Martin Swayne, 10/11/41 – 11/9/06
Martin was married for 38 years to Christine, has two daughters and two grandchildren.

He had lived in Bracken Cottage for over 50 years and was a dedicated Church Warden and choir member at St Stephen’s Hammerwood, like his father before him.

He loved all things adventurous, from sailing to motor racing, climbing to cycling. You name it, he’d given it a go! He had a huge enthusiasm for life, work, and family.

He was a larger than life character and will be missed by all.


About Martin's funeral
The funeral at St Stephen's was very well attended and solemn, naturally - but peppered with a good few jokes and laughter too - some even from Martin.
Martin's own request was that anyone wanting to send flowers of condolence should not do so.
Instead, if they wish, friends should make out a cheque in favour of 'Hammerwood Holtye PCC' and enclose it with a cover note quoting 'Gift Aid' and the donor's name and address (for St Stephen's tax purposes) - to be posted to Martin's family home at:
Bracken Cottage
Hammerwood
East Grinstead
Sussex RH19 3QE, UK

Cards or letters to Martin's family are also welcome.

11 Oct 2006

1pm, Church of England service

St Stephen's Church, Hammerwood
(on the main road, the A264, between East Grinstead and Royal Tunbridge Wells)

Back to the family home afterwards for refreshments

There is no need to 'book' as such, but it would be helpful if guests could write to neil@flyingmonkey.net to advise attendance for catering purposes

No flowers please, but if you would like to make a memorial donation instead please do so to St Stephen's Church - either on the day, or by cheque in favour of "Hammerwood Holtye PCC" with a cover note saying 'Gift Aid' and giving the donor's name and address (for church tax purposes) and posted to Martin's family home at:
Bracken Cottage
Hammerwood
East Grinstead
Sussex RH19 3QE, UK

15 Sep 2006

It is with great sadness that we must announce that Martin passed away on Monday 11 September 2006.

If you are reading this and wish to be advised of the circumstances or to be kept informed of his funeral arrangements, we, his family, would ask that you do not telephone or email us at this difficult time.

Instead, please email neil@flyingmonkey.net for information.

If you would prefer to send condolences to his widow, Christine, and to his family, please use the following address:
Bracken Cottage
Hammerwood
East Grinstead
Sussex RH19 3QE
UK

With best wishes to you,
Martin Swayne's family

12 Sep 2006

Stora Enso has decided to build its third corrugated packaging plant in Russia, at Lukhovitsy, some 130 km south east of Moscow.
The annual production capacity of the plant, which will employ some 175 people, will be 150 million m2 of corrugated board. The capital expenditure is estimated at € 54 million. Construction of the plant will begin in September 2006, with production starting up in the first quarter of 2008.

Stora Enso has positive experience of the corrugated packaging business in Russia and aims to become the leading producer of corrugated board in the European part of Russia.

The new plant will serve the growing demand for high-quality packaging in Russia, especially in the Moscow region. Customers will be mainly in the food, beverage, cigarette and electronics industries, representing both international and Russian brands.

Stora Enso already has two corrugated packaging plants in Russia. The first plant started operations at Balabanovo in 1998 and the second at Arzamas in 2004. The two plants have produced a total of 215 million m2 of corrugated packaging board in 2005.

13 Aug 2006

Stora Enso Oyj Stock Exchange Release 8 August 2006 at 14:30 GMT

Divestment of Celbi Pulp Mill
Stora Enso has finalised the divestment of Celbi Pulp Mill in Portugal to the Portuguese company Altri as announced on 8 June 2006. The sales price of Celbi's equity is approximately EUR 430 million and the company has no debt. The Group will record a capital gain of approximately EUR 170 million on completion of the sale.

Celbi Pulp Mill, which was performing well, was divested as part of Stora Enso's Asset Performance Review (APR). The strategic aim of the divestment is to refocus the Group's short-fibre strategy on South America, where the first step was the start-up of Veracel Pulp Mill in Brazil.

Sale of Advance Agro shares
Stora Enso has received the full payment for the sale of its Advance Agro shares. The ownership of the shares has now been transferred to private investors based in Hong Kong. The transaction value was USD 80 (EUR 65) million.

09 Aug 2006

Metso Paper will rebuild the newsprint paper machine PM 8 of Guangzhou Paper Co., Ltd. in the Guangdong province, China.

The modernization is scheduled to be completed in mid 2007. The value of the order is 15 MEUR. Guangzhou Paper selected Metso to supply the project thanks to the close and productive cooperation of the two companies for several decades.

Metso's delivery will include a forming section rebuild to BelBaie V former, modernization of the press and dryer sections and a new OptiSoft soft calender.

BelBaie V is a Metso Paper developed forming section upgrade for earlier-generation BelBaie formers. With this new shoe blade forming technology it is possible to improve the paper quality and the forming section runnability with a cost-effective investment. Guangzhou Paper PM 8 will be the third installation of this new technology.

The paper machine has a wire width of 8.7 m, a design speed of 1,100 m/min and it will produce over 500 tonnes of newsprint daily.

Guangzhou Paper is one of the oldest and most respected newsprint makers in China. It is also the mill to which Metso Paper made its first paper machine delivery in the People's Republic of China 50 years ago. Guangzhou Paper operates five newsprint machines with a combined production capacity of 470,000 t/a. The latest Metso delivery before the present order, the OptiConcept paper machine PM 1, was succesfully started up in May 2006.

09 Aug 2006

Following an unproblematic world record run, the magic limit was exceeded on the PM 1 machine in Hürth, Germany, when standard 100% DIP newsprint was produced at a speed of 2010 m/min over a period of several hours.

With this accomplishment, a long-held dream of papermakers came true for the first time ever. It presents new profitability potential and opportunities to the paper industry.
At 6:00 p.m. on July 18, 2006 a new production world record of 1954 m/min was reached. Over a 24-hour period different newsprints with basis weights of 42-45 g/m² and good quality levels were produced. Although a grade change was made, the total downtime was only 27 minutes. The specific production values, at 1,200 kg/cm/day, or 2.8 km²/m/day, far exceeded the previous record values.
The machine ran like a Swiss watch during the record run, from the stock preparation section up to the winder. The machine is equipped with covers and QualiFlex press sleeves from Voith Paper at critical positions.
Motivated by the unproblematic record run and thanks to Voith Paper’s innovative quality control technology, the team then dared to attempt reaching the 2000 m/min limit. Within a short period of time a speed of 2010 m/min was even reached.
The PM, designed in accordance with the “One Platform Concept,” did not appear to have any limits.
Ms. Murtola, CEO of Rhein Papier in Hürth, Germany, was pleased, saying, “I would like to thank everyone involved in this great success. I am sure that Rhein Papier and Voith will continue this success story.”
Startup of PM 1 was completed by Rhein Papier and Voith in July 2002. Since then a number of world records were achieved on the PM. The paper machine is built for an average operating speed of 1800 m/min; the design speed is 2200 m/min.

27 Jul 2006

From 15th July onwards, UPM’s cut size products Future inktech and Yes Gold can be ordered with the FSC logo.

In line with UPM’s environmental commitment, the logo guarantees that wood used in these products is legally sourced and originates from well managed certified forests.

The two top-of-the-range office papers Future inktech and Yes Gold are manufactured at the UPM paper mill Papeteries de Docelles in France. Certification of the high-quality office papers makes the products even more attractive to meet the demands of today's environmentally-conscious end users.

UPM recognises that the sustainable use of natural resources and environmental protection are a true prerequisite for responsible business operations. UPM supports all credible forest certification schemes such as FSC and PEFC. The company aims to increase the use of certified wood in all its mills.

20 Jul 2006

Intensive installation and preparatory work is currently under way at Södra Cell Mönsterås and Södra Cell Värö, both of which will be increasing their electricity production with new turbines this the fall.

About a year ago the two plants signed a joint agreement with Czech Skoda Power to deliver the new turbines, and intensive installation and preparatory work is currently under way at both facilities.
Södra Cell Mönsterås will go first. All the preparatory connections were completed during the long maintenance shutdown in the spring, and last week the new turbine was put in place following its long journey from Plzen in the Czech Republic. The 67 metric-ton turbine was lifted into place at the end of the week. The condenser, which weighs 40 metric tons, was hoisted off and set next to the turbine building, from where it will later be lifted into place connected to the turbine.
The plant employees and numerous contractors now face a hectic job in all the installation work that needs to be done from now until the start of the trial run in mid-August. Skoda Power is on site with machinery installers and pipefitters, and some 100 people from outside firms are involved in the project. The new turbine must be ready to be put into commercial operation by early September.

20 Jul 2006

3 July 2006 - Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a contract with Frontier Drilling USA Inc for delivery of a drilling equipment to the Frontier Peregrine II drill ship.

The total contract value for Aker Kvaerner is approximately USD 17 million.

"We are happy to be awarded this contract with Frontier. Together with other recent contracts, this award again confirms Aker Kvaerner MH's position in the drilling equipment supply market," says Roald Amundsen, President of Aker Kvaerner MH

The equipment package will be delivered in 2007.

11 Jul 2006

Ahlstrom, a global leader in high performance fiber-based materials, today announced it will invest approximately EUR 5.2 million (USD 6.5 million) in a new specialty glassfiber reinforcement plant in the USA.

The investment further strengthens Ahlstrom's position as a leading global developer and manufacturer of specialty reinforcements for wind energy, marine, transportation and other technically demanding markets.

The investment will consist of new machinery and building located in Darlington, South Carolina, USA, where Ahlstrom's Filtration business area already operates a plant. The construction work will begin in summer 2006, and is estimated to be completed in early 2007. The plant will mainly serve North American customers and other dollar-based markets.

"Ahlstrom has lately strengthened its global market position as a specialty reinforcement supplier, especially for the wind energy and marine industries. These markets are growing faster than the composites markets on average. This investment further supports Ahlstrom's global growth strategy and enables synergies within the company", says Jukka Moisio, President and CEO of Ahlstrom Corporation.

"Our target is to continue profitable growth at a rate that exceeds the market average. In March 2006, Ahlstrom announced the investment to build a new glassfiber tissue plant in Tver, Russia, which will be in operation in the fourth quarter of 2007. The expansion of our Mikkeli specialty reinforcement plant in Finland will be ready in October this year and the new plant in the USA in early 2007. Next year Ahlstrom will have glass nonwovens production in Europe, in the USA and Russia. In addition, the glass nonwovens markets in Asia offer attractive growth opportunities for Ahlstrom", says Tommi Björnman, Senior Vice President, Glass Nonwovens.

The Specialty Reinforcements product line is a part of Ahlstrom's Glass Nonwovens business area, which belongs to the company's FiberComposites segment.

11 Jul 2006

The contract value to Aker Kvaerner is approximately EUR 80 million. UPM is one of the world's leading producers of printing papers and the clear market leader in magazine papers.

The recovery boiler will be part of the mill's new recovery line, which will replace two existing lines that date back to the 1960's and 1970's. The new recovery plant will improve the pulp mill's energy efficiency and decrease fossil carbon-dioxide emissions. The new generation recovery boiler will be designed for maximum power generation and it will increase the electricity production produced from biofuels.

Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will supply the recovery boiler rated at 3600 tons of dry solids per day and steam parameters of 505°C and 103 bar. The delivery also consists of an odorous gas treatment system, a flue gas scrubber for effective heat recovery, and an ash leaching system for chloride and potassium reduction. The new recovery boiler will be ready for operation in the summer of 2008.

23 Jun 2006

16 June 2006 - Aker Kvaerner has signed a letter of intent with Klabin for an upgrade of the Monte Alegre mill in Telêmaco Borba, Paraná, Brazil.

The contract value for Aker Kvaerner is approximately USD 25 million.

The order to Aker Kvaerner is part of the MA 1100 expansion project at the Monte Alegre mill and includes upgrades of the existing cooking, white liquor and evaporation plants. When the entire expansion project is finalised the integrated mill will produce 1.1 million tonnes of paper and board per year, using planted eucalyptus and pine as raw material.

"Preferred technical solutions and Klabin's positive experiences of our project execution capabilities from previous modernisation projects contributed, once again, to Aker Kvaerner being selected to help boost capacity at the Monte Alegre mill. Our local presence on the Brazilian market, enabling us to work in close co-operation with our customers, also played an important role in getting this contract," says Aristides Labigalini, President of Kvaerner do Brasil.

Kvaerner Pulping, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will execute the retrofit of the cooking and white liquor plant, including a new lime kiln. The capacity of the cooking plant will be increased by nearly 30 per cent, to 2,200 tonnes of pulp per day. The modernisation of the white liquor plant, including a new DLM(TM) disc filter for lime mud, will improve the capacity from 4,200 to 6,200 m3 white liquor per day.

Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will handle the retrofit of the evaporation plant, increasing capacity by 25 per cent to 700 tonnes of evaporated water per hour.

Aker Kvaerner will provide engineering, procurement and construction services under the new contract. Start-up is scheduled for September 2007.

Klabin is the largest paper and board manufacturer and exporter in Brazil. The company is the leader in production of packaging paper and board, corrugated boxes and industrial sacks. It operates its business at the highest levels of environmental conservation and socio-economic sustainability

23 Jun 2006

A new impingement drying unit - OptiDry Twin - has been launched today at the Metso Paper Technology Days in Jyväskylä, Finland.

The OptiDry Twin impingement drying unit is a solution where the dry content, and the temperature, of paper is increased at the beginning of the dryer section while maintaining good quality and good runnability at the finishing sections. This prevents sticking, strengthens the web, and enables faster operation than without the OptiDry Twin unit.

The system consists of two drying units: a horizontal part and a vertical part, both equipped with blow boxes to hold the sheet on the fabric surface and lead rolls to support fabric and paper web travel. Thanks to the high evaporation rate of the system, a significant sheet dry content increase can be obtained on a high-speed machine.

Draw control without speed limits is the main target of OptiDry Twin. It only needs enough web tension for the web to stay attached to the dryer fabric on its way from supporting roll to supporting roll. There are no hot cylinder surfaces to which cold paper would attach. This creates excellent tools for optimal draw.

OptiDry Twin impingement drying unit brings the following benefits:
• trouble-free tail threading
• excellent sheet runnability – sheet is held on the fabric surface with very moderate negative pressure
• significant potential for improved bulk – higher sheet dry content enables lower press loads
• shorter papermaking line compared to a conventional cylinder dryer section means shorter paper machine hall and lower investment costs
• improved efficiency shortens the investment payback time
• impressive drying capacity in rebuild cases provides noticeable speed increase

The OptiDry Twin drying unit is suitable for all paper and board grades, new machines or rebuild cases. It offers a viable option for improving machine efficiency, drying capacity and paper quality at a reasonable investment cost and short payback time.

23 Jun 2006

Metso Paper will supply Dong Il Paper Mfg. Co. Ltd. and its sister company Wolsan Co., both in Korea, with board machine rebuilds.

The modernizations, which will increase production capacity and improve quality, will be ready in summer 2007. The total value of the orders is close to EUR 10 million.

At Dong Il Paper, located in Ansan, Metso Paper will rebuild the PM 1 Condebelt dryer by extending and modernizing it. A new SymFlo headbox and a ValHard calender are also included in the delivery. The rebuilt 4.4-m-wide PM will have a design speed of 1,000 m/min, yielding an annual capacity of some 250,000 tons.

At Wolsan, located in Wolsan, the PM 1 will receive a new SymBelt shoe press, which will increase the machine's output to approx. 400,000 tons per year. The 5-m-wide machine will have a design speed of 1,150 m/min.

Both machines produce recycled-based containerboard.

Metso Automation will upgrade control systems at both sites: a Damatic XD upgrade in Ansan and a metsoDNA upgrade in Wolsan.

During the past years Metso Paper has supplied both Dong Il Paper and Wolsan with a number of deliveries containing headboxes, press sections and forming sections. The Ansan mill PM 1 was rebuilt with the revolutionary Condebelt drying technology in 1999.

Dong Il Paper Mfg. Co. Ltd. produces fluting and linerboard at three mills: Ansan, Uiryeong and Wolsan (Wolsan Co.). In 2005, total production was 650,000 tons, and turnover was EUR 130 million.

23 Jun 2006

UPM Kaipola has successfully started up the Metso Paper -supplied rebuild of their PM 4.

The modernization of the directory paper production line included a dilution system for the headbox, a ValFormer-upgrade of the forming section, as well as revisions to the press section.

The target of the operation is to improve paper quality and increase production line output. Experiences from the start-up are very good.

Kaipola PM 4 was initially started up in 1961. Metso Paper has rebuilt the machine, most recently in 1996. UPM Kaipola produces printing paper grades for directories, magazines and newspapers. The mill's annual paper capacity is 700,000 tons.

23 Jun 2006

The Metso Paper -supplied PM 1 OptiConcept fine paper machine at UPM's Changshu, China mill has set a historical record in papermaking.

On 3 June the 10.4-m-wide PM 1 became the first fine paper machine in the world to run at 1,700 m/min (5,577 ft/min), which is a new world record for fine paper. Thus the machine also became the first fine paper machine to break the 100 km/h mark in a 24-hour run (102 km/h).

During the record run the machine produced 70 g/m2 copy paper. "The record was run during normal production", said Stephen Masterson, PM 1 Unit Director. "There were no wet end breaks, so runnability was really good. Machine speed was kept at 1,700 m/min the whole weekend", he added.

The previous world speed record for fine paper production was the 1,654 m/min achieved with the same machine on 25-26 April 2006. PM 1 was initially started up in May 2005.

The record-breaking machine, which is the world's largest and fastest unit for uncoated fine paper, has a wire width of 10.4 m and a design speed of 2,000 m/min. With an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes, it produces uncoated fine paper in a basis weight range of 60- 120 g/m2.

23 Jun 2006

The inauguration will be celebrated on June 9, 2006 starting at 1 p.m. with a party organized for the personnel. The extension parts have been in use since February. Consequently, Vacon has employed about twenty new persons.

The extension parts cover a floor area of 7,100 m2 in total, which is divided into Producta I and a middle section connecting Producta I with the old production facilities. 3,400 m2, i.e. about 50% of the facilities is reserved for Vacon and the rest is used by DHL, responsible for Vacon's logistics services. The facilities Vacon leases include production lines, office space, personnel and storage facilities and a new air-raid shelter. The Producta I extension part was built by assignment of Oy Vaasa Parks Ab and the middle section by Varma, the largest private sector pension insurance company in Finland.

At the end of March 2006, Vacon employed almost 600 persons worldwide, of which 161 persons work in production. Vice President, Production, is Mr Jari Koskinen, who is also Managing Director of the Vacon China factory, officially called Vacon Suzhou Drives Co. Ltd.

Vacon's first AC drives were manufactured in the neighboring building at Runsorintie 5 in 1995. The new factory at Runsorintie 7 was built in 1998 and extended for the first time in 2001.

Vacon Group was founded in 1993 for one purpose only: to create, develop and provide AC drives worldwide. Ambitious to meet the most demanding needs of clients seeking top performance, easiness and reliability, Vacon offers AC drives in the power range of 0.25 kW...5 MW. In 2005, the Group revenues totalled EUR 149.9 million.

23 Jun 2006

Metso Paper is to supply a new fibre line to the Indian company ITC Ltd. for its pulp mill expansion project in Bhadrachalam, in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The pulp mill expansion project forms a part of ITC's plans to increase its paper production. The value of the order is close to €25 million and the line is scheduled to start-up in July 2007.

Metso Paper's scope of delivery covers all the main process machinery, pressure vessels, field instruments, basic engineering and supervision services from cooking, up to ready bleached pulp. The selected technology features a modern environmentally acceptable process, incorporating oxygen delignification and ozone bleaching technologies. Once the expansion work has been completed, production of the pulp mill will be 750 tpd (BDT) fully bleached pulp from eucalyptus and Subabul raw materials.

In addition, Metso Paper will also supply an ozone bleaching stage for the existing line to minimise the environmental impact of the mill. The new cooking system will produce pulp for both fibre lines and is designed for a total production of 800 tpd. The special feature of the process is that it enables simultaneous cooking of two different wood species required by the two fibre lines.

