Hazen Paper Purchases old Neenah Mill

Hazen Paper of Springfield, MA reached an agreement to purchase the Housatonic, MA plant from Neenah (this mil was acquired by Neenah as part of the Fox River purchase). Hazen specializes in film and foil laminations, gravure printing, embossing, and coating as well as security tickets, tags, and labels. No mention of status on the one paper machine at location.

Unisource Implements Fuel Surcharge

Paper, packaging and facilities supplies distributor Unisource Worldwide will institute a fuel surcharge due to the rising cost of diesel fuel. The company had been able to offset the fuel increase by maximizing delivery routing and truck fleet utilization.

Unisource will now institute a fuel surcharge per line item to all orders shipped from its warehouses and orders received through Unisource’s Website will receive a flat surcharge per order.

With gas prices increasing costs to every vendor that delivers, Paper.com firmly believes that paper sales on the internet will grow at an even faster pace. The site has over 40,000 items and ships the majority of orders within 24 hours.

SMART Papers' Super-Luxury Kromekote Brand Achieves Important Environmental Milestone - Full FSC Certification

SMART Papers' premium cast-coated Kromekote is now fully Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, giving corporations and graphics professionals immediate access to the most luxurious and environmentally responsible printing and packaging papers in the world.
Kromekote is the first triple cast-coated brand to achieve full FSC certification. The achievement represents another important advance for SMART Papers and its commitment to supply the widest range of FSC premium coated and uncoated printing and packaging papers in North America.

SMART Papers is North America's largest independent manufacturer and marketer of premium coated and uncoated printing papers. The company is currently building a new energy facility at its manufacturing center that will be fossil fuel free by late 2009, enabling all of the company's papers to be fully carbon neutral. "SMART Papers' carbon-neutral future will give customers total confidence they are getting the most environmentally responsible printing papers available from any U.S. paper manufacturer," said SMART Papers President Dan Maheu.

Ultra-glossy Kromekote is widely regarded by printers and designers as the "gold standard" in printing papers. Now, the brand sets a new "green standard" for premium environmentally preferable coated papers, with both FSC certification as well as papers with 30% post-consumer waste (PCW) fibers.
SMART Papers recently announced FSC-certification for its Kromekote Recycled products. Today's announcement expands the certification to encompass the rest of the brand including Kromekote Text and Cover, Folding Board, Colors and Metallics, Foils, Textures and Digital products.

SOURCE: SMART Papers

Printer Survey on Environmental Programs

The Printing Impressions Magazine just published a survey with results of many questions for environmental programs that printers are interested in. Of particular note,
we outline, in order of popularity, which environmentally friendly steps USA the printers actually implemented –
Purchasing paper containing post consumer (waste paper)
Purchasing FSC paper
Using environmentally friendly inks
Developing internal recycling programs
Recycling solvents
Purchasing more energy efficient equipment
Planting trees
Direct-to-press processless plates

Digital Printing Still Growing

Overall print sales for 2008 are expected to grow over 2%, with both toner based and inkjet leading the way. PIA/GATF released the following growth projections
-Overall growth. ..............2.2%
-Ink Based Printing ……...0.8%
-Toner/Digital Printing .….6.2%
-InkJet ……….....……………..6.0%
Most printers, although frustrated with increased paper prices, are generally optimistic about 2008 sales.

Market Pulp Demand is Questioned

Although worldwide market pulp shipments for 2007 represented its sixth consecutive month of growth (40.4million tons), balance of 2008 may witness a steady or slight decline in demand. North American pulp mills shuttered 2.4million tons since 2005, and Pope and Talbot recently announced bankruptcy and will curtail 3 mills as well as Catalyst will close 200,000 facility.
NBSK, the benchmark grade, saw little change in price since the first half of 2008, with list price staying at $880/ton. Because many more paper making plants will continue to close due to poor economics and declining demand, this will result in less demand demand for pulp.
Top market pulp producers for North America include
Weyerhaeuser 2Million tons 9.7% market Share
Domtar 1.5million tons 7.5% market share
Canfor 1.4million tons 7.1% market share
Tembec 1.3million tons 6.3% market share
Georgia Pacific 1.2million tons 5.8% market share

Quebecor World begins Consolidation

Cash starved Quebecor World has announced it will consolidate divisions to become more efficient. It will integrate six divisions into three business units. The magazine, book, and directory divisions will become the Publishing Services Group. The US Retail, catalogue, Sunday magazine and direct mail will be combined to form Marketing Solutions. The Logistics and premedia groups will also combine.
The company also announced the sale of its European operations to Hombergh/De Pundert Group (HHBV) of the Netherlands.

