Shipping Paper can be Expensive

The paper industry has recently witnessed an increase in shipping charges. Most freight carriers are now introducing a fuel surcharge due to the escalating prices.

Two More Mills Announce Closure

The operators of Pasadena Paper, located in Pasadena, Texas have decided to shut the mill down permanently. This mill produced 190,000 tons of coated paper per year. The mill was shut down initially due to excessive damage caused by Hurricane Rita in September.
As previously announced by Paper.com, Weyerhaeuser will close the Prince Albert Paper mil. This plant was located in Prince Albert, Sask, Canada and produced 280,000 tons of uncoated freesheet and 130,000 tons of Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft pulp.
Come to www.paper.com for all your paper demands.

Paper Market update

Estimated transaction prices on both uncoated offset and uncoated business papers (cutsize) rose $5/ton in November. This may be the result of energy-related surcharges and other raw material cost increases. October shipments were down approximately 1.4% from last year. Uncoated paper shipments are reported down 3.6% for the year versus last year through this time.
Coated paper prices appear to remain stable and, in fact, some free sheet grades may have witnessed a $5.00/ton increase in November. This market continues to be very competitive. Many machines producing coated papers have been closed, thus yielding an artificially tight market.

Pulp Market is Depressed

Buyers are reporting that benchmark northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp prices delivered to the U.S. East and Midwest markets are stuck in the $510-$520/metric ton range. Reason: Weak pulp demand from paper mills in an oversupplied market.
NBSK pulp reached a two-year peak of $665 in February and has been sliding ever since. Even when the mills adjusted their effective list prices downward to $630-$640 in October, transaction tags have stayed lower. Paperloop.com is reporting, for example, that sales in the East, "which is often the most competitively pricing region on the domestic market," are reported levels hovering around $500/metric ton. Buyer surveys show Southern bleached softwood kraft (SBSK) spot prices stuck in a $500-$510 range since August. Producers are telling the trade press they are fully committed to implementing a price hike in regular contract business, but buyers deny that is happening.

Mohawk Paper changes Name

Mohawk Paper Mills is now called Mohawk Fine Papers, Inc. After Mohawk acquired the International Paper facilities, it is now the largest producer of premium printing, writing, and imaging papers in the USA. Popular grades Mohawk produces include Strathmore, Mohawk Superfine, Beckett, Britehue, Via, Mohawk ColorCopy, Inxwell, Navajo, and options. Mohawk is well know for its commitment to the environment, and has most recently transferred a portion of its energy demand to wind energy.
Paper.com has all the Mohawk grades, available and for immediate shipment

Badger Paper reviews Future

Badger Paper, located in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, continues to review its future. Management recently commissioned Sanabe & Associates, a New York Investment banking firm, to advise on strategic options.

Another Mill Closes

Cascades announced that it will cease the operations of its Cascades Fine Papers Group Inc., Thunder Bay Division (Ontario) plant which specializes in the manufacturing of coated papers. Approximately 375 employees will be effected.
The current economic situation within the pulp and paper industry, along with the recent sales price decrease in the fine papers sector and the unfavorable short and long term perspectives compel Cascades to close the plant. Moreover, the reduced demand and increased price of raw material and energy, combined with an increase of the Canadian dollar compared to the US dollar strongly affected the plant's economic performance.

Printing and Writing Paper Shipments Up in October

The AF&PA has reported that shipments of printing and writing paper grades rose 1.4% in October, as compared to the same month in 2004, to 2.33 million tons. Year to date shipments decreased by –1.4% as compared to last year. Coated freesheet shipments were up by 7.3% month over month and down –1.1 year to date. Coated mechanical shipments increased by 2.2% month over month and decreased –0.7% year to date. Uncoated freesheet shipments fell by –1.4% month over month and uncoated mechanical rose by 3.3%. Uncoated freesheet declined –3.6% year to date and uncoated mechanical was up 13.4% for the same period.

Domtar Announces Downtime

Domtar recently announced that it will take two weeks down time around the Christmas holidays. This will result in the elimination of 125,000 tons of uncoated free sheet. The only mill effected is the Baileyville, Maine facility.

Newsprint Market

Many of the major Newsprint producers (paper used for newspapers) agree that consumption in the USA will continue to decline. Inspite of this, the manufacturers announced price increases for November.