ITC is one of India's leading private sector companies with a turnover of US $3 billion. ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division is the largest manufacturer of Packaging and Graphic Boards in South Asia.

12 Jun 2006

Stora Enso has signed an agreement to sell Celulose Beira Industrial (Celbi) SA, its main asset being Celbi Pulp Mill in Portugal, to Altri, a Portuguese company with steel, pulp and paper operations.

The sale price of Celbi's equity € 428 million and the company has no debt. The Group will record a capital gain of approximately €170 million on completion of the sale. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2006.

"This is a strategically important divestment for us. We are refocusing our short-fibre strategy towards South America, where the first step was the start-up of the Veracel Pulp Mill in Brazil," commented Stora Enso's CEO Jukka Härmälä. Celbi Pulp Mill which has been a well performing asset is being divested as part of Stora Enso's Asset Performance Review (APR).

Celbi's sales in 2005 were €137 million, of which €55 million were internal Stora Enso sales. Celbi's contribution to Stora Enso Group's sales in 2005 was €82 million and its contribution to the Group's operating profit was €26 million. The divestment will decrease the Group's working capital by approximately €30 million.

Celbi Pulp Mill has a production capacity of about 305, 000 tpy of high quality short-fibre eucalyptus pulp. Celbi's pulp is suitable for the production of printing, writing and speciality papers, and tissue. The mill obtains half of its fibre from its own plantations of approximately 41 000 hectares. Since the spring of 2005, the plantations have dual certification: FSC and PEFC. Both the pulp mill and the forest activities are EMAS registered.

Altri was created in March 2005 as a spin-off from Cofina Group. Altri has two pulp mills and one paper machine producing sack kraft paper.

09 Jun 2006

UPM and Lappeenrannan Energia Oy have started negotiations to investigate the profitability and prerequisites for building a joint power plant at UPM's Kaukas paper mill site in Lappeenranta, Finland.

The study covers a plant with a fuel power equivalent of 400 MW. In connection with the negotiations the possibility of carrying out the project in co-operation with Pohjolan Voima Oy will also be studied.

In the event of the power plant being built the plant's energy sources would be fuelled with bark and logging residues and tree stumps as well as peat. Additionally it would use sludge from the Kaukas mill’s biological effluent treatment plant. It is estimated that the plant would decrease the total carbon dioxide emissions in Lappeenranta.

The plan is that the new plant would generate process heat and electricity for UPM's Kaukas mills, and electricity and district heating for Lappeenrannan Energia Oy.

A decision to build the plant will be made separately in the event that these current investigations show that the prerequisites can be met. It is estimated that the total investment to build the plant would be €180 million. The cost would be shared by the parties according to a separate agreement.

Provided the project is completed, the new power plant could be operational at the earliest by the end of the year 2009. It would then replace the 40 year old steam power unit at Kaukas and majority of the energy generation capacity of Lappeenrannan Lämpövoima Oy's 30 year old Mertaniemi power plant.

07 Jun 2006

The national forest certification systems of France and Slovenia have been submitted to the PEFC Council for endorsement.

Independent consultants will assess the two systems against the international PEFC Council benchmark requirements for forest certification schemes. Part of the assessment is a 60 day international public consultation period, starting today, during which the general public is invited to comment on the two systems.

‘The two systems' full documentation is available on our website and we invite everyone interested in forests and their certification, to review the systems and send comments by the 29 July 2006 directly to the consultants.’ said Mr Ben Gunneberg, secretary general of the PEFC Council. ‘The comments received will be integrated into the independent consultants' reports, which will form the basis for the PEFC Council members' decision on endorsement. In line with the PEFC's rules for openness and transparency, the full reports will be published on the PEFC Council website.’

While the Slovenian system applies for PEFC endorsement for the first time, the French PEFC system is applying for a second five-year endorsement period. During the first five years, more than four million hectares of forests have been certified to PEFC in France. More than 900 French companies ranging from sawmills, timber traders and retailers to paper producers and paper merchants have chosen a PEFC Chain of Custody certification for their businesses.

The revised French and the Slovenian forest certification systems can be reviewed under www.pefc.org > Members& Schemes > National Governing Bodies > France and Slovenia.

31 May 2006

The Swedish market pulp producer Rottneros is to raise the price for short fibre CTMP pulp in Europe.

It will go up to US $600/tonne and to $580/tonne for long fibre CTMP from the 1 June in Europe. The price for NBSK will increase to $ 690/tonne from the same date.

The new prices are valid until further notice.

30 May 2006

On Monday, 29 May at 12:12 Guangzhou Paper Co., Ltd. successfully started up a new newsprint machine in Guangdong province, China.

The new PM1, supplied by Metso, has a wire width of 5.3 m and an operating speed of 1400 m/min. It will produce 500 tpd of newsprint.

Mr Lin, vice general manager of Guangzhou Paper said, ‘The start-up went exactly according to plan and the machine was able to produce saleable paper immediately. The start-up date is auspicious for us, as Chairman Mao visited this same mill exactly 50 years ago.’

Metso's single-supplier delivery includes, the latest gap forming and belt technology in the wet-end, a single-tier dryer section for high-speed production and a soft calender and reel. Metso Automation and Metso's joint venture company in Xian also participated in the delivery.

Guangzhou Paper is one of the oldest and most respected newsprint manufacturers in China. It is also the mill to which Metso Paper made its first paper machine delivery in the People's Republic of China 50 years ago. Guangzhou Paper PM5, delivered by Metso Paper's predecessor Wärtsilä in 1956, is still in operation, producing newsprint. Today Guangzhou Paper operates four newsprint machines with a combined production capacity of 300,000 tpy.

30 May 2006

Measurements show that Ljusnefjärden (fjord) in Sweden is in very good ecological condition. Extensive studies also show that the bay would not benefit from a bio-purification plant at the Vallvik Mill.

In view of this, Vallvik's owner, the Rottneros Group, has decided to reject a call from the County Administrative Board in Gävleborg County to build a bio-purification plant at the pulp mill outside Söderhamn in Hälsingland, and has informed the Environmental Court in Östersund of this decision in a formal letter.

Vallvik Mill was instructed in an environmental decision in May 2003 to build the plant. This was linked to the production of the bleached pulp grade, TCF. The mill stopped producing TCF at the end of 2005 because sales had been falling significantly for a number of years.

Chemical and biological tests carried out on the mill's waste water show that it does not have any measurable negative impact on the environment. Despite this, the County Administrative Board has called for a bio-purification plant to clean process waste waters to be put into operation by 30 October 2007 and Rottneros has now rejected this request.

’Measurements carried out in Ljusnefjärden, the part of the Gulf of Bothnia that receives process waters from Vallvik Mill, show that the bay is in very good condition and that bio-purification would not have any measurable positive impact on the marine environment.’ says Rottneros' CEO Lars Blecko.

’Bio-purification would, in fact, increase the overall environmental impact by increasing energy consumption and transportation and therefore also carbon dioxide emissions. We have bio-purification plants where they are needed, for example at our mills in Rottneros and Rockham-mar.’ says Lars Blecko.

In 2001, following a decision by the Environmental Court in Östersund, an investment programme valued at SKr 115 million was launched at Vallvik. The programme mainly comprised internal measures to reduce the mill’s environmental impact. As a result of these investments, which ended in 2003, the emissions into water of oxygen demanding chemical substances (COD) have dropped by 15%.

The Environmental Court in Östersund will now look at the claims of the County Administrative Board and Rottneros. Rottneros will provide additional support in the case for its rejection of the request.

30 May 2006

Nippon Paper has ordered eleven Multi HV axles for the Multi-Nip calender on a new paper machine at the Ishinomaki mill in Japan.

Seven of these axles will be delivered by January 2007 and the four reserve axles are to arrive in Ishinomaki in May next year.

The rolls have a diameter of 990 mm and a working width of 8850 mm. In Japan they will be fitted with the axles from Krefeld by the local Andritz Küsters licensee Yodogawa and integrated into the calender on the new paper machine. Coated papers with a range of 51.0 g/m² to 79.8 g/m² will be produced at a production speed of 1800 m/min and a line force of 400 N/mm.

Although the paper machine and calender are not supplied by Andritz Küsters, the order of the axles for the major Multi-Nip calender component indicates the reputation rolls from Krefeld enjoy. The quality of the paper to be produced at the Ishinomaki mill, which is part of the Nippon Paper Group, plays a vital part in the high grade Japanese market.

The mill is an important supplier of paper to Japan’s capital Tokyo. Almost one million tons of various paper grades are produced at the mill each year.

30 May 2006

Investment and maintenance shutdowns will weaken M-real's second quarter results by a total of €20 million.

The results will also be affected negatively by the Finnish paper workers' strike, which resulted in a loss of €4 million, as well as by seasonal factors. The second quarter will include a total of €5 million worth of non-recurring costs, arising from reductions in personnel implemented in Germany and Austria.

‘In Finland, the reason behind the weakened result is the two-week shutdown at the Simpele mill where the board machine was rebuilt and the finishing department was renewed. Total investment costs amount to roughly €60 million. The aim is to raise production capacity by 45,000 tpy and improve the quality of the board.’ says M-real's president and CEO Hannu Anttila.

‘In addition, at the Alizay pulp and paper mill in France, the former section of the paper machine was rebuilt simultaneously with the annual maintenance shutdown at the pulp mill in April. The shutdown lasted for nearly three weeks. The investment cost of the former section is approximately€8 million, and the aim is to clearly improve paper quality.’ Hannu Anttila continued.

M-real's Stockstadt and Hallein mills are targeting for total of €14 million worth of annual savings, which will be fully implemented in stages during the period 2006-2008. At Stockstadt mill, agreement on an improved efficiency programme has been reached. As a result, personnel reductions involving a total of 140 employees will be made by the end of 2008.

A similar programme agreed at the Austrian mill in Hallein will mean a reduction of 100 employees over the next three years.

26 May 2006

The European Commission’s Directorate of General Competition has approved the takeover by the Austrian Andritz AG of the 60% majority in Küsters Technologie GmbH & Co. KG.

The approval process, in line with the EU Merger Regulations, did not revealed any anti-competition criteria that would negate the takeover within the European Economic Area. Küsters CEO Dr. Erich W. Bröker welcomed the decision taken in Brussels said, ‘The approval phase proved to be lengthy so we are pleased to finally be able to go ahead with the Andritz merger.’

Both enterprises had already had the opportunity of working together on a project level several times. However, the focus was on machines which were designed, built and commissioned for customers who wanted to invest in the area of wet presses. In May a joint project near Belgrade is to be commissioned. Andritz and Küsters were awarded this order for rebuilding a press by the Serbian cardboard manufacturer Umka Kartona Fabrika.

Against the background of this new majority holding, projects will be planned in which Küsters will also act as supplier for large Andritz projects. Dr. Bröker said, ‘We are sure that in the non-woven and tissue sector there is considerable demand for our shoe press technology (X-Nip presses) and we can expect quite a bit of business in this area.’

The EU Commission noted that there are only a few areas where the business activities of Andritz and Küsters overlap. The Krefeld based mechanical engineers will, for this reason, continue to maintain an independent presence on the market with their components and installations and actively promote them. ‘However, as a player in the large Andritz team, operating world-wide, our chances are now substantially higher than before.’ Dr. Bröker concluded.

17 May 2006

Walki Wisa, a member of UPM, has today celebrated the completion of the new converting plant at Changshu in China.

The investment makes Walki Wisa one of the biggest producers of industrial wrappers for the paper industry in China.New plant will serve the fast growing paper industry in China and the Asia Pacific region. The plant is logistically well located beside the Yangtze River, about 100 kilometres from Shanghai.

The construction of Walki Wisa plant was completed within a very tight schedule, in less than a year.

UPM is one of the world’s leading producers of printing papers and a market leader in magazine papers. The Group's turnover in 2005 was €9.3 billion, and its main products include printing papers, converting materials and wood products.

Walki Wisa is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of barrier-coated and laminated industrial wrapping materials for the paper, steel and wood products industries and composite barrier material for the packaging industry and technical purposes. Its turnover in 2005 amounted to €300 million. The company has production plants located in Finland, Germany, the UK, China and Sweden.

17 May 2006

The Brazilian paper company Klabin has placed an order with Voith Paper for a new production line for Board grades, including Liquid Packaging Board (LPB), carrier board and folding boxboard.

The new machine will be installed in the Klabin Monte Alegre mill in Telêmaco Borba, Paraná, Brazil.

This is the first project worldwide to focus on board machine equipment mainly designed for the production of LPB, grade used for packaging liquids, such as milk and juices. With a wire width of 7300 mm and a design speed of 1000 m/min, the new machine will produce high-grade board in a basis weight range of 170 - 390 g/m².

Using advanced technology will give the machine a capacity of 1100 tpd, meeting national and international market quality requirements.

The contract, which is one of the largest agreements ever signed by Voith Brazil, is on the company’s Process Line Package (PLP). The scope of the contract includes the stock preparation system, approach flow, the board machine, winder, roll transport and wrapping systems, ancillary equipment, electrical equipment, installation and start-up. Start-up is scheduled for September 2007.

Klabin is the largest paper and board manufacturer and exporter in Brazil. The company is a leader in the production of packaging paper and board, corrugated boxes and industrial sacks. It was the first company in the pulp and paper sector of the Americas to have its forests certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), confirming that it operates its business at the highest levels of environmental conservation and socio-economic sustainability.

16 May 2006

In the presence of some 600 international guests the new Voith Paper Technology Centre, PTC, was opened in Heidenheim on 11th May 2006.

The significance for the region, the state and even the Federal Republic of Germany was demonstrated by the number of honorary guests from the political and financial world. With a total investment of €75 million, the PTC, has been built on the premises of the Voith company in Heidenheim in just one and a half years.

In the PTC the ‘Fibrous Stock Technology’ and ‘Paper Production Process’ research units are united in an unusual way. In the new research centre it is possible to test and optimise the whole paper production process, from the raw material through the machine configuration, automation and machine clothing to the final product, under real conditions, in advance of commercial application.

‘With the PTC Voith has opened a new chapter in customer-oriented research and development.’ said Dr. Kormann, president and CEO of the corporate management board of Voith AG, at the inauguration ceremony.

The heart of the PTC is the 75-meter-long pilot paper machine XPM6. In contrast to the old pilot machine, which was only able to be run start-up operations, the new machine is tuned to record capacities and is designed for speeds of up to 3000 m/min (180 km/h).

The modular structure of the pilot paper machine enables different and completely new production concepts to be tried out and directly compared with each other. ‘We can demonstrate an almost infinite number of process variants from stock preparation to the printed roll under near-real conditions. This promotes innovations and gives our customers confidence in their decision to invest. The modularity of the pilot machine reduces the time needed in the past to about one tenth.’ said Ulrich Begemann, vice president R&D paper machine graphic for the PTC.

The individual modules of XPM 6 are stored in a so-called ‘module station’. Entire machine parts can be lifted out of the arrangement and exchanged. The dryer section, weighing 600 tonnes, is the heaviest and also the largest part. It is mounted on rollers and can be run into the appropriate position automatically, dependent upon the press section variant.

In the past it has not been possible to influence the stock properties on pilot paper machines. The new facility has a FiberDesign system that permits adaptation of the furnish specifically to the paper grade to be produced. This optimisation of the overall process, available for the first time, will lead to further innovations

15 May 2006

Metso Paper, Inc., together with Metso Paper (China) Co., Ltd., will supply a paper machine to Anhui Shanying Paper Industry Co., Ltd. in China.

The machine, with a capacity of 180,000 tpy, is to start-up in the 1st quarter of 2008. The total value of the agreement is close to €50 million.

The order includes a complete OptiConcept paper machine from headbox to reel and various auxiliary equipment. Machine automation and quality control systems will be supplied by Metso Automation, as well as the process control systems for the paper machine and the pulping line.

The new PM2 will have a wire width of 6050 mm and a design speed of 1600 m/min.

Anhui Shanying Paper Industry Co., Ltd. is located in the city of Maanshan in Anhui province, some 300 km west of Shanghai. The company is the biggest paper and board producer in the Anhui province, with a total capacity of 500,000 tpy of kraftliner.

15 May 2006

Nippon Paper Industries has selected Metso Paper to supply most of the technology for its new 350,000 tpy papermaking line to be built at its Ishinomaki mill in northeastern Honshu, Japan.

The total value of the Metso order, which extensively covers technology for papermaking, paper finishing, air systems and automation, exceeds EUR 80 million. The line is due to start up in late September 2007.

Nippon Paper Industries Ishinomaki PM N6, as it is called, will be the first new papermaking unit in Japan since 1998. Largely relying on Metso Paper's OptiConcept technology, it will produce both fine paper and light-weight coated grades in a basis weight range of 51 to 79 g/m2. With a wire width of 9.45 m and a design speed of 1,800 m/min, it will be among the largest paper machines ever constructed in the country.

Nippon Paper Industries, which forms a major part of Nippon Paper Group, is Japan's leading paper producer. The Ishinomaki mill currently runs 11 paper machines producing a total of 900,000 tons per year.

11 May 2006

Amcor Packaging has awarded Metso Paper a maintenance agreement at its Fairfield mill in Australia.

The agreement was signed on May 1, 2006 for three one-year terms. The Amcor Fairfield mill’s annual production is approximately 130,000 tonnes. The products are recycled and white liner, fluting and high quality plasterboard liner for Australian market and exports.

The scope of services under the agreement covers all maintenance-related activities and services across the entire mill including responsibility for maintenance management and strategies. Also management and procurement of materials and external services will be Metso’s responsibility.
To cover the above-mentioned scope Metso Paper has formed an alliance with Skilled Group, Australia’s largest technical workforce provider. Metso as an OEM and service provider has process, automation and maintenance management expertise. Skilled Group offers personnel for both daily maintenance activities and shutdown works. This alliance forms a unique combination of strengths.

11 May 2006

Siam Kraft Industry and Thai Union Paper Industry placed orders for automation and quality control systems to their paper mills in Banbong and Wangsala.

Both orders comprises Distributed Control and Quality Control Systems (DCS, QCS) and Information Management Systems for process and paper quality management.

In Bangbong, Siam Kraft's new system for the PM 2 will be integrated with the existing metsoDNA and PaperIQ systems running at the PM 3. This enables the optimization and utilization of all the system features and benefits. The start-up of the new system is scheduled for October 2006. Siam Kraft produces kraft liner board, corrugating medium, extensible sack kraft and kraft paper for producing core paper.

Thai Union Paper Industry's greenfield project, the PM 9 in Wangsala, is scheduled to start-up in December 2006. The new machine will produce two main paper grades – duplex and gypsum boards. The DCS and QCS systems will be integrated with PM 8's similar systems delivered by Metso Automation (formerly Valmet Automation) in 1993 and 1997.

11 May 2006

Following an order placed in November 2005, Metso Paper has agreed with Lee & Man Industries Co. Ltd to supply another kraftliner board machine.
The new 400,000 metric tpy machine - PM9 at the Hongmei, China mill - will start up during the first quarter of 2007. The order is valued at close to EUR 40 million.

The new Hongmei PM 9 will be a single-supplier delivery from Metso Paper. It will have a wire width of 7,250 mm and a design speed of 1,150 m/min. The delivery also includes Metso Automation's metsoDNA machine control systems.

The new machine will produce kraftliner board grades to be used by local box plants. The surrounding Guangzhou-Dongguan area forms a massive base for numerous manufacturing companies in various industries.

Lee & Man Paper is one of the largest containerboard producers in China. The company, which was founded in 1994 and is listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, owns three containerboard mills in Huangyong, Changshu and Hongmei in China. The three mills' combined annual production capacity is over 2 million metric tons. The company also owns waste paper operations in the USA and Europe, as well as an unbleached kraft pulp mill in the USA with an annual production capacity of 200,000 metric tons, making Lee & Man Paper a fully integrated containerboard manufacturer. All of the company's board mills are ISO14000 certified for environmentally sound operations.

09 May 2006

8 May 2006 - Aker Kvaerner has signed a contract with Statoil for design and delivery of the world's largest system for capturing and recovering crude oil vapours.