Tag and Label Markets Continue to Grow

Times are tough for most paper markets, but the Tag and Label markets seem to be enjoying steady growth. Although these converters also share in the challenges of rising raw material costs, fierce competition, and a poor economy, but overall global growth has been steady at 4-4.5%. It is estimated that BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – will witness robust growth in future. The USA market is forecast to grow 5% annually, and reach $18billion by 2011. The pressure sensitive labels continue to account for the majority of this growth.
Top Label and Tag converters include
RR Donnelly
Avery Dennison
CCL Industries
Fort Dearborn
WS Packaging
Multi Color
Spear
Nashua Corporation
Standard Register
Hammer Packaging

Another Major Coated Freesheet Maker Raises Prices

Verso Paper has announced an increase of $60 per ton for its Influence and Velocity coated freehseet paper grades, effective October 1.

Paper.com announced that NewPage did the same last week for nine of its brands.

Smart Papers Goes ahead with Co-Generation

As we previously reported, it is now confirmed that Smart Papers will build a 40MW co-generation system to produce both steam and electricity to operate the mill. This project will establish the site to be a zero process waste discharge facility and now generate carbon credits.
Paper.com markets the mill's premium cast coated, matte coated , as well as the uncoated text, cover, and writing grades. Many of these grades are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

Magazine Industry Troubled

So far, 2008 has not been good to the magazine industry with an increase in postage, fuel, printing, ink, and paper costs. This, coupled with a recessionary economy. The hope is the recent olympics and a presidential campaign will assist a boost in readership. So far, pages and revenue as well as circulation are off significantly. To date, only 41 new magazines were launched (compared to 50 in 2007 and 72 in 2006).
This effects the paper industry in that consumption is also now down for publication coated grades.

American Eagle Mill continues to Grow

The American Eagle mill of Tyrone, PA, continues to enjoy sales growth. The mill is operated by a group of employees that purchased the closed facility from Westvacao in 2001. The plant now employs 265 workers and produces 90,000TPA of printing and converting grades. The product line includes 100% recycled, 50- 80pound, as well as 30% recycled reply card as well as envelope grades on two paper machines. The mill can produce 50-120pound uncoated grades.

Ordering Paper online Grows

International Paper's xpedx merchant division posted $1.4billion in ecommerce sales in 2007, for a 12% increase from 2006. Xpedx confirmed 5.8 million orders were conducted, or about half of the total xpedx sales.
Paper.com, with 40,000 items and nearly 60 distribution centers also outlined aggressive growth for 2007. Industry experts forecast this tend to continue.

Acacruz Plans Pulp Capacity Expansion in Brazil

Acacruz Celulose announced plans to build a pulp mill in Brazil. Management stated the completed facility will produce 1.4million tons of hardwood market pulp. The plant will be operational by 2015. Once complete, Aracruz will supply 25% of the world's market hardwood pulp, or, about 7 million tons per year.

Soporcel Installs new Cutsize Sheeter

Portuguese pulp and paper manufacturer, Soporcel, ordered two cut size converting and packaging lines from ECH Will and Pemco for the new paper mill under construction. The new equipment will produce 500,000TPA.
The Soporcel sheet is a worry-free copy paper that is one of the brightest on the market. Paper.com markets this sheet at approximately the same price as the lower brightness grades.

Climax Paper Plant Purchased

As previously announced, the purchase was completed for the Climax Paper facility in Loweville, NY last month for $6.9million. The mill produced heavy weight cover and converting grades on a cylinder paper machine.

MeadWestcavo Completes Sale of Specialty Papers Cedar Mill

MeadWestvaco Corporation announced it has completed the sale of its Specialty Papers Cedar mill in Potsdam, NY, to Potsdam Specialty Paper, Inc. (PSPI) on September 1, 2008. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Kruger to Take Additional Downtime

Kruger announced it would take two more weeks of downtime on its 263,000 tons per year PM 4 at the Wayagamack mill starting September 1. The plans will remove approximately 10,000 tons of coated mechanical paper from the market.

White Birch to Increase US newsprint price by $60 per ton

North America's second largest newsprint producer, White Birch, told customers it would increase newsprint prices by $60/ton in the fourth quarter.
The hike follows an announcement by newsprint market leader AbitibiBowater last week that it would implement three monthly increases of $20/ton effective Oct. 1.
The new hike is the fourth $60/ton quarterly increase by North American newsprint producers this year.
Trade papers are reporting increased buyer resistance.

Wausau Paper Shut Down Otis Mill Machine

Wausau Paper will permanently shut down the #10 machine, one of the two paper machines, at the Otis Mill facility located in Jay, Maine on or prior to December 31, 2008 . Number 10 paper machine, with a capacity of 40,000 tons annually, presently serves the release liner market and a variety of smaller niche markets.