Smart Paper’s Reorganization Plan Approved

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has approved Smart Papers LLC’s reorganization plan which will allow the specialty papers company to emerge from Chapter 11 by the end of December. Under the plan, 92.5% of the company’s shares will be issued to an affiliate of Plainfield Asset Management LLC, which assumed as much as $40 million of Smart Papers’ debt in August. The remaining shares will be used to pay off unsecured claim holders. Smart Papers was created in 2001 when investment group Sun Capital Partners bought Champion’s former Hamilton mill from International Paper.

Uncoated Freesheet Market

The market pricing for uncoated offset fell approximately $10/ton early this month while copy paper prices have remained stable. This suggests that the downtime taken by produces have assisted during this traditional weak holiday period. The industry agrees that a tentative supply curtailment of 4-500,000 tons for 2007 is required to correct the market.
Paper.com markets paper for all the major mills.

Top Printers Announced by Printing Impressions Magazine

Printing Impressions Magazine ranked the top printers
1 RRDonnelly
2 Quebecor World
3 FedEx-Kinko
4 Quad Graphics
5 Transcontinental
Top Book Printers
1 Visant
2 Quebecor World
3 Banta
4 Bertelsmann
5 Courier
Top Publication Printers
1 Quebecor World
2 QuadGraphics
3 Brown Printing
4 Cadmus
5 Banta
Top Catalog Printers
1 QuadGraphics
2 Quebecor World
3 Arandell
4 Banta
5 Perry Judd
Top Direct mail
1 Quebecor World
2 Banta
3 Visant
4 IWCO Direct
5 Japs-Olson

Softwood Pulp considering an Increase in Price

North American producers of Northern bleached softwood pulp used widely in papermaking plan to post a list-price increase of $20/metric ton in January. Softwood pulp now lists for $770/metric ton in North America—and sells for about $100 less. A year ago, Northern bleached softwood kraft listed for $639, and sold for $570. Softwood pulp marketers insists that supplies are closing the year tighter than expected and orders for future deliveries have been booked well above current pricing.

Russia could be next big paper producer

Russia forest industry has great potential considering its forests extend from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean and make up over 20% of the world’s forestland. The equates to more than the size of Canada and Brazil combined.

World’s Largest Newsprint Machine to Start up

Shandong Chenming Paper in Shouguang City, China will start its new world class newsprint producing paper machine. The machine supplier, Metso, stated the equipment has capacity for 480,000 tons per year.

Felix Schoeller Paper enters Digital Paper market

The Felix Schoeller Mill in Pulaski, New York will spend more than $4million in production equipment and facilities upgrades to produce digital papers. The mill’s management sites a large increase in demand for digital papers.
Paper.com has all the popular digital papers in stock and ready for immediate shipment.

Smart Paper files plan to Emerge from Chapter 11

The Smart Paper Company announced it would file a plan to emerge from Chapter 11. The company, which produces grades such as Kromekote, Benefit, and Carnival, sold controlling interest to Plainfield Capital – a hedge fund. The secured creditors will be issued $5million; unsecured creditors will be issued shares in the new company; and, International Paper (former mill owner) will be issued $1.6million in cash. The mill, located in Hamilton, Ohio produces 93,000tons per year. Paper.com distributes all of the Smart Paper grades.

NewPage Announces Shut Down

NewPage Paper has announced it will shut down a paper machine in Luke, Maryland. This is a coated machine and the demand for this paper has declined. Additionally, the company will take some market related downtime in the Rumsford, Maine mill. Specifically, the No 11 machines, producing 300 coated tons per day, will effectively eliminate 25,000 tons during the shutdown.

Vietnam is Building Pulp and Paper Capacity

The Viet Nam Paper Association recently announced it would invest $1.85billionUSD in both expanding and building pulp and paper machines from 2006 through 2010. The Vietnamese paper industry intends to focus on large scale pulp and paper mills with advanced technologies and modern equipment.

Wall Street Journal to Reduce Size

The Wall Street Journal has joined so many other newspapers and is reducing the size of the physical paper. This redesign includes cutting 3 inches off its width. This is roughly equivalent to One column. Other major newspapers have also cut their width in recent years as a way to save money, including The Washington Post, Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times and Gannett Co.'s USA Today. The New York Times is planning to reduce its width in 2008. Dow Jones believes they will save $18million dollars/year.
These changes will take effect on January 2.

Xerox Adds Lightweight Digital Paper to Line

Xerox recently added a 60lbs text stock to its Digital Color Select Gloss paper line. The sheet features a 90 brightness blue/white shade and is offered in 17x11 and 18x12” sizes.
Paper.com carries all the Xerox paper grades.

Mohawk Successfully Markets new BriteHue line

Mohawk completely revised the BriteHue line of papers and is enjoying excellent
success with new sales. The bold and vivid colors make a powerful impact for
any printed piece. The product line now includes 20lbs smooth finish, 60lbs text, and 65lbs semi Vellum finish. The grade now has 17 colors – 10 of which are produced with 30% recycled content from post consumer fiber.
Paper.com has all the Mohawk products, in stock and ready for immediate shipment.