Defining Brightness and Whiteness in Paper

I am often asked about how paper brightness is determined and what the brightness value means. USDA Forest Service recently released an explanation.
To date, the industry used two methods - both yielding different results -
GE - measured the percent of total light reflectance.
ISO - defined the percentage of blue light reflected from the paper's surface.
FYI. The GE figure was always greater than the ISO value - sometimes even greater than 100%
Both measurements only provided a brightness value - with no attention to whiteness.
USDA has mandated the paper industry to use a uniform measurement - called CIE - this will be an international
agreement for all paper manufacturers. This scale measures whiteness versus the narrow color band of blue white and brightness.

Brightness may or may not add much value to the 'useful' properties of the paper but it is the most important selling feature. It is a bragging right every paper manufacturer want to have that the mill produce most bright paper.
Brightness is defined as the percentage reflectance of blue light only at a wavelength of 457 nm. Whiteness refers to the extent that paper diffusely reflects light of all wavelengths throughout the visible spectrum. Whiteness is an appearance term. Color is an aesthetic value. Color may appear different when viewed under a different light source. Brightness is arbitrarily defined, but carefully standardized, blue reflectance that is used throughout the pulp and paper industry for the control of mill processes and in certain types of research and development programs. Brightness is not whiteness. However, the brightness values of the pulps and pigments going into the paper provide an excellent measure of the maximum whiteness that can be achieved with proper tinting.
As outlined above brightness is measured with two different standards - TAPPI/GE and ISO. Though there is no direct correlation, ISO brightness of a sample is usually lower by 1-1.5 units over GE brightness. The standards are as per Tappi T 452.
Color is related to perception and therefore measured or specified in terms of color space. A commonly used system is the CIE L,a,b system. This is based on the idea of color opposites.
L - measure of luminance and varies from 100 for perfect white to 0 for perfect black.
a - redness to greenness.
b - yellowness to blueness.
Whiteness is the extent to which paper diffusely reflects light of all wavelengths throughout the visible spectrum i.e. the magnitude & uniformity of spectral reflectance measured as the percent light reflectance for the whole wavelength range. The procedural standards for the measurement of whiteness are explained in ISO 11475.
the measurement of whiteness are explained in ISO 11475.

RRDonnelly buys Spenser Press

RR Donnelley has completed the acquisition of Wells, ME-based Spencer Press, which specializes in catalogs and direct mail. Spencer Press ranked 75th on the 2004 PI 400 list with sales of $82 million.

USA Paper and Paperboard Production down in September

Total U.S. paper and paperboard production decreased 3.4% to 7.4 million tons in September compared to the same month last year, according to the American Forest & Paper Assn.

Valentine Paper Finds a buyer

Meriturn Partners has agreed to purchase the bankrupt Valentine Paper Company in Louisiana. Meriturn also owns the Dunn Paper mill; this mill manufactures specialty papers for packaging, label, food service and bags.

Georgia Pacific Sold

Koch Purchased the paper and lumber assets of Georgia Pacific for $13.2billion. This acquisition includes Dixie paper cups, cardboard boxes and lumber plants. The purchase comes after Koch, in May 2004, acquired two mills in Brunswick, Georgia, and New Augusta, Mississippi, from Georgia-Pacific for $610 million. The mills make fluff pulp used in diapers, baby wipes and sanitary products.
Koch Industries has concentrated on oil refining and pipelines, engineering businesses and ranching. It now has interests in chemicals, fertilizer and asphalt.

RFID more information ....

It is difficult to read a paper article or supply chain management document without mention of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device). This, indeed, is a dynamic technology and end users such as Wal-Mart and Department of Defense insist on all vendors using this technology. HOWEVER, current RFID quality is poor, chips are expensive - with limited payback, and failure rates are high. Critical challenges remain static electricity issues, damaged and non-functional antennas, expense, and no one common 'language' for all RFID transmission.
The theory is certainly sound - but successful execution is still years away.
Many label printers are finding a new market for their equipment by generating these tags within the label.

Newspaper Circulation continues to Decline

Newspaper circulation of Dailies fell 2.6% in the six-month period that ended in September. This was the largest six-month decline since 1991. The drop in Sunday circulation was 3.1%. Newspapers are finding that readers, especially younger readers, are increasingly turning to the Internet for news. Note, Daily newspapers reached their peak distribution in 1984 at 63.3 million people subscribed to 1688 newspapers. Today, 45.2 million people subscribe to 1457 newspapers.
Obviously, less newsprint - the uncoated groundwood sheet newspapers use - is down.
Of interest; 47 million people visited websites of newspapers.

Quebecor World Inc profit falls

Quebecor World Inc, North America's second largest printer, recently announced a decline of 38% for 3rd quarter profits.
The leading causes were higher energy cost and lower revenue for catalogue printing. The printer also sited continued concerns related to the downward trend in magazine advertising - and thus less magazine pages - less printed pages.