The new system will treat all vapours emitted from ship loading of crude oil at the oil company's Mongstad terminal at the Norwegian West coast. The plant will be in operation by end of 2007/beginning of 2008. The total contract value for Aker Kvaerner is approximately NOK 115 million.
The new unit is based on Aker Kvaerner's in-house carbon bed adsorption technology and allows capturing and recovering volatile organic compounds (VOC), which are vapours typically emitted during loading and offloading petroleum products. The new installation will be part of Statoil's VOC reduction project at the Mongstad terminal.

The VOC unit will treat all vapours emitted from ship loading of crude oil at the terminal. The peak capacity of the unit is 36 000 cubic meters per hour vapour rate. In order to meet the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority directives for VOC abatement on the premises, Statoil selected Aker Kværner's solution after careful evaluation of alternative technologies.

"Entering this agreement with Statoil, for supply of the world's largest VOC recovery unit, confirms Aker Kvaerner's position as a world class vendor of VOC recovery units", says Morten Reimer Hansen, President of Aker Kvaerner Cool Sorption, which is the Aker Kvaerner company responsible for delivering the system.

The contract has been signed subject to final approval from Statoil management

08 May 2006

Södra is raising the price of bleached long fibre pulp by US $40 to US $ 690 per tonne.

The new price will be effective from 1 June. ‘The pulp market has strengthened continuously during the year. Demand for both paper and pulp is good and pulp inventories are low both at producers and consumers.’ said Ulf Edman, president of Södra Cell International.
‘At the same time a noticeable reduction in production capacity is taking place.’ he added.

05 May 2006

UPM's Miramichi mill in Canada started up on Wednesday after three months of shutdown. The loss making mill has been idle since the beginning of February.

During the lay-off, the local management, together with employees, have compiled a new cost reduction and profit enhancement programme which aims at decreasing the fixed and variable costs as well as significantly improving the efficiency of the Canadian mill.

‘With serious efforts to implement this long-term programme, Miramichi has realistic possibilities of becoming profitable again and to maintain the important role of serving the North American customer base as a local mill.’ says Jyrki Ovaska, president of UPM’s magazine paper division.

The programme includes a 12% reduction in labour costs. The savings affect both hourly, salaried and managerial positions and they have been agreed with the local unions. The reduction will be reached through a combination of manning reductions and wage cuts effective until 2008. The personnel have also agreed to defer the contractual wage increases for this year.

In order to improve the mill's production efficiency, several key employees have been trained at UPM mills at Blandin in the USA, at Caledonian in Scotland and at Rauma in Finland. In addition, UPM will provide extra operational know-how for Miramichi in the coming months in order to ensure that the efficiency improvement targets are reached.

The provincial government in New Brunswick has assumed an active role in the process with UPM management during the three-month layoff.

‘A steady and quick performance ramp-up is expected in the coming months. Most of the results of the programme are anticipated to materialise during the second half of this year, and the mill's progress will be monitored on a monthly basis. If the business environment deteriorates, the situation may change, but for now the prerequisites for profitable operation at Miramichi are better than they have been for years.’

Both of Miramichi’s coated groundwood paper machines are planned to start deliveries to customers by mid-May.

05 May 2006

Metso Paper will supply Norske Skogindustrier ASA with a rebuild for its Saugbrugs PM6 paper machine at Halden and paper finishing technology for the Saugbrugs and Skogn mills.

The total value of these orders is about €15 million.

As a part of the Saugbrugs mill's systematic development programme PM6 producing SC paper will be modernised with the latest headbox and forming technology. The existing headbox will be rebuilt as an OptiFlo II headbox and the SpeedFormer will be upgraded to an OptiFormer specification, with loadable blades.

The machine, which was originally supplied by Valmet in 1993, produces some 300,000 tpy of SC-A and SC-A+ rotogravure grades. The rebuilt machine will come on stream in March 2007.

The Saugbrugs PM6 papermaking line will also be supplied with leading-edge finishing technology. Winder No.6-1, the wrapping machine and conveyors will be upgraded to handle super jumbo rolls up to 4350 mm in width and eight tons in weight. The super heavy duty winding station and compliant winding drums will improve roll hardness and the quality of jumbo rolls. Winder No.6-2 will be rebuilt with compliant winding drums to maintain the same roll quality on both winders. Start-up is scheduled for March 2007.

Metso Paper will supply the Skogn mill with a new fully automatic StreamLine Onesider wrapping machine with a capacity of 170 rolls per hour, and a conveyor system. The StreamLine wrapping machine will wrap all the rolls from the mill's three paper machines, which produce a total of about 600,000 tpy of newsprint. The new roll wrapping and handling systems will start-up in late 2006.

04 May 2006

UPM's Changshu mill’s PM1 OptiConcept fine paper machine in China has again set a new world speed record for the production fine paper grades.

Last week on 25-26 April the 10.4-m wire width machine, supplied Metso Paper, was run at 1654 m/min (5427 ft/min) for more than 24 hours.

The previous world record was the 1620 m/min achieved with the very same machine on 10-11 January 2006, less than eight months after its initial start-up in May 2005.

During the most recent record run the machine produced 70 g/m2 copy paper. ‘It was operating normally without any special adjustments.’ said Stephen Masterson, the PM1 unit director. ‘Runnability was good and paper quality was well within our specifications.’ he added.

PM1 produces uncoated fine paper in a basis weight range of 60 to 120 g/m2.

The record-breaking machine, which is the world's largest and fastest unit for uncoated fine paper, was started up in May 2005. With a design speed of 2,000 m/min, it has the capacity to produce 450,000 tpy of uncoated woodfree grades.

In addition to the paper machine, the Metso delivery included air systems and winders. Metso Automation supplied an extensive automation and field systems package to the production line.

02 May 2006

Stora Enso's new paper machine PM12 at the Kvarnsveden Mill in Sweden, which produces high-quality super-calendered magazine paper (SC paper), was officially inaugurated on 28th April.

PM12 started up at the beginning of November 2005 and is well advanced on its starting curve, currently producing more than 900 tpd of SC paper. The machine's capacity is 420,000 tpy of paper produced from virgin fibre (spruce pulpwood).

The investment enhances cost efficiency and strengthens Stora Enso's position in the growing SC magazine paper grade market. The latest technology incorporated in the new machine enables the mill to enter new end-use areas and markets that have been traditionally dominated by coated grades such as LWC. With the new capacity Kvarnsveden Mill will also target overseas markets such as North America, Asia and South America.

The total of about €450 million is one of the largest industrial investment projects in Sweden. It is part of Stora Enso's asset restructuring programme, which aims to increase the long-term competitiveness of the company’s assets and meet customers' growing quality and volume demands. Uncoated magazine paper is used in periodicals and advertising material, such as inserts and flyers.

The Kvarnsveden Mill is located in central Sweden. It was founded in 1900 and today has four paper machines with a total capacity of approximately one million tpy of newsprint, improved newsprint and uncoated magazine paper. About 85% of the mill's production is exported, primarily to countries within Europe, the largest customers being in the UK and Germany. The mill is ISO 14001 certified and EMAS registered.

02 May 2006

Wärtsilä Corporation has signed several operations and maintenance (O&M) agreements during the past months for power plants in countries as far apart as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Belgium and India.

The comprehensive O&M agreements provide power plant owners with technical support, an experienced operator and fixed O&M costs. Wärtsilä currently has more than 140 O&M agreements in 31 countries.

In March, a ten-year agreement was signed in Brazil with Geradora de Energia do Amazonas S/A. The power plant, located in the city of Manaus, will have a capacity of 83 MW. It will supply base-load power to the Manaus grid which is an isolated system in the Amazon region.

In February a five-year agreement was signed to operate a 45 MW power plant supplying energy to Riyadh Cement Company in Saudi Arabia. The ability of Wärtsilä engines to operate reliably under extreme site conditions, at high ambient temperatures, up to 50°C, and high altitude (835 m above sea level) is well established.

Under the O&M agreement the lifecycle operating costs of the Wärtsilä engines are guaranteed. ‘We believe that giving the O&M to Wärtsilä will help us focus on our core business and improve profitability for our share holders.’ says Mr Naseeruddin Siddiqui, Project Manager in Riyadh Cement Company.

Late last year Wärtsilä was awarded a ten-year agreement to operate a BioPower plant in Belgium owned by Renogen SA. The biomass-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) plant will produce 3.3 MWe and 10 MWth, or 5.3 MWe in condensate mode. The plant will be located in Amel in the Ardennes area of Belgium and will deliver hot water for drying processes in two local factories, while the electricity generated will be fed to the local grid.

BioPower plants are highly modular with standardised components enabling rapid delivery and installation of the plants. They are highly automated, enabling unmanned operation during weekends and after normal working hours.

The power plants are all being constructed by Wärtsilä. However, the company also enters into O&M agreements for plants not having its hardware.

For example, in January, Wärtsilä signed an agreement to operate the largest biomass fuelled power plant in India at Thoothukudi, Tuticorin, South India. The O&M agreement involves the complete operation and maintenance of a 25 MW biomass power plant based on Julia Flora (a type of shrub growing on barren land which requires minimal water and no irrigation) and any agricultural crop residue.

The power plant is owned by. Ind-Barath Energies Ltd. It will supply power to the local electricity board through a power purchase agreement. This plant will also generate a mass employment programme for the local rural population through the collection, loading, transportation and unloading of Julia Flora and agricultural crop residues.

02 May 2006

Aker Kvaerner and Metso have signed the final sale and purchase agreement for Metso to acquire Aker Kvaerner's pulping and power business.

The letter of intent for this transaction was first announced on 8 February 2006. The closing of the transaction is subject to the necessary approval of the relevant regulatory authorities. It is anticipated that completion will take place during the second half of the year.

Following the successful completion of the due diligence process, the agreed transaction price of approximately NKr 3 billion remains unchanged. Metso Paper and Aker Kvaerner's pulping and power business will continue to act as separate and independent companies, competing with each other, until the final closing of the transaction. After all the approvals have been received, the transaction is finalised, integration of the businesses will commence.

Kvaerner Power is a leading supplier in the world of chemical recovery equipment with its 300 recovery boilers and 300 evaporation units already delivered. Kvaerner Power is also a forerunner in fluidised bed combustion for both the pulp and paper industry and the power generation industry. About 200 power boilers in operation testify to the expertise in fluidised bed technology burning demanding fuels.

Kvaerner Power has designed and manufactured the world's largest recovery units and bio-mass-fired fluidised bed boilers. Kvaerner Power has its main operations in Finland, Sweden, the USA and Brazil.

Kvaerner Pulping is a leading supplier of machines, process systems and service to the global pulp and paper industry. Kvaerner Pulping, with its headquarters in Karlstad, Sweden, offers the full range of engineering, procurement and construction services, from single machines to complete fiber lines and white liquor plants.

28 Apr 2006

In 2005 Century Pulp and Paper, in Lalkua, India signed a contract with Voith to deliver a 200 tpd de-inking (DIP) system to handle recovered office paper for the production of writing and printing papers.

Now, Emami Paper in Balgopalpur and Rama Newsprint in Barbodhan are reported as also placing confidence in Voith’s de-inking technology. Both lines are designed as 2-loop systems similar to the Century plant. Emami’s new line will produce 300 tpd and Rama’s up-graded line will produce 250 tpd de-inked pulp for newsprint production. These are currently the biggest de-inking plants in India.

Optimum operating efficiency in the removal of printing inks and stickies is achieved at minimum specific energy consumption and very low fibre losses. Emami Paper and Rama Newsprint will also be supplied with EcoMizer cleaning and C-bar fine screening.

At Century Pulp and Paper, a VarioSplit washer will be installed in the first loop for de-ashing to help secure maximum stock quality. In addition, the mill will operate a kneading disperger in the second de-inking loop to further reduce dirt specks and positively influence specific volume of the end product.

Voith is also delivering Century’s new paper machine, assuming responsibility for the basic and detail engineering of the complete paper production line. The engineering strategy of the plants will be based on Voith’s EcoProcess philosophy which provides a significant reduction in energy requirements compared with conventionally designed de-inking processes.

All three orders have been placed with Voith within the last 12 months and represent a total production of 750 tpd of de-inked pulp, thus making it a market leader in this technology in India.

28 Apr 2006

The PEFC Council today lifted the suspension of the Swiss Q-label forest certification system

As of today, the Swiss Q-label certified forest area is again endorsed by PEFC and the wood can be labelled with the PEFC logo and claims. The lifting of the suspension is the result of the Q-label’s adoption of changes ensuring compliance with PEFC requirements.

‘Safeguarding the consistently high standards of all PEFC endorsed systems around the world is of utmost importance to the PEFC Council.’ said Ben Gunneberg, secretary general of the PEFC Council. ‘We are therefore delighted that the Swiss system has made the necessary changes and that we are now able to reinstate it as fully endorsed system.’

To bring its wood tracking system into PEFC compliance, the Q-label system replaced its previous standard with PEFC's international Chain-of-Custody (CoC) standard. Swiss CoC holders who are still certified to the previous standard and who wish to be PEFC recognised, therefore need to be re-certified to the new international CoC standard.

The PEFC Council suspended the Swiss Q-Label wood certification scheme in November 2005 for non-compliance with three PEFC requirements. These were compliance with the international PEFC CoC rules; provision of a publicly available certification report summary of the certification results and information from external parties being used as evidence in the forest certification process.

PEFC Austria scheme undergoes further revision
At its meeting on 27 April 2006, the PEFC Council board of directors decided not to recommend re-endorsement of the Austrian forest certification scheme to the General Assembly due to some remaining issues identified during the re-assessment of the scheme.

The Board has decided to limit the validity of the current endorsement of the Austrian forest certification system to 30 November 2006, on condition that no forest management certification or re-certification takes place until the scheme is fully re-endorsed.

28 Apr 2006

Today, Mary Wallace, T.D, the Irish minister of state at the department of agriculture and food, visited the recently inaugurated Lextorp combined heat and power (CHP) plant in the community of Trollhättan in Sweden, some 70 km northeast of Gothenburg.

The Minister has special responsibility for forestry. She was greeted at the Lextorp power plant by Mrs Viveca Dalhammar, chairman of the board of Trollhättan Energi and Mats Johansson, managing director of Trollhättan Energi.

Minister Wallace joined an Irish delegation consisting of five forestry and research experts who are making a two-day visit to Sweden to evaluate potential CHP plants for Ireland. The delegation will continue their visit of Swedish bio-fuelled CHP plants by also looking at Mark's Värme AB power plant in Kinna, about 60 km from Gothenburg, on Friday.

Both bio-fuelled CHP units have been delivered by Wärtsilä. Mark's Värme started-up at the beginning of 2005, and the Lextorp power plant began supplying heat in December 2005 and electricity in January 2006. Each facility comprises a Wärtsilä BioPower 5 DH plant, and burn by-products from the local forestry industry.

The thermal output is 16-17 MWth for district heating, and the electrical output is 3.5-3.6 MWe. The thermal output corresponds to 30% of Trollhättan's district heating needs. In Kinna, the bio-power plant, together with an existing district heating plant, supplies district heat to 800 customers and electricity corresponding to the electricity needs of 2500 detached houses.

"The European Union greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme has significantly contributed to the higher market prices of electricity in both Sweden and Ireland, as well as in other countries. Higher electricity prices together with green certificates have subsequently made electricity production in small-scale CHP, fuelled by bio-mass, and condensing plants an attractive prospect for municipalities with access to competitive wood-based bio-fuels and for the mechanical wood processing industry, such as sawmills and other, similar industries." says Tord Johnsson, general manager, power plants of Wärtsilä in Sweden.

To date there are three biomass-fuelled CHP installations in Sweden equipped with Wärtsilä BioPower's BP5 plants as well as one BioPower plant of the BP2 type. In addition to Sweden, Wärtsilä's BioPower technology has been sold in Belgium, Germany, Finland and Ireland.

27 Apr 2006

The Rottneros Group has decided to invest in a new steam turbine for electricity production at the Vallvik mill.

The turbine, will have a capacity of 28MW, and replaces a turbine that is more than 30 years old. The investment will cost about SKr 90 million. It will be powered by process steam generated from the production of pulp and will increase the self-sufficiency rate for electric power at the Vallvik mill from about 70% to almost 100%.

"The investment is motivated by our desire to become as self-sufficient as possible following the sharp increases in Swedish electricity prices." Said Lars Blecko, President and CEO of Rottneros.

Preparations for installing the new turbine will be start in September of this year in connection with the annual maintenance shutdowns at the Vallvik mill. Final installation and commissioning is scheduled for September 2007.

27 Apr 2006

The implementation of Chain of Custody (CoC) within UPM has been successfully continued in the Baltic States, Canada, China and France.

The Changshu paper mill in China and Docelles paper mill in France have received both FSC and PEFC CoC certificates. The Miramichi mill in Canada has been granted the PEFC CoC certificate. UPM's Forestry and Wood sourcing company in Baltic States and the Otepää plywood mill in Estonia have received the FSC CoC certificate.

Chain of Custody is a tool that makes it possible for the mills to report the share of certified wood in the production. To be able to label the products continuous supply of certified wood as well as meeting the other labelling criteria of the forests certification schemes are required.

The availability of certified wood varies from region to region. Currently about 7% of world’s forests are certified. The majority of wood used at UPM's mills is purchased from private forest owners. The forest owner decides on the certification of his forests and which certification scheme is used. All of UPM's own forests are certified according to local certification standards.

UPM supports all credible forest certification schemes, such as FSC and PEFC. The company aims to increase the use of certified wood in all its mills and to provide credible information on the origin of wood through the whole supply chain – from forest to customer.

25 Apr 2006

UPM’s president and CEO Jussi Pesonen comments on the first quarter of 2006, which showed an operating profit of €170 (203) million.

"UPM's result was still weak. High self-sufficiency in resources brought us competitive advantages but the rise in production costs has offset the increase in paper prices. The result, therefore, remained modest.”

Sales were amounted to €2,460 (2,278) million and paper deliveries were 6% up on the same quarter last year.

“The results in magazine and fine papers declined compared to the first quarter of last year. The implementation of the three-year profitability programme has started throughout UPM, and this quarter's result confirms our view of its necessity

Negotiations with employees related to the programme have started in various UPM locations. They have commenced in a serious but constructive atmosphere. After negotiations are completed, we will make decisions based on business criteria considering ideas presented in the negotiations. We are preparing for the forthcoming decisions by reviewing alternatives for supporting retraining and re-employment.

Demand for paper has developed positively except in the USA. In Europe, growth in demand has been very good and is particularly strong in the emerging markets. In spite of good demand, there continues to be significant overcapacity in coated papers. Average prices are somewhat higher than last year. Price development has been positive particularly in newsprint. However, prices in coated magazine and fine paper grades have been clearly disappointing

Second quarter deliveries are forecast to increase from the first quarter. The profit for the second quarter is expected to be impacted by planned non- recurring charges related to the programme to restore profitability.” Concluded Mr Pesonen.

25 Apr 2006

Holmen Paper Madrid and Voith Paper Automation have signed a service agreement for the automation system for PM62, which started-up in November 2005.

The contract comprises remote diagnostics and preventive maintenance service modules, which ensure rapid service support and a high system availability.

Within the framework Voith Paper Automation undertakes preventive maintenance in quality, instrumentation and control systems on the new paper machine.

The remote diagnostics module accords Holmen Paper full time support from Voith Automation’s specialists, who can assist with optimisation and trouble shooting via remote access. This ensures rapid assistance whenever problems occur.

Holmen Paper, a company of the Holmen Group, is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of wood-containing printing paper. With the new PM62, the Madrid mill has a total capacity of 470,000 tpy from 100% recycled fibre. It will is producing MF newsprint, primarily for daily newspapers.

25 Apr 2006

Klingele Papierwerke GmbH & Co. KG has placed an order with Voith Paper for the extension of the pre-drying group on PM2 at its Weener mill in East Friesland, Germany.

The machine produces 220,000 tpy of high-quality corrugated board base papers partly converted into tailor-made packaging solutions in Klingele’s converting mills.

