Analytical Spectral Devices, Boulder, CO, and Canada’s Paprican will develop the pulp and paper industry’s first application of near-infrared (NIR) technology to measure pulp brightness and lignin content. The new analyzers promise to optimize lab and industrial measurements of these characteristics for better manufacturing control with reduced costs and better environmental performance, say the partners. ASD’s system will allow for fast, precise and non-invasive measurement of lignin content replacing current chemical techniques. Both bench-top and online versions of the Kappa and brightness analyzer are planned. It is now in beta stage.
www.asdi.com, www.paprican.ca.

An article in the News section of this issue of PAPER INDUSTRY highlights some of the major changes seen recently. Other transactions include: Goldsmith Agio Helms sold Fox Valley Corp. to Neenah Paper, Inc. which will close one of the mills. At 15,000 tons/y, the Housatonic mill, Great Barrington, MA, was the smallest of the four fine paper mills.
www.neenah.com

SCA of Sweden said it had agreed to sell its North American packaging operations to Metalmark Capital for $US400 million cash. www.sca.com

International Paper sold 13 lumber mills to West Fraser Timber Co. for $325 million and five wood products mills to Georgia-Pacific for $237 million. www.internationalpaper.com.

Apart from the Domtar transaction, Weyer - haeuser said independently that it intends to hold preliminary discussions with Charleston Investments to sell the  Cosmopolis pulp mill, near Aberdeen, WA. The mill, built in 1957, has 140,000-tons/y capacity to make specialty pulp for plastics, photographic papers and cigarette filters, among other products. It was closed in October 2005. A veneer plant at Elma, WA, is also for sale.
www.weyerhaeuser.com

Canada’s Cascades Inc., Kingsey Falls, QC, sold its 40% share in GSD Packaging, LLC, a US food pail manufacturing company, to Rock-Tenn Company for $US32 million, which it will use to reduce its debt. www.cascades.com

Reuters reported in December that the European Commission had approved specialty papermaker Glatfelter’s bid to buy the Lydney mill from Britain’s J.R. Crompton, in administration since early 2006. The EC had worried about market domination by one supplier. The mill, in Glou cester shire, southwest England, makes tea and coffee filters, vacuum cleaner bags, wet wipes and substrates for double-sided tape.
www.glatfelter.com.

Hamilton, OH-based SMART Papers LLC won court approval of its reorganization plan, paving the way for emergence from Chapter 11 upon its sale to an affiliate of Plainfield Asset Management LLC, a Greenwich, CT-based investment advisor.
 www.smartpapers.com.

The Forest Products Assn. of Canada says that since 1990, its members reduced their GHG emissions by 44% (seven times Kyoto baseline targets) while increasing production by 20%, improving intensity per tonne of output by 54% and improving air quality by 60%. It says the industry achieved these figures at a cost of over $C8 billion. It made the claim in Ottawa while seeking “intelligent regulations and a tax regime that supports industry re-tooling” related to Canada’s Clean Air Act.
www.fpac.ca