160 million. NexBank will form Marcal Paper Mills Inc., LLC. Marcal makes towel and tissue from recycled fiber at its facilities in Elmwood Park, NJ, and Chicago, IL. Domtar will close its 165,000-ton/year uncoated freesheet mill in Port Edwards, WI mill by 2Q08; 500 jobs will be lost. At its Dryden, Ontario, mill, which also produces uncoated freesheet paper, 332,000-ton/year capacity PM #2, as well as two cut-size sheeters, closed on December 22, 2007. PM #1, which has a production capacity of 155,000 tons, was to restart inmid-January 2008.About 125 employeeswill be affected by this reorganization.Themeasures will result in a permanent reduction of DomtarÕs annual production capacity by about 342,000 tons. www.domtar.com.

FinlandÕs Ahlstrom Corp., which manufactures high performance fiber-based materials, has acquired Friend Group Inc., which consists of West Carrollton Parchment Company and West Carrollton Converting Company. The Group produces vegetable parchment and has parchmentizing and converting operations in West Carrollton, OH. Friend Group employs 162 people and serves mainly the food packaging market in the USA. Net sales in 2007 were $US47 million. The new entity will be integrated into AhlstromÕs vegetable parchment product line, which is part of the Technical Papers business area currently operating two sites manufacturing vegetable parchment in France and serving customers globally. Vegetable parchment, a specialty paper made from cellulose fibers, has applications in packaging, food, textile, furniture, graphic and other industries. www.ahlstrom.com.