Pulp Market Update

Over the past several months, hardwood pulp worldwide inventories have been climbing, while the softwood inventories have been falling. There have been many mill closures with the softwood manufacturers, and the industry has witnessed and overcapacity of Hardwood production. Many of the eucalyptus pulp producers are building new capacity
and this will displace hardwood supply.
Pricing, to date, for pulp has risen steadily since the 4Q05 and has just stabilized over the
past few months.

North America Slows World Demand Growth

It appears worldwide demand for Printing and Writing grades is experiencing slower growth. While the world demand increased 11 million tons from 2000 to 2006 (7 million from Asia alone) – North America declined 500,000 tons.
RISI, a large paper consulting company, predicted world demand will increase only 2.6% this year, and 2.3% for 2007, and 4.3% for 2008.
The slow growth is mainly attributed to the increase of the Internet and electronics – yielding less paper consumption. Also, we wonder what affect the USPS postal rate increase might have – most likely it will be a negative impact on paper.

Coated Free Sheet Market update

Coated markets are very weak; we understand prices fell $20/ton to $925.
Imports (Asian & European) and more LWC supply (Port Hawkesbury) are having a double impact. NewPage recently announced the permanent closure of a machine in Luke, Maryland and extensive downtime at Rumford, Maine. On October 31, NewPage also filed antidumping charges against Chinese, Korean and Indonesian producers. In Europe, Lechta has just announced a 5-7% price hike for January.

Newsprint Market update

The market appears headed for another shake-out. Standard newsprint (paper used for newspapers) prices fell another $5/ton in November to $665/metric ton. October consumption figures at the US daily newspapers were off an 9%. So far this year, consumption is down 7.9%. Overcapacity in Asia and publishers' desire for pricing leverage is likely to bring some Chinese tonnage to the US - the publishers don't need to bring in much paper to create a big pricing lever.

Uncoated Freesheet Market update (UFS)

The big producers are starting to respond to signs of market softening. Domtar will take market related downtime at its Woodland, Maine mill. International Paper appears to be considering an accelerated closure of the 350,000 ton Pensacola, Florida UFS machine. September offset prices were revised down $5/ton to $845/ton; October prices were reported flat from last month. We think the industry needs to cut supply by 400-500,000/tons. While pricing is around "mid-cycle" levels, high costs mean that profitability is still poor. Paper.com has over 20,000 items on site, many of which are uncoated free sheet.

Uncoated Groundwood Market Update

The story across Uncoated Groundwood grades is mixed, but the recent bias is
downward, especially in super-calendered grades (grades used for newspaper inserts). The healthiest markets are high-bright grades which compete with uncoated free sheet and were being helped by the rebound in the white paper
prices. Overall shipments are up 4.5% YTD. Stora's Port Hawkesbury mill is running at full capacity; the additional SC volume will ripple into LWC markets.

Xerox Designs an Erasable Paper – Ink that disappears!

Xerox Research Center announced a grade they developed that is an erasable paper. The goal was to produce a completely recyclable paper grade that could be used an unlimited amount of times.
A survey revealed an average of 1200 pages were printed each month by individual office workers – 44.5% of the printed sheets had a life span of one day. Most documents today are printed merely to review; the archival function is almost completely on an electric storage devise such as a server or PC.
People still really like paper – but not enough to maintain a copy of the printout. The new technology produces a low resolution, purple ink. This ink disappears in 16-20 hours and is ready to be printed again as a blank sheet. Xerox believes the sheet will be functional for at least 50 copies.
This sheet is not available for commercial use yet, when it becomes available, companies like Paper.com will market it.

Yupo Corporation Increases Capacity

The Yupo Corporation recently announced it would expand capacity, by 20 percent, both manufacturing and storage for its successful synthetic paper grades. The grade is used by commercial printers, packaging converters, and label printers. The company lunched a new grade called Accel – a high gloss fast drying grade that does not require a primer.
The Yupo grades are available at Paper.com. These grades perform well in outdoor environments.

UPS Announces Increase in Shipping Rates

The United Parcel Service (UPS) recently announced a rate increase effect beginning of January. The carrier confirmed ground shipments 4.9% and all air express by 6.9%.
Companies that distribute paper on the internet, like Paper.com, will be forced to pass this increase along to end users.

Georgia Pacific Mill Sold

The Georgia Pacific Mill in Old Town, Maine has been sold to an investment group, Red Shield. This mill had been shut down. It produced pulp and tissue grades.

Glatfelter Places Equipment in Auction

The Glatfelter Paper Company mill in Neenah, Wisconsin will auction all the equipment from the 120,000 ton/year mill it shut down earlier this year. This mill produced Text and Cover paper grades.
Paper.com marketrs all the Glatfelter grades, including it's recent introduction of Mead's Carbonless grades.

Marcal Paper Mill Declares Bankruptcy

The Marcal Paper Company, a tissue producer, declared bankruptcy protection citing 40% jump in energy costs.

Legion Paper Acquires Moab

Legion Paper recently announced that it has acquired Moab Paper Company. The acquisition will form the Moab by Legion Paper division to distribute archival digital papers, storage and display products.
Paper.com markets all the Legion Art and Exotic papers as well as a complete line of digital papers.