Klingele will be the first to use the commercial application of the new BoostDryer drying technology. The aim of the extension is to overcome drying capacity limitations. The BoostDryer will increase the drying capacity by up to 15%, while enhancing the paper properties, particularly surface smoothness.

Dr. Jan Klingele, owner of Klingele Papierwerke said ‘We have placed great hopes on the BoostDryer and expect a clearly better paper quality connected with an increase in production as well as savings with specific steam and strength consumption.’

The BoostDryer unit comprises a steam-heated dryer cylinder that enables higher heat flows due to its special design. A water-cooled pressure hood presses the web against the dryer cylinder, producing better contact and increasing the drying efficiency. Drying rates of three to four times higher than a conventional dryer, can be achieved. In addition, pressing during drying results in high strength values and a smooth surface of the dried sheet.

PM2, with a wire width of 5490 mm, was started-up in 1980 and produces testliner and corrugating medium in a 90-180 g/m² basis weight range. Its design speed is 1200 m/min.

With six production locations in Germany, one in the Netherlands and four in Spain, Klingele is one of Europe’s large and innovative producers of corrugated board solutions.

24 Apr 2006

In its latest forecast the International Monetary Fund predicts the world economy will expand by 4.9% this year despite recent natural disasters and the continued rise in oil prices.

Its latest bullish World Economic Outlook revises an earlier growth forecast of 4.4% upward, although the IMF warns that a continuing rise in the price of oil could put further global expansion in jeopardy.

The report states "Notwithstanding higher oil prices and natural disasters, global growth has continued to exceed expectations. Looking forward, the baseline forecast is for continued strong growth, although risks remain slanted to the downside."

Continuing expansion in China, India and Russia largely accounts for the IMF's optimism for 2006. China’s booming economy is expected to grow by 9.5% this year, an upward revision from a previous estimate of 8.2%, easing to 9% in 2007.

The less dynamic economy of the USA, which is still the largest, will return growth of 3.4% this year and 3.3% in 2007, marginally lower than 2004's 3.5%.

The Eurozone economy, in which the pacemakers are Germany and France, is set to grow by 2% this year, but fall back to 1.9% in 2007; whereas the UK expects better growth prospects of 2.2% in 2006 and 2.7% in 2007.

According to the IMF, the impact on the world economy of higher oil prices has been ‘more moderate than generally expected’ the main reason given is that inflation among most of the leading economies is seen as being under control.
Source: WARC & the BBC

21 Apr 2006

In April PMP signed the contract with Fabryka Papieru Myszków Sp z o.o. in Poland for the replacement of its newsprint machine’s headbox.

The mill produces standard newsprint and printing grades. The hydraulic Intelli-Jet V headbox with a consistency profiling system will be installed on PM6. The new 5704 mm headbox and with a design speed 850 of m/min will be made entirely of stainless steel.

The main aims of the project are improved formation, better printability and improvement in the mechanical properties of the sheet,r as well as capacity increase.

The supply of equipment is scheduled to be completed by mid October
2006 and start-up will take place in week 42.

21 Apr 2006

Södra has published its interim report for the period January – March 2006.

The first quarter of the year has shown a clear improvement in market conditions and positive results in all the company’s business units. Higher costs for quality deterioration due to the older storm timber, now being processed, have been compensated for, by improved market conditions.

Operating income of SKr 289 million (237) has been charged with a non-recurrent write-down of goodwill of SKr 131 million at the Tofte pulp mill in Norway. This completes the review of the Group’s fixed assets that commenced in 2004.

“We are now seeing higher demand in all product areas,” says president Leif Brodén. “Pulp, sawn timber and interior wood products are continuing to grow from a good base. Bio-fuel has had an exceptional start to the year. We are experiencing record volumes across the board.

If this increasing demand continues throughout the year we could be facing a case of classic overheating next year.” continued Mr Brodén. Production rates have been strong during the quarter and have steadily increased compared with the same period last year. “We are continuing to get a strong response from our organisation in the drive for productivity and results increase our future competitiveness.”

The combination of improved market conditions and increased productivity currently indicate a yearly result for 2006 that will clearly exceed last year’s result of SKr 854 million before tax.

In order to incorporate the processing of storm payments, Södra currently has an 18-month financial year which runs until 30 June 2006. Södra’s profit development ensures the viability of the storm timber payment notified earlier. Total compensation for storm-felled timber is expected to be as follows:
Spruce saw logs: SKr 380 m3/fub, about SKr 450 m3/t
Pine saw logs: SKr 340 m3/fub, about SEK 410 m3/t
Soft pulpwood: SKr 180 per m3/fub

These prices include the post-payment the board of directors will propose to the annual general meeting. “Our jointly owned mills have enabled Södra to pay very well for storm blown timber. Through our mills, our solidarity and our teamwork, Södra members affected by the storm have got a lot back from their membership,” said Södra’s chairman Lars-Eric Åström.

Processing of the storm timber is expected to be completed during April. The total quantity will be 24 million m3 rather than the forecast 30 million m3. Södra has also honoured old contracts signed before Hurricane Gudrun on 8-9 January 2005.

Although the volume was less than expected, the storm post-payment fund and additional payment for old contracts of just over SKr 2000 million, is in line with the previous forecast.
Saw logs have made up 56% of the storm timber compared to the usual 64% from Södra’s regular harvesting.

20 Apr 2006

The European paper industry has set out the top ten factors impacting its competitiveness and called on the European Institutions to develop a more holistic approach to regulation in order to ensure that Europe remains a business friendly environment.

Despite the current challenging economic climate and global competitors whose production costs can be substantially lower than those in Europe, the paper industry has managed to maintain its position as a competitive and sustainable industry in the region and as a global leader in its field.

Many of the issues that impact industry’s competitiveness are inter-related, but these direct and indirect connections are not always reflected in the legislative proposals that are developed. An inconsistent approach to policy development can sometimes mean that legislation actually undermines the objectives it sets out to secure.

Teresa Presas, managing director of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), commented, “The European paper industry is the biggest producer and user of renewable energy in Europe; this is not recognised in legislation that promotes subsidies for the use of wood as a renewable energy source, creating unfair competition for the industry’s main raw material. A level playing field for the supply of raw material is a basic essential for competitiveness.”

The paper industry recognises that business must take responsibility for its own competitiveness and it strives to meet that challenge but a coherent regulatory framework is essential to support this. Recognition of the interdependence between competitiveness and sustainability is essential. For any industry to be sustainable, it must first be competitive. If it is not, then it cannot make the necessary investments to secure a sustainable future.

The top ten factors affecting the paper industry are, energy, wood resources, recovered paper, labour, regulatory framework, chemicals, capital costs, transportation, taxation and ability to innovate.

Many of these factors are common to all European industry sectors. The paper industry urges the European Institutions to adopt a joined-up approach to developing legislation, if Europe is to continue to attract investment and European industry is to be able to play its part in contributing to a competitive and sustainable future.

The European pulp and paper industry key figures:
It is composed of 850 companies and 1250 mills;
It has a turnover of €75 billion and a value added of €25 billion;
It directly employs some 275,000 people and provides indirect employment for some 1.8 million people;
It produces some 100 million tpy of paper and 45 million tpy of pulp;
It represents 29% of world paper production;
It exports 15 million tpy of paper, about 15% of its production;
Some 54% of the paper and board consumed is recycled;
It is part of the Forest-Based Industries, which has a turnover of €375 billion, or 6.5% of the European manufacturing industry’s total turnover.

20 Apr 2006

UPM's investment of €325 million in the rebuilding of the Kymi pulp mill is to proceed as planned.

Yesterday the Corporation agreed on the mill engineering with Jaakko Pöyry Plc. The initial news of the investment was announced in March.

"The rebuild of the recovery island will be completed in the last quarter of 2008. The investment will secure the pulp supply to the Kymi paper mill and ensure its development as a competitive integrated fine paper. Furthermore, we estimate that the investment will have important economic effects on services and business activities in the region. There will be a need for around 900 project employees at the mill during the rebuild. The important part of Jaakko Pöyry's mill engineering will be realized in Kouvola", said the project director Matti Haukijärvi.

The rebuild will include the replacement of two old and inefficient chemical recovery lines by one modern line. The investment will also resolve other bottlenecks in the production process. The new recovery plant will improve Kymi's cost efficiency. In addition, the pulp mill's energy efficiency will be improved and fossil carbon-dioxide emissions will be decreased.

12 Apr 2006

UPM will temporarily reduce its production of spruce sawn goods and lay off personnel at two of its sawmills in Finland: Seikku Sawmill in Pori and Alholma Sawmill in Pietarsaari.

The reasons for this are the unusually weak availability of spruce logs and the lack of profitability in spruce sawmilling caused by the high price of spruce saw logs. The decrease in production and the lay-offs will be carried out by reducing one shift from both sawmills during the period from mid May to the summer holidays

The annual production capacity of the Seikku Sawmill is 350,000 m³ and of the Alholma Sawmill 200,000 m³ of spruce sawn goods. Altogether 140 persons are working at these mills. By-products such as chips and wood waste from these mills supply the pulp and paper mill at Pietarsaari with pulping chips and bio-fuel.

11 Apr 2006

Guizhou Chitianhua Paper has selected Metso Automation's on-off valves and control valves with ND9000 positioners for the new pulp mill and recovery line scheduled for start-up in June 2007.

The order also comprises Metso's consistency transmitters and kajaaniKappa analysers for the new pulp line that will be the biggest bamboo pulp production line in China, with a capacity of 200,000 tpy.

The new plant will cover complete production lines from wood handling to paper-making as well as a 35,000 KW power plant. The pulping technology will be KP cooking, and bleaching technology ECF and TCF for production of high quality bamboo pulp with the output brightness of 88% ISO. The total cost of the investment is €320 million

Guizhou Chitianhua Paper Co. Ltd. was established in 2003. It locates by the Chishui River close to rich bamboo resources around Chishui City.

10 Apr 2006

Pöyry's Forest Industry business group has been awarded a contract by Solvay S.A., Belgium, comprising services for a hydrogen peroxide plant with a capacity of more than 200,000 tpy.

The services are to be provided by the end of 2007. The assignment supports maintaining a normal utilisation rate in the participating units and is included in the March 2006 order books. The value of the contract is not disclosed.

Solvay has engaged Pöyry to provide project management, engineering, procurement, and site services for the hydrogen peroxide production plant to be built by a Solvay/BASF joint venture at BASF's Zandvliet site in Belgium. In 2005 Pöyry performed similar engineering and project services for the expansion of the hydrogen peroxide plant in Voikkaa, Finland, owned by Solvay Chemicals Finland Oy, formerly Oy Finnish Peroxides Ab.

This contract is in line with the forest industry business group's strategy to sell comprehensive engineering and project services. It is also another demonstration of the effective use of Pöyry's global network, as several units in the group will participate in the implementation of this major project.

Solvay is an international chemical and pharmaceutical group with headquarters in Brussels. In 2005 its consolidated sales amounted to €8.6 billion generated by its three activity sectors: Chemicals, Plastics and Pharmaceuticals. Solvay is the world's biggest hydrogen peroxide producer. The Group has peroxide plants in Europe, USA, Asia and South America.

07 Apr 2006

Pulp trading volume picked up in March. Futures volume rose 17.3% from February, and options volume more than doubled from the February total.

Futures open interest fell off a bit, but options open interest rose. March’s high price for the April futures contract was $63 higher than the February high for the same contract, and rising pulp prices were the subject of much conversation at the market pulp conference in Barcelona.

NYBOT was a sponsor of the Market Pulp Conference in Barcelona. As was noted earlier, rising pulp prices were the subject of many general conversations, and many of the discussions referenced NYBOT prices and trading in particular. A number of speakers used NYBOT prices in their presentations, indicating a rising awareness of the benchmarking function of futures and options.

In addition, it was reported during a price risk management hedging seminar that independent research studies, including one by RISI, confirm that the NYBOT price is very highly correlated with the Chinese spot pulp market (correlation coefficients in the high 90s). This is the kind of evidence that supports the claim that the NYBOT pulp contract is providing one of the basic functions of a futures market.

07 Apr 2006

With immediate effective, Buckman Laboratories has consolidated its operations in Africa and Asia.

Following the retirement of Waldie Jooste the managing director in South Africa, officials in Memphis decided to centralise responsibility for Asia and Africa in the company’s Singapore office under Leigh Mann who has become general manager for Buckman Laboratories in Asia and Africa.

Under this new plan, all the sales managers of the two Buckman companies in Asia and Africa will report directly to Leigh Mann. To handle the day-to-day operations of each respective company, two new positions were created. Mr. R. Ashok was appointed general manager-operations of Buckman Laboratories Asia. Junai Maharaj was appointed general manager-operations of Buckman Laboratories South Africa..

Dave Wolfanger has accepted the position of director, technical services in the Research & Development department reporting to Jim Fitzhenry, VP R&D. In this position he will be supervising the activities of Buckman’s technical services laboratories. He joined Buckman Laboratories in August 1991 and worked as a district representative covering the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland until 1998.

From 1999 – 2001, he assumed the position of product manager, Busperse® product line in the corporate offices here in Memphis. In 2001, he was promoted to regional sales manager for PT6 (PA, NJ, NY, MA, CT) and has been active in the field until 2006.

On 1 March Buckman promoted Tim Koonce to the position of plant manager at the company’s manufacturing facility in Memphis, TN. In his new role, he will be responsible for the production, packaging, and maintenance activities in the Memphis plant. Mr Koonce has been working in the manufacturing department at Buckman for seven years. Before his promotion he was production manager at the Memphis manufacturing site

Buckman Laboratories is a privately-held, international, speciality chemical company with its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee,. Buckman provides the world’s industries with a broad range of specialty chemicals including: microbicides, scale inhibitors, corrosion inhibitors, enzymatics, polymers, dispersants and defoamers and others.

05 Apr 2006

Metso Paper has set a new world speed record in pigment coating of paper.

The new record of 3150 m/min was achieved on a two-sided OptiSpray coating station at Metso Paper's pilot coater at its Surface Treatment Technology Centre in Järvenpää, Finland.

The record run was made at two different coat weights, of 2 x 7 g/m2 and 2 x 8 g/m2, with the web being coated simultaneously on both sides. The coating colour solids content was 65%. The coating colour and the 41 g/m2 base paper were specially designed for spray coating by Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.

OptiSpray is the first coating station to use low-impact coating technology at high speeds. Its operation is based on a controlled, high-pressure spray application of coating colour or surface size directly onto the surface of the paper or board, without any direct contact of blades, rods or rolls. The OptiSpray coating station provides uniform coating coverage and good runnability and production efficiency. It is a viable option for rebuilds on existing machine lines to produce coated grades.

Metso Paper's Surface Treatment Technology Centre is equipped with a modern versatile pilot coater, capable of performing trial runs with virtually any coating method. These methods include sizing, film coating, blade coating with roll and jet application, spray and curtain coating. The centre also has two pilot calenders, each incorporating the very latest technology. Comprehensive trial runs have been carried out in the paper finishing area for over 20 years.

04 Apr 2006

Metso Paper is to supply a complete Advantage DCT 100 tissue machine to Augusta Tissue’s mill, in Augusta, Georgia, USA.

The value of the order is below €10 million.

The tissue machine will have a nominal wire width of 2.7 m and an operating speed of 1600 m/min. The daily production based on recycled fibre will be 80-100 short/tpd (about 73-91 metric tonnes) of high-quality towel and bathroom tissue grades. Production is scheduled to begin at the end of 2006 or in early 2007.

Metso’s delivery will comprise the Advantage DCT 100 tissue machine equipped with an OptiFlo II TIS headbox, a single press, a 15-foot Metso Yankee cylinder, an Advantage AirCap Yankee hood, sheet control, tail threading and an Advantage SoftReel P reel for winding onto cores

Augusta Tissue is a new company to the tissue business. The plant is built adjacent to the old Ponderosa recycled fibre mill site in Augusta. The company plans to sell its one- and two-ply products in parent rolls.

04 Apr 2006

Metso Paper is to supply a complete new tissue machine to Turkish tissue manufacturer Lila Kagit in Corlu, about 100 km west of Istanbul.

Start-up of the machine is planned for the third quarter of 2007. The contract also includes an option for a second tissue line. The market value of these types of tissue production lines ranges from €20 million to 30 million, depending on the scope of delivery and capacity of the machine.

This delivery will cover a complete tissue making line. In addition to the Advantage DCT 200 tissue machine, it includes, stock preparation equipment, process ventilation, controls, electrical equipment, basic engineering services, erection, start-up and training services.

The capacity of the line using virgin fibre will be 195 tpd of facial tissue, toilet, napkin and towel products. This capacity will be Turkey’s largest on a single tissue machine.

Lila Kagit is part of the Marmara Pamuklu Mensucat San.ve TiC. A.S. Group. The company was established in 1980 and is now one of the leading producers of yarn and dyed yarn. Its production facilities are in Corlu, Tekirdag. Marmara Elektrik Uretim A.S. are also part of the Group and producing electricity at the same location.

03 Apr 2006

In December 2005 Norske Skog Walsum placed an order for the rebuild of the off-machine coater CM10 with Voith Paper.

The target is to increase the productivity of the system, improve the quality of the end product and reduce coating colour costs.

The order includes the installation of two JetFlow F applicators on CM10, with the associated actuator system OnQ ModuleCoat and the Profilmatic control software. The extension of the coating colour preparation is included in the scope of supply.

The existing quality control system will be completely removed and replaced by three OnQ scanners permitting quality measurements following the unwinding unit and after each JetFlow F applicator. This ensures continuous checking of the sheet. The visualisation and complete documentation of reel, shift, daily and grade reports will be available in the OnView Information System.

The order is in accordance with the Process Line Package (PLP) and takes over the overall responsibility for the production process with respect to mechanical systems, process and control technology. This also includes all services such as installation, cabling, programming, piping and subsequent start-up. During installation and start-up, interfaces will be reduced by the PLP as required.

31 Mar 2006

Stora Enso has today signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to address the key findings of the environmental and social impact assessment of Stora Enso's plantations in Guangxi Province, China.

During a five-year period, Stora Enso and UNDP will co-operate to conserve bio-diversity in Guangxi and to improve community well-being. The results of the environmental and social impact assessment, which is not yet a common practice for plantation projects in China, were also publicised at the signing ceremony.

According to the results of the study, there are no major environmental or social issues that could jeopardise Stora Enso's plantation project. Environmental impacts identified in the study will be managed with Stora Enso's good plantation management practices. In the social dimension, the company aims to continue and strengthen the engagement with local landholders and communities.

"Based on our experience, we firmly believe that this type of study has to be carried out in co-operation with a reliable partner to provide a transparent process where the results are published and is in line with our financial goals." commented CFO Hannu Ryöppönen, present at the signing ceremony. "It increases the credibility of the project and it helps Stora Enso win the acceptance of stakeholders".

29 Mar 2006

PMT Italia. and Hayat Kymia Sanayii started-up the new tissue production line in the Izmit mill, in Turkey on Tuesday, 17 January, 2006.
The machine was producing saleable paper at the rate of 240 tpd from 100% virgin fibre by the end of January. The new 5.5 m wide Crescent Former has an operating speed of 2.000 m/min.

Responsibility for the entire installation was given to PMT Italia, including the detailed engineering, stock preparation lines, tissue machine and winder, because of its advanced technology, reliability in handling such projects and its experience as a tissue machine supplier.

This new machine once again underlines PMT Italia’s position as a market leader in the supply of advanced production systems for the pulp and paper industry.

27 Mar 2006

Metso Paper together with Metso Paper China is to supply a linerboard machine to Zhejiang Jingxing Paper Joint Stock Co., Ltd of China.
The new machine, which will have a capacity of 300,000 tpy, is due to start up in the city of Pinghu, in Zhejiang province in 2007. The order contains a complete three-ply linerboard machine, including a dilution headbox and a shoe press, a calender and corresponding services.

The new machine designated PM12 will have a wire width of 6150 mm and a design speed of 1100 m/min. It will produce linerboard in the weight range of 125-250 g/m2.

Metso Paper was selected to supply the new machine as a result of its existing references in China, its advanced technology and the local presence of Metso Paper China’s service unit in Wuxi. The customer's main target is to produce high-quality containerboard for the domestic market.

Zhejiang Jingxing Paper has its headquarters in Pinghu, Zhejiang province, about 100 km southwest of Shanghai. In 2005 the company created a revenue of RMB1.4 billion (EUR 140 million). With an annual containerboard capacity of 380,000 tonnes, from six machines, the company is one of China's three leading producers. However, in the near future it aim is to reach a capacity of one million tpy.

In 2003 Zhejiang Jingxing Paper established a joint venture agreement with Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. for producing corrugating medium in Zhejiang.

27 Mar 2006

Queensland Tissue and PMT Italia have successfully started up PM2 following a major rebuild in mid-December 2005.

The rebuilding package supplied by PMT Italia comprised a Crescent Former, MH Headbox-CIV (2 ply) delivered under a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries contract. The delivery included a new press arrangement including machine framing up to the Yankee and a new stock preparation system, with the auxiliary equipment.

The new equipment has achieved very good results since the beginning of the new start-up. Queensland Tissue is currently implementing plans to produce its high quality Quilton toilet tissue on PM2.

This installation consolidates Queensland Tissue as high quality tissue manufacturer and confirms PMT Italia as a global market leader in providing advanced production systems for the pulp and paper industry.

24 Mar 2006

After successfully extending the screening and flotation capacity at UPM Schongau mill’s de-inking plant three years ago Voith Paper has again been selected to carry out a further capacity increase.

UPM Schongau was founded in 1887 and today produces newsprint and uncoated paper grades with a high filler content for newspapers, supplements, advertising flyers, brochures, magazines and catalogues. The mill produces up to 750 000 tpy of web offset papers from up to 100% recovered paper on three modern paper. UPM Schongau is among the world’s largest recyclers of recovered paper.

This time it will be part of an up-grade project for the entire mill. To ensure the goals of the project are achieved Schongau has ordered four EcoCell primary flotation cells for extending pre-flotation. It is essential that present brightness levels are maintained, after pre-flotation and sticky reduction, following the rebuild.

The order also includes three MultiScreens, each equipped with C-bar screen baskets and MultiFoil rotors for expanding IC and LC slot screening operations. To facilitate routine inspection and screen basket replacement, the screens will be fitted with swing covers and fast cover clamping.

In addition, various screen baskets of the latest C-bar design will be supplied for a number of existing screens. Start-up assistance and complete assembly of the flotation cells is also part of the package.

24 Mar 2006

Volume in pulp futures rose almost by half from the January numbers, recovering half the ground to the near record trading in December.

Open interest in the pulp futures contract rose slightly from the January month-end numbers. Options volume, however, had not recovered, slipping in February. Options open interest also dipped at the end of February. March 4 marked the first anniversary of the introduction of pulp trading at NYBOT, and the close to 5000 open interest in the futures and options is a good sign for the contract.
The February numbers are as follows:.
Futures Volume: 2654 (53,080 tonnes)
Options Volume: 131 ( 2620 tonnes)
Futures Open Interest at month end: 3893
Options Open Interest at month end: 708
April 06 futures high in February: $542.00 on Feb 28
April 06 futures low in February: $526.50 on Feb 1

22 Mar 2006

Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a contract for two pressure diffusers as an important part of a pulp mill expansion project in the People's Republic of China.

The pulp mill originally started up in November 2004. The pressure diffusers are scheduled to start up in the second quarter of 2007.

The fibre line, delivered by Aker Kvaerner, has a nominal capacity of 3000 tpd of pulp making it the world's largest fibre line. The new pressure diffusers are being installed to allow for a capacity increase to 4000 tpd of pulp, or about 1.3 million tpy. The contract is worth about €8 million.

Kvaerner Pulping, will provide engineering, procurement and supervision services (EPS) under the new contract.

"To once again be entrusted by this important customer clearly demonstrates the strength of Aker Kvaerner's technology and capabilities within the pulp and paper industry and marks yet another important reference in the fast growing Chinese market." says Per-Åke Färnstrand, president of Kvaerner Pulping.

22 Mar 2006

Norske Skog Saugbrugs, Halden, Norway, has selected Metso Paper to rebuild its TMP2 thermomechanical pulp plant.

The plant, feeding PM6, consists of two TMP lines, which will be rebuilt separately. Start-up of the first rebuilt line is scheduled for March 2007 and the second line follows in October 2007. The delivery of equipment will start in September 2006.

The Saugbrugs Mill aims to improve the quality, particularly the surface properties, of magazine papers manufactured on PM6. The current TMP pulping process will be modified so that the pulp properties fulfil the quality requirements of final paper products.

Metso Paper will supply a new primary refining stage, which will improve fibre characteristics. A new primary screening line and auxiliary equipment to separate the rejects from the existing TMP lines into separate reject refining systems are also included in the supply.

22 Mar 2006

Södra is raising the price of bleached long fibre sulphate pulp by USD 20 to USD 650 per tonne. The raise is effective from 1 April.

“The pulp market continues to strengthen. Deliveries are good, stocks are low and demand is generally looking good”, says Ulf Edman, President of Södra Cell International.
“Despite the increased demand for paper, profitability is under pressure at many paper makers. This is the reason that the pulp price raise is only USD 20 per tonne, despite the strong market situation”.

18 Mar 2006

At the turn of the year 2005/2006, Voith Paper installed a new NipcoFlex press in the board machine BM 1 at Smurfit Kappa Herzberger Papierfabrik GmbH, Herzberg, Germany.

On the one hand, the rebuilt press section allows to increase production; on the other hand, improved technological parameters of the produced board and solid board will be achieved.

Completing the rebuild on schedule, resuming production as scheduled, achieving the guaranteed values, and excellent cooperation in a spirit of partnership during the whole project period are the reason for already very positive comments by the customer.

For the BM 1 rebuild, Voith Paper Automation was responsible for the complete machine control system including process visualization system, hydraulic and pneumatic systems, measuring, control and electrical equipment, low-voltage MCC, as well as for supervision of installation and start-up.
The control system of the existing press was integrated into the machine control system for the new NipcoFlex press.
Since January 2002, the BM 3 at the Herzberg mill also operates successfully with a Voith Paper NipcoFlex shoe press.

16 Mar 2006

Västerås, Sweden, March 14, 2006 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has been awarded a contract, for their Customer Support Management system CSM, a sales and production planning system suited for the Pulp & Paper industry to SCA Forest Products.

The purpose of the new system is to integrate the SCA Forest Products mills and their sales offices communicating with warehouses and distribution system in one common sales system. The system will handle and plan orders of about 1,7 million tons of publication paper and pulp annually.

The delivery contains a central solution for order handling, market plan, automated document handling and control payment functionalities for the four mills, Östrand and Ortviken in Sweden, Aylesford in United Kingdom and Laakirchen, in Austria. CSM will handle client communication according to the PapiNet standard (Transaction standard for the supply chain in the Paper Industry). Also functionalities at each mill for production planning connected to the local production tracking systems at the mills are included. CSM gives full overview of the order process and enable optimization throughout the whole supply chain.

“The reason why we chose ABB’s CSM is that it meets SCA's requirements of a new order management and planning for the Pulp & Paper Industry. The solution that is based on the PapiNet standard is integrated with production planning which enables us to automate the whole order process” says Kent Flodén, Project Manager SCA Forest Products.

SCA FOREST PRODUCTS produces publication papers, pulp, solid- wood products and forest-based biofuels. SCA Forest Products also manages SCA's extensive forest holdings, supplies SCA's Swedish industries with wood raw materials and offers cost-efficient transport solutions to SCA's units. SCA Forest Products annual turnover totals about 16 billion Swedish kronor (EUR 1,7 billion) and number of employees is 4000 people.

Forest Products business area produces publication papers -newsprint, LWC and SC paper – and pulp at 4 mills located in the UK, Sweden and Austria, with a total capacity of 1.7 million tons of publication papers.

16 Mar 2006

Dundalk, Ireland, March 8, 2006 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group has just released a brand new line of motorized profilers for the Pulp and Paper industry.

The new xP (extended profiling) actuators provide a higher level of precision for today’s demanding papermaking requirements.

“These new actuators were designed to be ultra consistent” said Declan Byrne head of QCS Sales & Marketing. “Having listened carefully to our customers and their needs we created the ideal motorized actuator for today’s applications. They can achieve a CD profile variability which is typically < 0.5% of process and often as low as 0.25% of process.”

Along with increased reliability the new profilers provide hi-speed positioning and ensure fastest recovery from grade changes and process upsets. The patented power supply optimization with built in redundancy results in the fastest response and highest utilization in the marketplace. In addition, proactive diagnostics permit safe operation under alarm conditions.

16 Mar 2006

Following the acquisition of Consolidated Papers, Inc. the Board of Directors decided to convert the Consolidated Papers' share option plans into Stora Enso share option plans.

During February 2006 a total of 2 521 R shares were subscribed against North American stock options. These R shares were previously held by the Company.

After the subscription the Company holds:
A shares 38 600
R shares 24 368 498

16 Mar 2006

Stora Enso Oyj has sold all its 8 746 620 shares in Sampo Oyj for approximately EUR 155 million.

The shares represent 1.54% of the total number of outstanding shares in Sampo Oyj.

Stora Enso will record a capital gain of EUR 130.0 million as a non-recurring financial item in its first quarter 2006 results.

The shareholding in Sampo Oyj has been a non-core financial investment. The sale is consistent with Stora Enso's objective of concentrating its capital resources on its core businesses.

16 Mar 2006

14 March 2006 - Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a contract for two pressure diffusers as an important part of an expansion project in the People's Republic of China. The contract is worth approximately EUR 8 million.

The facility was started up in November 2004. The fiberline, originally delivered by Aker Kvaerner, has a nominal capacity of 3,000 tonnes of pulp per day making it the world's largest fiberline. The new pressure diffusers are being installed to facilitate a capacity increase to 4,000 tonnes of pulp per day, or about 1.3 million tonnes per year.

Kvaerner Pulping, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will provide engineering, procurement and supervision services (EPS) under the new contract.

"To once again be entrusted by this important customer clearly demonstrates the strength of Aker Kvaerner's technology and capabilities within the pulp and paper industry and marks yet another important reference in the fast growing Chinese market," says Per-Åke Färnstrand, President of Kvaerner Pulping.

The pressure diffusers are scheduled to start up in the second quarter of 2007.

14 Mar 2006

The Annual General Meeting of M-real Corporation, held on 13 March 2006, approved the company's financial statements for 2005 and granted discharge from liability to the members of the Board of Directors, the President & CEO and deputy CEO.

In addition, the Annual General Meeting approved M-real's consolidated profit and loss account and balance sheet for the financial year 1 January 2005 - 31 December 2005.

Dividend

The Annual General Meeting resolved to pay a dividend of EUR 0.12 per share for the financial year ended 31 December 2005, for a total of EUR 39.379.873,44. The dividend will be paid to shareholders who on the record date of 16 March 2006 have been entered in the company's list of shareholders kept by Finnish Central Securities Depository Ltd. The dividend is paid out on 23 March 2006.

Board of Directors

The members of M-real's Board of Directors elected by the Annual General Meeting are Heikki Asunmaa, Counsellor of Forest Economy; Kim Gran, President and CEO of Nokian Tyres plc; Kari Jordan, President and CEO of Metsäliitto Group; Asmo Kalpala, President of the Tapiola Group; Erkki Karmila, Executive Vice President of Nordic Investment Bank; Runar Lillandt, Counsellor of Agriculture; Antti Tanskanen, Chairman & CEO of OP Bank Group and Arimo Uusitalo, Counsellor of Agriculture.

The term of office of members of the Board of Directors lasts until the end of the next Annual General Meeting.

Auditors

Elected as M-real's auditors were Göran Lindell, Authorized Public Accountant, and Authorized Public Accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy, with Jouko Malinen, Authorized Public Accountant, acting as Chief Auditor and Björn Renlund, Authorized Public Accountant, and Markku Marjomaa, Authorized Public Accountant, acting as deputy auditors.

The term of office of the auditors and deputy auditors lasts until the end of the next Annual General Meeting.

Authorization of the Board of Directors to decide on increasing the share capital through a rights issue and/or issue of convertible bonds

Annual General Meeting authorized the Board of Directors for one year from the date of the Annual General Meeting to decide on increasing the share capital through one or more rights issues and/or one or more issues of convertible bonds such that in the rights issue or issue of convertible bonds, a total maximum of 58.365.212 M-real Corporation Series B shares with a nominal value of EUR 1.70 can be subscribed for, and that the company's share capital can be increased by a total maximum of 99.220.860,40 euros.

The authorization will confer the right to disapply shareholders' pre-emptive right to subscribe for new shares and/or issues of convertible bonds and to decide on the subscription prices and other terms and conditions. Shareholders' pre-emptive subscription rights can be disapplied providing that there is a significant financial reason for the company to do so, such as strengthening of the company's balance sheet, making possible business structuring arrangements or taking other measures for developing the company's business operations. The Board of Directors may not disapply the pre-emptive subscription rights on behalf of a related party.

Since autumn 2004 M-real has focused on improving the financial position of the Group through equity and debt financings as well as internal cost savings and efficiency actions, affecting all M-real's operations and Business Areas. The implementation of these actions has progressed according to schedule and results so far are in line with the targets. M-real's Board of Directors has initiated a strategic review of M-real's current business portfolio, with a view to M-real exploring potential benefits of participation in the consolidation and restructuring of the European paper industry. The strategy review is in its early stages and M-real is not in a position to speculate as to the likely outcome thereof.

14 Mar 2006

Stora Enso's Finance and Strategy staff function, headed by Hannu Ryöppönen, CFO, has been reorganised with effect from 1 March 2006.
The main objective of the new organisation is to further focus and develop business analytical resources and specialised competencies at Group level.
A new function, Group Business Analysis and Controlling, has been formed headed by Jouni Seppälä, Senior Vice President, Business Analysis and Controlling. The main duties of the new function are Group-level business controlling and analysis; budgeting and forecasting; management of the Profit 2007 and Asset Performance Review profit improvement projects; strategy process support and Investment Committee participation. Jouni Seppälä will be based in Helsinki.

The Group Accounting and Reporting function headed by Jussi Siitonen, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, undertakes Stora Enso's Group reporting. The main duties of the function are controlling of accounting and financial reporting at Group level and country level; setting accounting and reporting standards and policies to comply with both professional (IFRS and US GAAP) and corporate internal reporting requirements; and performing monthly, quarterly and annual closings and reports. Jussi Siitonen, who will also be a member of Stora Enso's Disclosure Committee, will be based in Helsinki.

A new function, Group Risk Management and Financial Platform, has been established headed by Bo Eriksson, Senior Vice President, Risk Management and Financial Platform. It is responsible for enterprise risk management; credit management; global financial shared services; Stora Enso Administrative Application Platform and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance implementation. Bo Eriksson continues to be a member of Stora Enso's Disclosure Committee and will be based in Stockholm.

Markus Rauramo, Senior Vice President, Group Treasurer, continues to lead Stora Enso's Financial Services. The Corporate Finance function based in London and headed by Anders Bergkvist, Vice President, Corporate Finance, has been added to Financial Services with the following tasks: mergers and acquisitions and divestment management; structured and project finance and new growth markets finance. In addition back office will become part of Financial Services. Markus Rauramo continues to be based in London. As previously announced, a major part of the Financial Services (Treasury) operations will be moved from London to Helsinki.

The Group Strategy function will be headed by Antti Jääskeläinen, Senior Vice President, Group Strategy. Its tasks are Group strategy development; top management decision-making support; Group portfolio and structural development. Antti Jääskeläinen will be based in Helsinki.

Risto Suuraho, head of Internal Audit, will retire on 1 June 2006. He will be succeeded as Senior Vice President and head of Internal Audit by Ville Hietalahti, who will be based in Helsinki.

The following functions remain part of Finance and Strategy:
- Group Legal Services, headed by Jyrki Kurkinen, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, based in Helsinki
- Group Tax Services, headed by Karin Lagerkvist, Vice President, based in Stockholm
- Investor Relations, headed by Keith Russell, Senior Vice President, based in London
- Investment Process, headed by Magnus Diesen, Executive Vice President, based in London
- Business Intelligence and Corporate Affairs, headed by Seppo Suuronen, Vice President, based in Helsinki

14 Mar 2006

The share split, which was decided by Jaakko Pöyry Group Oyj's Annual General Meeting on March 7, 2006, has been registered in the Trade Register.

As a result, the shares of the company were quadrupled from 14 545 036 shares to 58 180 144 shares. The share capital remains unchanged, i.e. EUR 14 545 036. The share split will be implemented in the book-entry system and it does not require any measures from the shareholders. The new shares are available for public trading on the Helsinki Stock Exchange as of March 14, 2006.

14 Mar 2006

Norske Skog Saugbrugs, Halden, Norway, has selected Metso Paper to rebuild their TMP2 thermomechanical pulp plant.

The plant, feeding PM 6 paper machine, consists of two TMP lines, which will be rebuilt separately. Start-up of the first rebuilt line is scheduled for March 2007 and the second line follows in October 2007. The delivery of equipment will start in September 2006. The value of the order is not disclosed.

The Saugbrugs Mill aims to improve the quality, particularly the surface properties, of magazine papers manufactured by PM 6. The current TMP pulping process will be modified so that the pulp properties fulfill the quality requirements of final paper.

Metso Paper will supply a new primary refining stage, which will improve fiber characteristics. A new primary screening line and auxiliary equipment to separate the reject from the existing TMP lines into separate reject refining systems are also included in the supply.

Norske Skog is a world leading producer of newsprint and magazine paper, with 20 wholly and partly owned mills in 14 countries on four continents. The Saugbrugs Mill became a part of Norske Skog in 1989 and is now one of the largest and most modern production units of SC magazine paper in the world. The three paper machines have a total annual capacity of 550,000 tons.

14 Mar 2006

The Finnish forest products group UPM is set to improve the competitiveness of the Kymi and Jämsänkoski mills through a series of new investments.

The decision to invest in the building of a new paper machine in Continental Europe has been postponed to a later date. Combined with today's launch of the programme to restore UPM's profitability, the company will invest in the production efficiency of Kymi's pulp mill and in converting Jämsänkoski mill's PM4 into label paper production. The total value of the investments is €370 million.

UPM will rebuild the recovery plant at Kymi pulp mill. Following this investment Kymi will be a very competitive integrated fine paper mill with a production capacity exceeding 900,000 tpy on two paper machines. The new recovery plant will improve Kymi's cost competitiveness and product quality. In addition, the pulp mill's energy efficiency will be improved and fossil carbon-dioxide emissions will be decreased. The total investment is valued at €325 million and will be completed in the last quarter of 2008.

In addition, UPM will invest €45 million to convert the UPM Jämsänkoski PM4 from coated magazine papers into label papers. The investment will strengthen UPM's leading position in the fast growing label paper business. This project will be completed in the second quarter of 2007. The capacity of the rebuilt PM4 will be 120,000 tpy.

UPM's plan to invest in a new paper machine producing magazine (SC) papers in Continental Europe, has been postponed to a later date as energy price and availability and other infrastructure issues are still open. Instead UPM will prioritise the company’s profitability programme.

08 Mar 2006

Metso Paper is to supply M-real Kemiart Liners in Kemi, Finland, with a rebuild of its BM1 linerboard machine to improve quality and increase capacity.

The upgraded machine will start up in August 2006. The total value of the agreement is around €5 million.

Kemi BM1 produces high-quality coated and uncoated white top kraftliner for brand, retail and consumer packaging in a basis weight range of 110-300 g/m². The rebuild will increase the capacity of the 6.8m wide board machine from 345,000 tpy to 360,000 tpy.

The delivery features the first ValFormer forming section for board making applications. ValFormer is Metso Paper's new hybrid forming technology, which utilises vacuum shoe technology. It opens new possibilities to improve sheet quality and printability, as well as to increase the capacity of the forming section with a cost-effective investment.

Kemiart Liners is a subsidiary of M-real Corporation.

07 Mar 2006

Praj Industries Limited (Praj), a global leader in bio-ethanol technology has signed a memorandum of understanding with Aker Kvaerner for strategic co-operation on bio-ethanol projects in Europe.

The use of this renewable fuel, derived from plants or bio-mass, provides a significant reduction in overall CO2 emissions compared to a traditional petrol only engine.

The European Union (EU) Bio-Fuels Directive has set a target of 5.75% energy content inclusion of bio-fuels in the transportation fuel mix by 2010. Many EU countries are fast developing a fuel ethanol programme. France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and others have announced either a policy or a grant for the promotion of fuel ethanol.

In their new co-operation, Aker Kvaerner and Praj will unite their respective expertise to jointly pursue business opportunities. Praj will supply the process licence, process engineering, and critical and proprietary equipment for the process plant, while Aker Kvaerner's European Process business will provide basic engineering, procurement and construction expertise.

"As the demand for fuel grade ethanol grows, technology for production of bio-ethanol becomes more critical. We are therefore delighted to be cooperating with Praj in Europe. We see this as a synergistic alliance which will offer value to European customers in this important and expanding market segment." said Ronald van der Vlist, director of business development and technology, with Aker Kvaerner's European Process business.

Praj, based in Pune, India, specialises in technology, design, engineering, manufacture and supply of equipment for distillery plants, ethanol plants, brewery plants and related effluent treatment plants and is the owner of information related to various processes for the same.

"Praj has found acceptance for its technology in global markets. This alliance will further position Praj very favourably in Europe, as Aker Kvaerner is well respected for its engineering, procurement and construction capability worldwide." said Pramod Chaudhari, chairman of Praj Industries Limited.

Praj also has plans to set up an operating base in the EU shortly to augment its marketing efforts.

As bio-ethanol is a renewable fuel derived from plants such as cereals and sugar beet or bio-mass such as wood waste, the primary environmental benefit is the reduction of CO2 emissions. The use of bio-ethanol can lead to up to a 70%reduction in overall CO2 emissions compared to a traditional petrol only engine. Bio-ethanol used as part of the fuel, by blending with petrol, for a motor vehicle is called fuel-ethanol. Bio-ethanol can be blended in various proportions in petrol.

07 Mar 2006

According to a report from WARC and the BBC Online, the Indian economy is aiming for an annual growth rate of 10% and a consequent reduction in poverty levels.

Presenting the annual budget, the India's finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram announced:
1. Defence spending up by 7% to US $20 billion (€16.83bn; £11.44bn);
2. Increased spending on rural infrastructure of $4.2bn;
3. A 31% increase in spending on education;
4. An increase of 22% on spending on health;
5. Old age pensions to be increased;
6. Contracts to build five mega-power projects to be awarded by December.
He also pledged that India will build 1300km of ‘access-controlled’ highways linking key cities. In addition, he said that some 96% of the ‘Golden Quadrilateral’, a major highway project connecting the four corners of India with the capital Delhi, will be completed by the end of 2006 and the entire project by 2008.

Mr Chidambaram also announced a 5% increase in cigarette tax, a cut to 16% in the tax on small cars and no changes in personal or corporate tax rates.

India's economy has now grown at an average rate of 7% over the last four years, mainly driven by the services and industry sectors.

Investment in the paper industry is accelerating slowly with some mills moving towards plantation forestry for their raw materials and installing new equipment. Growth does not compare with that of the Chinese industry but Indian has always been much more cautious in committing to major capital outlay, before having developed an end market.

06 Mar 2006

UPM plans to initiate efforts to improve efficiency and space utilisation at its group head office in Helsinki, Finland.

The company is set to launch employee negotiations in various Helsinki-based functions. The planned headcount reduction of about 30 staff is anticipated by the end of the year. Currently, nearly 400 people work in various functions at Eteläesplanadi 2.

In addition, UPM plans to sell its real estate holdings in Eteläesplanadi 2, Kiinteistö Oy Heikkiläntie 8 in Lauttasaari, and Kiinteistö Oy Pientare on Snellmaninkatu. UPM will thereafter continue to occupy the Eteläesplanadi premises under a long-term lease.

By the end of 2006, around 100 employees will transfer to more cost-efficient premises in the capital area. UPM’s Lauttasaari-based real estate unit will move to the same premises. Around 270 employees will continue working at Eteläesplanadi 2. Of the 200 people working at corporate functions, 185 will work at the Eteläesplanadi 2 premises. The rest of the staff based at Eteläesplanadi work within the divisions and their support functions.

UPM also plans to start outsourcing all facility management services for Eteläesplanadi 2. The aim in outsourcing these services is to increase flexibility and save costs.

01 Mar 2006

It has been announced in Portugal that Portucel Soporcel is to undertake a €900 million investment project.

The project includes the investment in a new paper machine at the Setubal mill 50 Km south of Lisbon. This part of the project is expected to be valued at about €490 million. The other part of the investment will involve developments at the Cacia and Figueira da Foz mills in the centre of the country.

It was reported that up to 20% or about €175 million of the finances could be provided through government development funds the maximum permitted by the EU.

01 Mar 2006

Flow and level measurement specialist Krohne Ltd, has been presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2005.

The honour recognises the company’s achievements in developing its technically advanced Optimass Coriolis mass flowmeter.

The Queens’ Award was presented to Krohne at an event held for staff and guests at its UK headquarters in Wellingborough. The presentation was made to Krohne’s managing director, Trevor Fawcett and Dr Yousif Hussain, Krohne’s technical director, by Lady Juliet Townsend, the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire.

Eddie Bridges, Krohne’s global product group manager for mass flow said, “The OPTIMASS is being used across a diverse range of industries around the world and is now recognised widely for its accuracy of measurement. The fact that the instrument has been granted custody transfer accreditation is testament to its ability to perform to the highest level of accuracy and reliability.”

Production at Krohne’s manufacturing and test facility has more than doubled to cope with increased global demand for the product. The company now exports nearly 90% of the Optimass instruments it.

The instrument overcomes many of the constraints traditionally associated with Coriolis flowmeters and has proved successful across a broad range of applications.

Previously flowmeters using Coriolis technology had convoluted tube designs that restricted the flow of materials passing through the instrument. This could lead to production downtime caused by fouling or blockages. These designs were also much less durable because particles would strike the wall of the tube as they travelled around bends and therefore accelerate wear.

01 Mar 2006

UPM’s Tervasaari mill PM8, located in Valkeakoski, Finland, has been successfully brought back into production following a modernisation project.

During the three-week shutdown, a rebuilding programme of the press section, drying section and both supercalenders of the paper machine, that produces release base paper, was carried out. In addition, PM8's automation system and electrical drives were also renewed.

The rebuild will increase the machine’s capacity from 130,000 to 175,000 tpy, and improve the quality of the product. UPM has invested €60 million in the PM8 project.

"Production started successfully and the first deliveries will leave for our customers today. The project proceeded according to schedule and cost estimates. The increased efficiency of production and improved paper quality will allow us to respond to our customers' increasing demands for release base papers and strengthening quality requirements, which result from the increased speed of converting machines and higher efficiency targets", says Eero Kuokkanen, vice president, UPM Label Papers and general manager of the Tervasaari mill.

UPM Tervasaari has four paper machines, two of which produce release base paper (PM8 and PM5). The mill is considered to be the world's leading release base paper producer. The combined annual capacity of these two paper machines is 250 000 tonnes. In addition, PM7 produces envelope and technical papers and PM6 sack and technical papers. About 90% of the production is exported.

23 Feb 2006

UPM has today been honoured with a top award and commendation in a national environmental competition held by The Finnish National Fund for Research and Development (Sitra).

The UPM Global Chain-of-Custody management model won the Environmental Leadership category. In addition, a commendation was received for the ‘Responsible Wood Sourcing in Russia’ project. The national competition is part of the European Business Awards for the Environment 2006 competition organized by the European Commission.

"Knowing and providing credible information about the origin of wood throughout the whole supply chain – from forest to the customer – is important for UPM. These award-winning projects provide UPM with daily tools for tracking the origin of wood." said Päivi Salpakivi-Salomaa, director of UPM Environmental Forestry Affairs, at the award ceremony in Helsinki. "The management system also allows UPM to increase the proportion of sustainably certified fibre on the market."

UPM's Chain-of-Custody management system is the first global model incorporating all the main forest certification schemes. It is implemented in the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Canada. The aim of the system is to harmonize chain-of-custody models in all UPM’s mills across the world.

The ‘Responsible Wood Sourcing in Russia’ project was awarded with a commendation in the category of International Co-operation. The aim of the project is to increase the transparency in wood sourcing and to enhance co-operation between UPM's stakeholders. Contributions to the project were received from Russian suppliers, authorities, environmental groups and the company's international paper industry customers. The latest result of this co-operation network is a Russian Wood Supplier's guide entitled ‘Taking Responsibility Together’.

21 Feb 2006

The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division has informed UPM that it will not bring criminal charges against the company with respect to the criminal investigation of anti-trust and related offences in the US labelstock industry.

In addition, the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division has granted UPM a conditional full immunity and will not bring any criminal prosecution against UPM in connection with possible price fixing activity in the magazine paper industry.

In August 2003, UPM received a grand jury subpoena in connection with the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division's investigation into the US labelstock industry. On 15 January, 2004 UPM decided to approach the competition authorities in the European Union, the United States and Canada, and subsequently in other countries. The EU authorities and the authorities in several of its member states, Canada and certain other countries informed UPM, earlier, that it has received conditional full immunity with respect to certain conduct disclosed to the authorities.

Both agreements are subject to UPM's full and continuing co-operation with the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division's investigations and protect the company and UPM's current and former employees except the company's former president and CEO, Juha Niemelä.

20 Feb 2006

Metso Paper has agreed to buy the entire share capital of Shanghai-Chenming Paper Machinery Co. Ltd, a Chinese manufacturer of paper machines.

The Chinese company is currently owned by Shandong Chenming and Shanghai Heavy Machinery, and is located in the Shanghai area in Jiading. The completion of the transaction is subject to approval by the Chinese authorities. The value of the transaction will be published after completion

The Shanghai-Chenming Paper Machinery’s foundry and machine shop manufacture primarily narrow paper and board machines for the Chinese market as well as dry-end components. The company employs 630 people, and its net sales in 2004 amounted to about €13 million.

“When finalised, the acquisition will enable us to serve our Chinese customers and also the pulp and paper industry in Asia, better. The Shanghai area is also excellent in terms of developing the purchasing function.” said Risto Hautamäki, president of Metso Paper.

This announcement follows Mr Hautamäki’s confirmation in Montreal last week, that Metso will continue to build the larger machines in Finland for the foreseeable future. “It would be very expensive and a bit pointless transferring what are very sophisticated facilities, from Finland to China. However, we will continue manufacturing major components in China.” he said

China’s paper industry is growing strongly. Since the year 2000, about half the orders for new, big paper manufacturing lines have come from China. Metso Paper is a leading supplier of paper machinery in the country, and its strategic objective is to strengthen its presence in customer service, servicing, manufacturing and sourcing.

Shandong Chenming, is one of the biggest paper manufacturers in China and a customer of Metso Paper. Metso Paper has delivered several paper machines to Shandong Chenming’s mills in Shouguang and Wuhan. The most recent order was for one of the world’s biggest de-inking and paper manufacturing lines, which will start up at the end of 2006.

16 Feb 2006

Södra’s operations during 2005 were characterised by handling the devastation caused by Hurricane Gudrun which, on 8-9 January last year, felled the equivalent of four years’ timber harvest for Södra’s members.

Despite the heavy focus on storm-related activities, Södra managed to maintain its profitability. Return on capital employed was 9%.

“The work related to the storm-damaged forest has released strong forces in the organisation. This has made it possible for Södra’s industrial operations to continue their development in parallel with Södra Skog’s extra work in processing and handling some 25 million m3 of storm-felled wood.’ says Södra’s president Leif Brodén.

During the period, provisions of SEK 1,248 million were set aside in the storm payment fund. This forms the basis for compensating members affected by the storm.

Södra’s sales increased by some SEK 2,300 million to SEK 15,935 million. The increase was primarily due to the processing of the large volumes of storm-felled forest. Profit after financial income and expenses amounted to SEK 854 million, compared to SEK 911 illion for the same period the previous year. All business units reported record volumes and positive results.

The paper market, in Europe, showed weak development, which contributed to an average year for the pulp market. Södra Cell’s sales amounted to SEK 8,125 illion (8,290). Operating profit was SEK 708 million (1,241).

Södra Skogsenergi increased its deliveries of bio-fuel by about. 20% for the third consecutive year. Sales were SEK 327 million (290) with an operating profit of SEK 9 million.

“Now that most of the storm timber has been processed, the organisation is returning to focussing its full strength on its core businesses.’says Mr Brodén. Södra’s focus on productivity continues. In 2005, productivity increases of close to 2% are expected to have been achieved despite the extensive storm damage management.

“Our single-minded task of improving productivity is back at the forefront now that we have put Hurrican Gudrun behind us.” concluded Mr Brodén.

16 Feb 2006

The scope of the Letter-of-Intent covers most of UPM’s shared data centre services and user support services.

These functions currently employ around 35 employees in Finland, Germany and the USA. According to the plan, employees whose tasks are to be outsourced will transfer from UPM to Siemens.

By outsourcing selected IT services, UPM aims to improve cost efficiency and broaden the scope of the services. UPM’s internal IT function will henceforth focus on providing services related to the company’s core businesses and processes.

15 Feb 2006

Metso Automation and Botnia S.A. have agreed on valve deliveries for the new pulp mill to be constructed in Uruguay.

The value of the order is over €6 million and comprises automated control and on-off valves, manual valves and digital positioners.

In addition to its products, Metso Automation has also developed maintenance services in South America. New generation digital positioners feature intelligent condition monitoring applications, which support the planning and implementation of maintenance services. The valve deliveries are scheduled for 2006 and they will begin in the summer.

The mill is being built close to the town of Fray Bentos by Botnia S.A. The best available technology will be used in the construction of the pulp mill and its production capacity will be one million tpy of bleached eucalyptus pulp. Start-up is scheduled for the third quarter of 2007.

Botnia is part of the Metsäliitto Group, whose core activities are the forest industry and trading in wood raw material. Botnia is owned by M-real Corporation (39%), UPM-Kymmene Corporation (47%) and Metsäliitto Cooperative (14%). Botnia is Europe’s second largest pulp producer.

15 Feb 2006

Södra Cell is one of six companies supporting The Tissue Products and Technology Curriculum (TPTC) at the University of Karlstad, Sweden.

The programme was originally started in November 2004 and the courses held during 2005 were considered to be very successful. Now there is a new chance to deepen onesknowledge in the field of tissue.

A five credit PhD course open to industry employees along with masters and doctoral students will be held on two occasions: 6-10 March and 24-28 April, 2006. The final application date is 20 February.

Further information is available on the Karlstad University website: www.kau.se/tissue.

In conjunction with Södra Cell, the companies supporting TPTC are: SCA, Metso Paper Karlstad, Fabio Perini SpA, Albany International, and Eka Chemicals.

15 Feb 2006

The New York Board of Trade® (NYBOT®) announced on 9th February that its board of governors has approved a new brand of pulp available for delivery against its pulp contract.

The new brand, Mondi Packaging’s Bohemia Kraft Pulp SW ECF, begins with the February 2006 contract delivery, which expires 19 February, 2006.

In addition, the Pulp rules have been changed concerning the timing for the listing of a new delivery month, which will now be listed for trading on the first business day following the last trading day of the expiring delivery month, rather than waiting one month after expiration.

The NYBOT pulp contract (symbol P) is currently for 20 air-dry metric tonnes of Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK) pulp, which must be a commercially accepted “prime” grade of a specific moisture, dirt count and brightness.

The NYBOT pulp market, which the futures contract began trading on 4th March, 2005, and the options on 7th March , 2005, opens at 7:55 AM and closes at 9:00 AM. The Pulp section on the NYBOT website (www.nybot.com/pulp) has more information regarding the contracts.

15 Feb 2006

Further comment on last week’s announcement that Metso is to acquire the pulping and power divisions of Aker Kvaerner has clarified that company’s position.

The transaction will allow the Pulping and Power businesses to continue to grow under a new ownership, and Aker Kvaerner will free up financial and human resources to concentrate efforts on other core areas. The transaction value is estimated to be approximately NOK 3 billion, subject to closing adjustments.

For Aker Kvaerner, the deal will have a positive net cash effect of approximately NOK 2.6 billion. The net gain for Aker Kvaerner compared to book value of the businesses is estimated to be a total of NOK 2.4 billion. Aker Kvaerner will continue to operate Pulping and Power until the transaction has been finally concluded. The parties have agreed to an adjustment mechanism for the transaction price where Aker Kvaerner will retain changes in the equity from October 2005 until the final closing of the deal.

"We are pleased with the improvements we have achieved in the Pulping and Power businesses over the last few years, with remarkable growth and with technology and systems which, in some areas, are leaders within this industry.’ said Inge K. Hansen, president and CEO in Aker Kvaerner.

"The market is increasingly asking for deliveries of an even more complete range of products and services. We firmly believe that the new home for these two business units, integrated with Metso's operations, will enable them to achieve the further growth prospects that they are capable of and open up new industrial opportunities as they go forward." concluded Mr. Hansen.

14 Feb 2006

Metso and Aker Kvaerner have signed a Letter of Intent whereby Metso intends to acquire all parts of Aker Kvaerner's Pulping and Power
business.

The acquisition is subject tocompletion of the due diligence process conducted by Metso, and signing of the final sale and purchase agreement. The parties aim to sign the final agreement by mid April 2006. The final closing will require relevant regulatory approvals. The agreed cash and interest-bearing debt free enterprise value is EUR 335 million, which is subject to closing adjustments.

The acquisition will enable Metso Paper to complement its fibre business
line's product with Aker Kvaerner's technology. Following the successful completion of the transaction, Metso Paper will be able to deliver all core processes for modern pulp mills, including chemical pulping lines, chemicals recovery and power generation for pulp and paper production based on the latest technology.

"The deal fits well with our strategy of profitable growth. The demand for complete chemical pulp mill processes has developed favourably in recent years, especially in South America and Asia, and we expect the positive development to continue. In light of this, we see the acquisition of Aker Kvaerner Pulping and Power business as an excellent opportunity to complement both our technology base and our customer service in chemicals recovery and hardwood pulping processes" said Risto Hautamäki, president of Metso Paper in Montreal today.

"Nowadays the customers increasingly require complete pulping solutions from one supplier. The combination of Metso Paper and Aker Kvaerner echnologies would meet their demands on this front. There is also exciting potential for synergies in research and development, as well as in, for xample, logistics and purchasing."

In 2005, Aker Kvaerner had net sales of EUR 565 million and recorded EUR 35 million operating profit after corporate allocations. The order backlog on
December 31, 2005 was EUR 600 million. This does not include the new order for a continuous digester by April for the Kerinci mill in Indonesia.

08 Feb 2006

Following torrential rainfall over the last three to four days, the situation in Follafoss has now eased and Södra Cell Folla is up and running again.

“Production got underway around 4 p.m. yesterday.” says site manager Jon Tore Eriksen. Office staff were able to return to their desks around 1 pm. yesterday and an hour or so later re-start of the mill commenced. “Just now I can see smoke coming from the bark boiler.” said a relieved Mr Eriksen yesterday.

Many locations in central Norway had been facing the prospect of flooding after heavy rain. At Södra Cell Folla, the water level in the river running through the mill area was three meters above its normal level. Production at the mill was halted and the mill was evacuated on Tuesday morning.

Cars were not allowed to across the bridge into the mill yesterday but it was expected the bridge would be opened during the evening. Some of the foundations required reinforcement due to the stress caused by the swollen river.

Police consider there was no longer any risk of the dam, upstream of the mill collapsing allowing mill staff return to their workplaces. Local residents, who had been evacuated, were also able to return to their homes.

Meteorologists have stated that the rainfall during the recent days, in central Norway, is the heaviest ever experienced in the country. There is no snow remaining in the area and the temperature is up to +7-8OC.
The mill at Follafoss appears to have survived without any damage. The only problem found so far has been blocked drainage pipes which will have to be cleared.

So far no damage to machines or buildings has been caused by the water.
The reason for the evacuation is the risk that a dam located up-stream of the mill would break. Should that occur, heavy damage could be expected to the mill. According to weather forecasts the downpour was expected to have peaked on Tuesday afternoon.

02 Feb 2006

Aker Kvaerner has received an order for delivery of a continuous cooking plant to a pulp and paper mill in Indonesia. The contract is worth approximately US $10 million.

The new cooking plant is an important part of a modernisation project at the mill. The new cooking plant will increase the pulp production by 1650 tpd, using acacia as a raw material.

The addition of the new continuous cooking plant, using the patented Compact CookingTM technology, was selected in preference to extending the existing cooking plant.

"In recent years we have further developed our proprietary cooking method, making it more productive and improving pulp quality, as well as environmental performance. This prestigious order from one of the world's leading pulp and paper companies confirms the strong confidence the market has for Compact Cooking.’ says Per-Åke Färnstrand, president of Kvaerner Pulping.

Under the new contract, Kvaerner Pulping AB, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will provide engineering, procurement and supervision services. The new cooking plant is scheduled to start-up in the second quarter of 2007.

02 Feb 2006

Honeywell announced today that it has won a significant contract worth US $1.2 million to install a new Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS) at UPM-Kymmene’s pulp mill in Tervasaari, Finland and to up-grade existing Alcont systems to Experion technology.

A major benefit of the project is that UPM-Kymmene will be able to consolidate its control operations into a single central control room, allowing the mill to enhance the efficiency of its process control.

“A key reason for choosing Honeywell was that we have worked successfully with the company over a number of years and its process control solutions generate significant benefits to our operational efficiency.” stated Harri Kinnunen, automation engineer at UPM’s mills at Tervasaari. “Honeywell’s lifecycle management services will enable us to upgrade our existing systems with modern technology and continue to use our existing hardware and applications. The centralisation of the control room will also help us improve the efficiency of our operations.”

The deal includes up-grades of the pulp mill’s fibre lines, the biological waste water treatment, and the steam boiler’s Alcont systems with Experion technology, plus the supply of a new Experion system for the sack fibre line.

The supply also includes a process history database (PHD) system, which generates reports covering the pulp and energy departments. The controls have been implemented by means of fuzzy logic, predictive controls and statistical process control (SPC).

02 Feb 2006

The Spanish paper producer SAICA, Zaragoza, reached a new speed world record with its PM9.

This ‘One Platform’ concept machine from Voith remains one of the fastest and most efficient packaging paper machines for producing corrugating medium at 75 g/m² basis weight. After having achieved production and speed records in September 2004, February and September 2005, PM9 challenged its own record to break it for the fourth time.

On 27 January, 2006, it ran at an average speed of 1494 m/min for 24 hours and a top speed of 1530 m/min was reached. During that time corrugating medium with basis weight of 75 g/m² was produced for 12 hours at 1506 m/min without a single sheet break.

PM9, has a wire width of 8100 mm, and produces corrugating medium in a basis weight range of 75 -110 g/m². Its design speed is 1500 m/min.

02 Feb 2006

Stora Enso has revised its organisation and manning following the retirement of Yngve Stade, senior executive vice president, corporate support and country manager Sweden, and the resignation of Arno Pelkonen, senior executive vice president, corporate strategy and emerging markets.

The following changes have taken effect from 1 February 2006.

Finance and Strategy
Strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business intelligence, investments and corporate affairs will be merged with finance, accounting, legal and IR. The new staff function, finance and strategy, will be headed by Hannu Ryöppönen, CFO.

Latin America
The Latin America division, headed by Nils Grafström, executive vice president, Latin America, will report to Jukka Härmälä, CEO.

The following changes will take effect from 1 April 2006.

Corporate Technology and Asia Pacific
A new staff function, corporate technology and Asia Pacific, will be formed. It will be responsible for energy services, corporate R&D, the Pulp Competence Centre, Asia Pacific and Russia. It will be headed by Markku Pentikäinen, currently executive vice president, Asia Pacific, and he will report to Jukka Härmälä, CEO.

Corporate Services
Corporate Services will include corporate IT, HR, business excellence and procurement and it will be headed by Christer Ågren, currently senior executive vice president, corporate IT, HR and business excellence. As already announced, Christer Ågren has been appointed country manager Sweden with effect from the same date.

Forest Products
Environment services will start reporting to Elisabet Salander Björklund, senior executive vice president, Stora Enso Forest Products.

For further information, please contact:
Christer Ågren, SEVP, corporate IT, HR and business excellence, tel. +44 7909 686868
Hannu Ryöppönen, CFO, tel. +44 20 7016 3114
Elisabet Salander Björklund, SEVP, Stora Enso Forest Products, tel. +46 1046 82751
Kari Vainio, EVP, corporate communications, tel. +44 20 7016 3140
Keith Russell, SVP, investor relations, tel. +44 7775 788 659

02 Feb 2006

The aim of increasing both quality and capacity from the existing Rolltec winder on Perlen Papier’s PM4 has been achieved successfully.

The winder can now accommodate production from PM4 without difficulty, but also has reserve capacity for the planned speed increase of the paper machine.

The rebuild package included the exchange of the rubber-covered drum in position one with a Voith ElaGrip coating. Winder drum 1 is now a suction roll facilitating reliable web threading during turnup.

The segmented rider roll (80 mm wide segments) has been exchanged for a split rider roll, with ElaLoad coating, and the web run systems and the drives have been optimised.

Through the use of ElaGrip coating, winding defects such as creping folds and bursts, which led to permanent complaints, have been eliminated. In addition, because of the improved winding characteristics of Voith’s special coating and the new rider roll, the operating speed for all grades such LWC, newsprint and coating base paper has been raised by an average of more than 20% from 2200 to 2700 m/min. At the same time, it was possible to eliminate the vibrations that occurred previously.

As a result of the rebuild sheet breaks have been significantly reduced. The introduction of the winder drum as a suction roll enables reliable web threading, with the result that turn-up time has been reduced by 30 %. Total reject have been reduced by over 60%.

01 Feb 2006

AssiDomän Cartonboard's Frövi mill, in Sweden, has successfully started-up the 1000th TwinRoll wash press manufactured by Metso Paper.

The Frövi Mill produces high-quality liquid packaging board and general packaging board mainly for food deliveries. The press type TRPW-940 represents the latest generation of TwinRoll presses and was installed after the bleached stock storage tower to de-water bleached hardwood pulp in the board mill. The new press enables the circulation of liquor back to the pulp mill and guarantees high cleanliness of the pulp for board making.

Metso Paper has been manufacturing TwinRoll presses since 1954, when the first MPC and VPC press types were introduced. Today, TwinRoll presses are used in all process stages where efficient pulp de-watering and washing are required. The first installation in a chemical pulp bleaching line took place at the Advance Agro mill in Thailand in the mid-1990s.

The latest generation of TwinRoll presses features increased capacity and washing efficiency. The biggest press types are designed for up to capacities of up to 3500 tpd. This allows for the building of single fibre lines in the modern mega-mills.

AssiDomän Cartonboard and Metso Paper have co-operated in upgrading the pulping system, at Frövi, into an environmentally sound system. Part of this up-grade work is the SuperBatch cooking system, which is the first of its kind in Sweden. The plant was started up in 2002 and is designed for a capacity of about 175 000 tpy of hardwood, or softwood pulp. Metso Paper's delivery was an EPC package which only excluded civil works and a DCS system.

In addition, the brown stock screening system has been equipped with DeltaCombi technology and enhanced washing in the bleaching line. A new TwinRoll press was installed in the final PO-stage in 2003. The press replaced the earlier DD washer, which was moved to operate in parallel with the existing O2-stage washer. This investment has secured a high and uniform pulp consistency for bleached pulp storage.

31 Jan 2006

ISWFPC session topics
• Advances in pulping and bleaching chemistry;
• Analytical methods in wood, fibre and processing chemistry;
• Surface chemistry of pulp and paper;
• Biosynthesis and chemical structure of wood components;
• Environmental chemistry in the wood and fibre processing industries;
• Chemistry of cellulose and cellulose derivatives;
• Biotechnology in fibre processing and recycling;
• Chemistry and utilisation of non-woody materials;
• High-value products from lingo-cellulosic materials;
• Genetic improvement of woody plants;
• Chemistry of cellulosic fibre composites;
• Nanotechnology;
• Energy.
The 14th ISWFPC will be held at the International Convention Centre. This world class facility in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, has played host to many International Conferences and is in the heart of the Zulu Kingdom.
If you wish to present an oral or poster paper, please submit a 250-300 word abstract by 21 August 2006 and send it with your abstract to www.tappsa.co.za

Pre-Symposium Theme:
By-Products from the Pulp and Paper;
Industry and Alternative uses for Products;
Including developments in:
• Lignin and Polysaccharide utilisation;
• Bio-mass utilisation for liquid fuels and chemical feedstocks;
• Bio-composites from fibre and effluent streams;
• Plant extractives as chemical intermediates;
• Alternative uses for plant fibres;
• Other value adding technologies including the development of new functional fibres and natural materials or chemicals.

Pre-Symposioum Program
The Pre-Symposium will bring together researchers with expertise in wood, fibre and paper chemistry with scientists and engineers working on all manner of value added products for discussions on recent advances in areas of mutual interest.

Oral and poster presentations will cover the above topics.The pre-symposium will also include social events, golf and tours of Forest Research and a plantation forest.
Please indicate on the abstract form (downbloadable from www.tappsa.co.za) if you are offering a paper for the 14th ISWFPC or the Pre-Symposium.

Timetable for offers
• Offers close Monday 21 August 2006;
• Abstracts refereed by Thursday 16 November 2006;
• Acceptances notified Friday 8 December 2006;
• Full manuscripts required by Monday 30 March 2007;
Each offer of a paper will be considered by the Scientific Programme Committee. You will be notified by 8 December 2006 if your paper has been accepted or rejected. If you offer an oral presentation the Committee may, after consideration, suggest that the paper be presented as a poster.

A ‘Guide for Preparation of Preprints’ will be forwarded with the advice that the paper has been accepted. This will detail the requirements for the paper to be published in the Proceedings Papers are accepted on the basis that the principal author or a co-author will be attending the Symposium to present it.

30 Jan 2006

ABB told Silverback Consultancy today that it will deliver power distribution and drive systems for Myllykoski Corporation´s new SC paper machine in the Czech Republic.

The value of the contract is almost €20 million. ABB Finland has secured the main responsibility for the delivery. Some of the equipment will also be manufactured in ABB´s factory in Czech.

Capacity of the new paper machine is 380 000 tpy, producing a full range of uncoated SC publication papers. The web width of the paper machine is 10.5 m and design speed 2000 m/min. The Labe Papir paper mill will be built in Opatovice, over 100 kilometers east of Prague.

ABB is to deliver a total electrification solution from engineering to the commissioning including installation. For power distribution, the company will supply equipment such as the main transformers, distribution transformers, MV switchgear, motors and single drives.

ABB´s drive system will control and monitor the whole production line. The delivery also includes testing, commissioning, installation, start-up and training services. Start-up of the new machine is scheduled for Summer 2007.

“ABB´s factory in Brno will manufacturer switchgear for the Labe Papir project. In addition, our local personnel are able to support us in language translations if needed and other practical matters." said Lasse Makelin, senior vice president from ABB.

30 Jan 2006

Kadant Inc announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of the Jining Huayi Light Industry Machinery Co., Ltd. for about $20 million in cash, subject to adjustment.

Huayi is a supplier of stock-preparation systems in China, with un-audited revenues of approximately $15 million in 2005. Kadant expects to finance the acquisition through a combination of cash and borrowings, in China or under its existing $25 million revolver.

The completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, as well as the approval of Kadant's board of directors. The closing is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2006.

‘Huayi is a well-respected supplier in China's paper recycling industry and would significantly enhance Kadant's presence in growing Asian markets.’ said William A. Rainville, chairman and chief executive officer of Kadant. ‘While our stock-preparation systems typically address the demands of China's major global producers, Huayi offers equipment that serves the large number of local independent mills, expanding our customer base. The acquisition of Huayi would give us a low-cost manufacturing base in Asia for our stock-preparation products, and could also support the production of our accessories and water-management products there in the future.’

Kadant Inc. is a leading supplier to the global pulp and paper industry, with a range of products and services for improving efficiency and quality in pulp and paper production, including paper machine accessories and systems for stock preparation, fluid handling, and water management.

27 Jan 2006

Following reports that Ecco Newsprint Ltd., is looking at the possibility of building a new newsprint mill on Teesside in the North East of England, the UK paper industry has given it a guarded vote of approval.

The project, which has already been submitted for planning permission, would involve the investment of some £275 million in a newsprint machine based on 100% recycled fibre. It is reported that the site would be at Wilton International between Redcar and Middlesborough, which has already been consider by other industry giants.

It would be the biggest investment at Wilton for more than a decade. The planning application has been submitted to Redcar and Cleveland Council. Tees Valley Regeneration has been heavily involved in attracting a paper mill to the area.

Ecco Newsprint’s commercial director Marcus Moir told the local newspaper "We looked at a number of sites around the UK and our preference at this stage is the Wilton site. The reason for this is the availability of uninterruptible power, steam and water on the scale needed for a modern paper plant."

Ecco Newsprint has been set up specifically to develop the facility and it has yet to raise the money required to fund the multi-million pound scheme.

Its has been revealed that WRAP has had talks with the company but large scale support for the project is considered to be unlikely. Jennie Price, WRAP’s chief executive is reported as saying, "Clearly we would welcome new investment in UK-based newsprint reprocessing capacity and are encouraged by the developments at Ecco Newsprint Ltd. WRAP’s role is only to become involved where there is clear market failure and this does not appear to be the case in terms of the major part of the investment.

However, the Recycling Fund, managed on behalf of WRAP and its investment partners by Impax Asset Management, is negotiating with Ecco Newsprint Ltd over the possible investment of additional development funding for Ecco."

Mr Moir said planning permission had to be secured before it could demonstrate to banks it was able to build the plant. The aim was to raise the finance from a syndicate of banks and private investors. If permission is granted and the funding can be put in place, the mill could be up and running within two years. The planning application is for a paper recycling facility, associated roads and parking, pumping station and electricity sub-station.

The three newsprint producers in the UK, Abitibi Consolidated, Aylesford Newsprint and UPM Shotton have all cautiously agreed that there is room for increased newsprint capacity in the UK, which still imports some 60% of its annual requirement.

27 Jan 2006

DIP capacity at Stora Enso’s Eilenburg mill in Saxony, Germany has been given the green light for a project scheduled for the first half of 2006 to further improve de-inked pulp quality.

Main project objectives are to further improve the removal stickies and enhance optical stock properties. To ensure this Stora Enso has ordered an EcoCell primary flotation from Voth Paper to expand the existing pre-flotation system. Also included is complete IC slot screening module for each line, equipped with C-bar screen baskets and MultiFoil rotors.

To increase screen basket service life the existing cleaner plant will be completely modified to EcoMizer technology and repositioned ahead of the IC slot screening. The EcoMizer cleaners provide maximum selectivity and operational reliability even at stock consistencies up to and above 2%, whilst ensuring minimum fibre losses.

The order also includes erection supervision and start-up assistance, process, basic and detail engineering as well as basic control engineering.

In the Eilenburg mill Stora Enso produces newsprint for coldset printing (NewsPress) and paper for heatset printing (FlyoPress), both from 100% recovered paper. Both paper grades carry the environmental Blue Angel label.

In addition, the Eilenburg mill produces market DIP which is dried and supplied in bale form to paper manufacturers worldwide.

27 Jan 2006

Harry Sundqvist has been appointed Vice President, India Representative Office effective March 1, 2006.

He will be responsible for establishing UPM-Kymmene's representative office in New Delhi and developing UPM's activities in the market. Mr Sundqvist is currently vice president and general manager of Kaukas mills. A new general manager for Kaukas mills will be appointed later.

27 Jan 2006

The European paper industry today launched its 2nd sustainability report. The industry’s report presents its record on sustainability and sets out its vision for and important contribution to, a sustainable Europe.

The report shows that the paper industry is one of the most sustainable in Europe today: it works with and for the environment; it delivers essential everyday products to society; and makes an important contribution to Europe’s economic wealth, including providing vital jobs in rural areas.

The industry recognises and values the three inter-linked dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. It addresses, and delivers on, all three. The industry’s strategy is to use natural resources in an efficient way, reducing negative environmental and social impacts and meeting society’s need for sustainable consumption.

Examples of the industry’s achievements illustrated in the report include:
• An active commitment to sustainable forest management, helping to nurture Europe’s increasing forest area. Public condemnation of and pledge to help combat, illegal logging.
• A drive to increase recycling that has made paper the most recycled product in Europe. And a goal to further increase it by focusing on the quality of recovered paper.
• A commitment to Renewable Energy that has made the industry the biggest user and producer of Renewable Energy in Europe. And a published declaration to take this still further.

But the report also shows that the industry is not complacent. It knows that more needs to be done; that it needs to do more; and it sets out its plans for continuous improvement.
The full report is available on www.cepi.org

26 Jan 2006

Vacon's factory in Suzhou, China, has moved to larger premises. The grand opening of the new factory was celebrated today the 24th January.

The inauguration was attended by customers and partners from China and Asia as well as representatives of the Vacon Group's management and personnel. The opening ceremonies will unite and reflect the elements of the Chinese and Finnish cultures as well as the Vacon brand.

Vacon has been operating in Beijing, China, since the year 2000. In 2004, Vacon founded a factory in Suzhou, and the first AC drives were manufactured in March 2005. Along with the growing market potential, the premises soon became inadequate. Larger premises with an area exceeding 5000 m2 were found in the neighbouring complex.

With the increasing production capacity at the Suzhou factory, Vacon will respond to the growing demand in Asia and the Far East. At the same time, Vacon is investing in Finland by increasing the production area at the Vaasa factory. The extension will be complete in February 2006.

Presence on the world's fastest growing market strengthens Vacon's position as a local supplier. The Suzhou factory also houses Vacon’s Competence Centre which provides support, service, spare parts and units as well as training for customers in the Far East.

At the moment, Vacon has more than 60 employees in China.

Suzhou is located about one hour's drive northwest of Shanghai and only half an hour from the Shanghai International Circuit, the new Formula One race track. As one of the world's fastest growing high-tech cities, Suzhou has also attracted several other Finnish companies.

24 Jan 2006

The Wärtsilä Corporation won a contract in November to supply the Belgian company Renogen SA with a bio-mass-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) plant for installation in the municipality of Amel in the Ardennes area of Belgium.

The new plant will have a net electrical power output of 3.29 MWe, and a thermal output of 10 MWth for district heating. The electrical output in condense mode operation is 5,3 MWe.

Wärtsilä will supply a BioPower 5 CEX plant which will burn wood residues from the local forestry industry. In addition Wärtsilä is supplying a 12 MWth oil-fuelled boiler. The Amel plant will deliver hot water to two local factories, while the electricity generated will be fed to the mains grid. It is due to be handed over in January 2007. The plant is supported by financial aid from the Belgian government for producing electricity from renewable sources.

Wärtsilä's bio-mass-fuelled plants are clean and efficient. They are practical solutions for meeting needs for renewable energy supplies with minimum environmental impact. They incorporate patented BioGrate combustion technology to burn bio-mass fuels with high combustion efficiency and low NOx and CO emissions. The moisture content of the fuel can be as high as 55%. The SOx emissions of such wood-fuelled plants are negligible. The fly ash is removed from the flue gases in an electrostatic filter.

The BioPower plant operates on a closed steam water cycle separate from the hot water system. Superheated steam is generated in an efficient water-tube boiler, and supplied to a high-efficiency reaction-type condensing extraction steam turbine driving an alternator. Hot water is heated by steam extracted from the turbine.

BioPower plants are highly modular, being based on well-proven standardised components with a conservative design approach. The plants can thus be delivered and installed quickly. Their proven technology results in a reliable, durable plant. They are also highly automated, enabling unmanned operation.

24 Jan 2006

Two paper machines supplied by Metso Paper to separate UPM paper mills have recently set new world speed records in their categories.

For the manufacture of LWC paper, UPM Rauma mill's PM4 in Finland set a new world speed record of 1912 m/min (6273 ft/min) in a 24-hour run that began on 2 January 2006. In fine papers, a new world speed record was set in China, by UPM Changshu mill's PM1, which was run at 1620 m/min (5315 ft/min) for more than 24 hours starting on 9 January.

Even though Rauma PM4 originally started up eight years ago, the machine, with its challenging on-line blade coating process, is still capable of creating new milestones in the industry. This new record speed is several hundred meters per minute higher than any top speed reached with other LWC paper machines, and also well beyond the machine's original design speed of 1800 m/min. During the intervening years, the machine's performance has been systematically developed with well-targeted modernisation projects.

The new world speed record for fine paper machines was set by the new OptiConcept PM1 at UPM-Kymmene (Changshu) Paper Industry Co., Ltd., during a normal production run of 70 g/m² surface-sized offset paper.

The record-breaking Changshu PM1, which is the world's largest and fastest unit for uncoated fine paper, was started up only eight months ago, in May 2005. With a wire width of 10.4 m and a design speed of 2000 m/min, it can produce 450,000 tpy of uncoated woodfree paper. In addition to the paper machine, Metso delivered the air systems and winders and Metso Automation supplied an extensive automation and field systems package.

24 Jan 2006

Metso Paper is to supply straw pulping technology to the Indian producer Abhishek Industries Ltd., for its expansion project at Barnala in the State of Punjab.

India has a vast agricultural industry producing millions of tonnes of cereal straw each year, much of which is wasted. Silverback Consultancy has been advocating an increased use of this potential source of fibre for more than 15 years.

With a daily production capacity of 225 tons, the new line, at Barnala, will be the largest fibre line ever built using wheat straw as the raw material. The value of the order is over €11 million and the line is scheduled to start-up in 2007.

Metso Paper's delivery will cover all the main process machinery for continuous cooking of this annual cereal crop based fibre, washing, screening and bleaching of straw pulp. The selected fibre line system features a modern environmentally sound process, incorporating oxygen delignification and a D – EOP – D sequence for the final bleaching stage. The pulp will be used for the manufacture of printing and writing papers.

There is a growing activity in the Indian pulp and paper market, the Abhishek order is already the second major fibre line system order for Metso Paper from India within the last six months.

The Abhishek Industries Ltd. mill is located near Barnala, about 300 km north-west of Delhi. The company is owned by the Trident Group which is one of the largest producers of agro-based paper, the second largest manufacturer of terry towels, and among the top cotton textile companies of India.

20 Jan 2006

The Ahlstrom Corporation, a leader in high performance fiber-based solutions, announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire HRS Textiles Inc., based in Darlington, SC, USA.

HRS is a manufacturer of speciality non-wovens, serving mainly the North American air and liquid filtration markets.

This acquisition will strengthen Ahlstrom's position in the air and liquid filtration markets in North America, particularly in the HVAC segment. It continues Ahlstrom's growth strategy in filtration, and comes as a strategic fit to complement previous acquisitions. Ahlstrom is one of the leading filtration media suppliers globally.

The transaction, expected to be completed before the end of the month, will add approximately $20 million (€17 million) in sales to Ahlstrom's Filtration business and includes all assets of HRS. The new entity will operate as part of Ahlstrom Air Media LLC.

’Ahlstrom continues to commit to the filtration market and views the HVAC segment as a key growth area.’ commented Scott Murdock, VP Filtration for North America. ‘The integration of HRS will further strengthen our offering in North America and enable us to manufacture a complete range of versatile and high performance products, close to our customers.’.

‘Our accelerated growth and commitment to the global filtration industry has been clearly evident in the past 6 months.’ added Randal Davis, Sr. VP Filtration. ‘With multiple acquisitions in North America and China, technology expansion with fine fibre and nano-fibre capabilities, and our announced capacity increases, we are positioning Ahlstrom as a market and innovation leader in filter media.’

20 Jan 2006

Metso Paper is modernise a complete pulp drying line at Votorantim Celulose e Papel's (VCP) Jacareí mill in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

The rebuild covers all process stages from screening to cutter. The order is valued approximately €10 million and the rebuilt line is scheduled to start up in July 2006.

Metso's turn-key delivery will rebuild the pulp drying line JE-2 into a copy of the JE-3 line which was partly rebuilt by Metso Paper in the autumn 2005. The earlier rebuild helped to increase Jacareí mill's annual production of eucalyptus pulp, and the modernization of the JE-2 line will further increase it.

Biggest modifications take place at the pulp drying machine's headbox, wet-end, dry-end and cutter-layboy. The existing headbox will be modified to a fully automatic dilution headbox to improve control of the CD (ross direction) basis weight profile in the machine. The existing former will be rebuilt and an MB-former added on the Fourdrinier part.

New steam and suction boxes and a suction couch roll will be installed to improve the CD sheet dryness profile. At the dry-end, the existing airborne dryer will be modernised and a new pulper installed.

Votorantim Celulose e Papel is one of the leading companies of Brazil in the pulp and paper industry. The company has its own eucalyptus forests to produce wood for integrated pulp and paper production at the Jacareí and Luis Antonio mills as well as for paper production at the Piracicaba and Mogi das Cruzes mills. VCP is owned by Grupo Votorantim.

19 Jan 2006

Raflatac and UPM Rafsec, members of UPM labelstock business have merged to form a new business entity, UPM Raflatac.

Following the merger, UPM Raflatac’s product and service offering comprises both pressure sensitive labelstock and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and inlays. The new name expresses the importance of labelstock business for UPM. In addition, UPM Raflatac will adopt UPM's visual identity.

‘This change reflects UPM’s strong commitment to the labelstock and RFID business areas. Raflatac is already a major global player and bringing in new-generation RFID products under the same umbrella further strengthens the prospects for growth.’ says Heikki Pikkarainen, president of UPM Raflatac.

UPM Raflatac is a leading supplier of pressure sensitive labelstock for a wide variety of needs in product and information labelling. In addition, the company is at the forefront in the development and high-volume production of RFID tags and inlays. UPM Raflatac has around 2300 employees and an annual turnover of approximately EUR 850 million. The company has a global service network consisting of 11 factories on five continents.

19 Jan 2006

‘Mondi will probably be unbundled from Anglo American and listed as a separate company on the London Stock Exchange, where its parent company has its primary listing.’

According to Margie Inggs and Bloomberg in the local South African newspapers today, ‘This is the clear message from analysts and news reports in the UK. However, Anne Dunn, Anglo's senior vice-president of investor relations, said there had been no progress regarding Anglo's wholly owned subsidiary's future since the announcement that it would be unbundled was first made on 26 October.

At that time, the second-biggest mining company in the world said it was considering options for Mondi, which included establishing the division as an independent business so that Anglo could focus on its core mining business.

An analyst who asked to remain anonymous expected the paper company to be listed in London as Anglo shareholders would probably get part shares in Mondi instead of a cash dividend, which would mean that it would have to be listed on the same stock exchange as Anglo. Mondi's secondary listing would probably be on the JSE.

The analyst said the paper price was geared to the dollar-euro exchange rate, so as the dollar-euro had weakened, the price of A4 copy paper had also declined. ’The price of A4 copy paper has weakened substantially over the past four years, which has hurt Mondi a lot. However, A4 paper comprises only part of Mondi's business.’ said the analyst.

Ms Dunn said business papers accounted for 37% of Mondi's earnings and packaging 50%. Another category, that included pulp, newsprint and wood chips constituted 13%. ‘These categories are not as affected by the dollar-euro exchange rate.’ she said.

Another analyst, who also asked not to be named, said that Mondi was one of Anglo's lower-margin companies and that with paper prices so depressed, Anglo would boost its margins by spinning off Mondi.

While Mondi's website gives its turnover as US $7 billion (R42 billion), the analyst said the depressed paper prices had reduced its discounted cash flow to $6 billion.

In 2004 Mondi made an operating profit of $559 million. Earnings for 2005 will be released next month. The analyst confirmed that a listing of Mondi in London would be more beneficial for Anglo shareholders as they would get shares in Mondi. A London listing would also be more tax-efficient from an Anglo perspective.

‘I also do ntt know who Anglo could sell the company to as there would be massive competition issues.’ he said. ‘It definitely could not be to a South African company and even if it were a larger European paper maker, Anglo might have to break it up into separate units instead of selling it as a single business.’

18 Jan 2006

Should developing countries be allowed to participate in international forest certification systems and demonstrate their gradual compliance with the standards through a series of pre-determined steps and timelines?

This question has been discussed for a number of years under the heading ‘The Phased Approach to Forest Certification’, by scientists, governments and supporters of forest certification systems alike. To move the debate forward, the PEFC Council has published a position paper, describing key issues and requirements needed for such an approach to be successful and meaningful.

‘For a phased approach to work the support by key consumers and governments, especially through their procurement policies is essential.’ said Ben Gunneberg, secretary general of the PEFC Council raising the question as to how these users, who still show reluctance to give preference to fully developed systems with complete standards, will react to the less demanding steps of a phased approach. Mr Gunneberg said that such an approach would probably entail the use of different wood tracking systems, labels and communications, efforts which would add considerably to the overall internal and external costs.

‘Although one sixth of the PEFC Council members have forests located in the tropics and sub-tropics, none of them has requested a phased approach so far.’ he continued. ‘Nevertheless, the PEFC Council is prepared and willing to work with institutions, such as the International Tropical Timber Organization ITTO and others, to deliver technically feasible and politically acceptable solutions once a market demand and political support can be demonstrated.’

The PEFC Position Paper on a phased approach to forest certification is available at the PEFC Council website www.pefc.org > Documentation > Position Papers.

18 Jan 2006

Munksjö Aspa pulp mill in Sweden has placed an order with Metso Paper to increase the capacity of its pulp drying line TM2 to 670 tpd.

The order includes upgrades in the press section and after the dryer, as well as installing a new cutter. The delivery also includes erection, start-up and training. The rebuilt line is scheduled to start-up in the spring 2007.

In the press section, the existing roll press in the third nip will be replaced by a shoe press which increases the dryness after the press section and saves energy in the dryer. The existing press will be moved to the second nip. In addition, a new pulper will be installed for the press section. A new pulper will also be installed under the cutter

TM2 has a trim width of 3500 mm, and the addition of the new cutter enables it to run at a higher maximum speed. Adjustable conveyor speeds make it is possible to choose whether to run with or without overlapping.

The baling line will be rebuilt to handle new bale sizes. The conveyors before the bale press will be modified. Two new conveyors and a lifting table will be installed to transport rejects to the pulper.

Munksjö Aspa Bruk AB is an independent market pulp producer. The mill is relatively small but it is one of the most cost-efficient in the industry. Currently, the mill has capacity of 180,000 tpy. Turnover in 2005 amounted to € 81 million and the mill generated 17% of the total turnover of the Munksjö Group. Munksjö is owned by the Swedish risk capital company EQT.

13 Jan 2006

Martin Gale, UPM’s vice president for International Forestry, has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), for his services to forestry, in Her Majesty's new years honours list.

Mr Gale, who has worked in the forestry industry for more than 30 years, was awarded the CBE following nominations to Buckingham Palace by the Prime Minister's office.

Prior to appointment as vice president for International Forestry at UPM, Martin Gale was managing director of UPM's UK operations, overseeing the conversion of the Shotton Mill in North Wales to 100% recycled fibre use. His commitment and involvement to the paper and forestry industry is demonstrated by his positions at UPM and within the forestry and sustainability sectors.

His current position covers the global interests of UPM's wood fibre resources, in particular the development of UPM's interests in Metsä-Botnia's new pulp mill project in Uruguay, where he is a director of Forestal Oriental SA. He also remains chairman of Tilhill Forestry Limited, along with the position as a non-executive forestry commissioner.

Mr Gale has a keen interest in sustainable development and has served on numerous related advisory bodies, including Defra's Sustainable Task Force. He is a patron of the Centre for Alternative Technology and was appointed an honorary fellow of the University of Wales for his contribution to the forest industry in this field.

13 Jan 2006

The Dongguan Sea Dragon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., a member of Nine Dragons Paper Industries Group in Dongguan, South China, has granted Voith Paper the order for its new BM11 board machine.

Nine Dragons Paper already operates ten machines in Dongguan and Taicang and the new board machine represents the first one to be supplied by Voith Paper. The new BM11 will be built according to the Voith’s One Platform Concept and with the very latest technology.

It will have a wire width of 6250 mm and a trim width of 5650 mm, making premium white coated board (coated duplex board) in the range 230 – 500 g/m2. The design speed is 800 m/min and the machine will have a daily production of about 1570 tonnes.

12 Jan 2006

The pace of NYBOT pulp trading picked up in December, with futures volume increasing 162% from November levels and futures open interest reaching record levels.

While futures open interest stood at a record 2893 at the month’s end, it has continued to climb, standing at 3289 at the close of business on Tuesday, 10th January. Open interest is distributed among all the currently open futures contracts (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec 06 and Feb 2007), and the Feb 07 pulp futures contract already has over 500 contracts in open positions.

Among the pulp options series, those showing over 100 contracts of open interest include: Feb 2006 525 calls; Feb 2006 550 calls; April 2006 525 calls; and April 2006 525 puts (as of close of business on 5 January). A steady climb in open interest is one of the most important signs of the good health of a new futures contract, and the growth of open interest in the pulp contract is extremely encouraging.

NYBOT’s Pulp Committee, a group of close to twenty members largely drawn from the pulp industry, has recommended to NYBOT’s Board that a new brand be added to the list of brands acceptable for delivery. The new brand is Mondi Packaging’s Bohemia Kraft Pulp SW ECF, bleached sulphate softwood pulp in sheets, which is a long fibre pulp produced from pine and spruce with a majority of spruce, harvested in the Czech Republic. The addition of the brand will become effective on Board approval.

Please visit www.nybot.com for notice that the Board has acted and the new brand is officially acceptable. We will also include a notice in the Pulp Update.

NYBOT’s Pulp Committee has also recommended that the procedure for listing new contracts be the same as for other NYBOT commodity products: a new contract would be listed the day following the expiration of a listed contract, so that, in the case of the pulp contract, eight contract months would always be available. This move eliminates the gap period of about a month when only seven contracts were available before a new month was added. Again, the change is effective on Board approval.

11 Jan 2006

Atlas Converting Equipment Ltd., part of Bobst Group Business Area Flexible Materials, has confirmed that Stan Braycotton has joined the company as product manager for all Atlas Slitter Rewinder products.

Mr Braycotton took on this new role in the company on 1st January 2006. In his new role he is responsible for all sales and international marketing of the Atlas product range, including the management of the current Atlas sales team, in Bedford, UK. He reports directly to Kevin Windo, managing director of Atlas Converting Equipment Ltd., based at the Bedford, facility.

Stan has over 25 years experience in the selling of slitter/re-winders. Prior to joining the Group four years ago, he was president and sales director of Cameron Slitter Rewinders.

For the last two years he has been employed by Bobst Group USA, Inc. as product manager for slitter/re/winders and vacuum metallizers for Bobst Group BA Flexible Materials, North America.

11 Jan 2006

At 2,052,716 tonnes, Södra Cell’s total production in 2005 turned out to be the highest ever. The corresponding figure for 2004 was 2,035,606 tonnes.

In Södra’s New Year Quiz on PulpServices Online quite a few participants came close to guessing the final production result. Closest of all was Hermann-Josef Krull, purchasing director at UPM Nordland Papier, who guessed 2,051,000 tonnes.

Mr Krull is congratulated for his skilful forecasting, and on winning a dinner for two at a restaurant of his choice.

11 Jan 2006

UPM has today been honoured with a top award and commendation in a national environmental competition held by The Finnish National Fund for Research and Development (Sitra).

The UPM Global Chain-of-Custody management model won the Environmental Leadership Category. In addition, a commendation was received for the ‘Responsible Wood Sourcing in Russia’ project. The national competition is part of the European Commission organised European Business Awards for the Environment 2006 competition.

‘Knowing and providing credible information about the origin of wood throughout the whole supply chain – from forest to the customer – is important for UPM. These award-winning projects provide UPM with daily tools for tracking the origin of wood.’ said Päivi Salpakivi-Salomaa, director of UPM’s Environmental Forestry Affairs, at the award ceremony in Helsinki. ‘The management system also allows UPM to increase the proportion of sustainably certified fibre on the market.

UPM's Global Chain-of-Custody Management system is the first global model incorporating all the main forest certification schemes. It is implemented in the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Canada. The aim of the system is to harmonize chain-of-custody models in all of UPM’s mills across the world.

The ‘Responsible Wood Sourcing in Russia’ project was awarded with a commendation in the category of International Co-operation. The aim of the project is to increase the transparency in wood sourcing and to enhance co-operation between UPM's stakeholders. Contributions to the project were received from Russian suppliers, authorities, environmental groups and the company's international paper customers. The latest result of this co-operation network is a Russian Wood Supplier's guide entitled ‘Taking Responsibility Together’.

10 Jan 2006

Metso Paper has concluded the sale of certain assets of its Water Management Business to Groupe Laperrière & Verreault Inc. (GL&V) of Montreal, Canada.

The divestment primarily covers the assets associated with certain products in the wastewater treatment field, including micro-floatation and the FlooBed bio-reactor.

Metso Paper will continue to further specialise in water-related business and actions, focusing primarily on the paper and pulp mills’ productivity, quality and improvement in production efficiency.

GL&V is a world leader in liquid/solid separation technologies used in a large number of industrial, municipal and environmental processes. The company is present in 40 countries on six continents and has more than 1700 employees.

10 Jan 2006

The 2005 trading year put big numbers on the books at the New York Board of Trade® (NYBOT®), with record total volumes across the board for the third straight year.

It was a year of new growth, new achievements and change at the world’s leading ‘soft’ commodity exchange.

‘Numerous market participants came together and produced the best volume year in the history of our exchange, including a sizeable surge in commodity investing, particularly from the hedge fund industry.’ said Frederick W. Schoenhut, NYBOT chairman. ‘This record activity is proof that more and more people in the global investment and hedging communities are realizing the reliability and integrity of our vibrant markets. We look forward to continued growth in the coming year as more groups look to our exchange to help manage their price risk exposure and pursue investment opportunities.’

Total 2005 volume for the 135-year old exchange was a record 37,945,585 futures and options contracts, 20% more than the previous yearly record volume of 31,729,591 contracts. The 2004 record volume was surpassed after only ten months of trading in 2005.

The NYBOT futures market hit a high-water mark during 2005 with 29,013,416 contracts being traded, up 21% over the previous year; the options market also set a record with 8,932,169 contracts traded, up 15%.

The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) is New York’s original futures exchange, where the world trades food, fibre and financial products. For well over a century, it has provided reliability, integrity and security in a global marketplace which now includes wood pulp, cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice, and sugar, as well as currency and index futures and options. Information about the New York Board of Trade can be found at www.nybot.com and www.nybotlive.com.

09 Jan 2006

After a detailed due diligence process Stora Enso has decided to withdraw from the previously announced project in consumer board production in China.

Originally a letter of intent to start a joint venture with Chinese Foshan Huaxin Packaging Co., Ltd. was signed in August 2005.

The decision to withdraw has been taken after the due diligence process revealed that the project would not meet the profitability expectations set by Stora Enso. This is because technical modification of the machine would be more challenging than initially estimated. The total cost of due diligence and withdrawal from the project is not material for Stora Enso.

The Company’s focus in China is now on developing the previously announced plantation project in Guangxi and feasibility study for the production of publication papers in Shandong. Stora Enso is exploring other possibilities of liquid packaging board production for the Chinese market.

05 Jan 2006

According to NTC Research economists, ‘December data indicated that global manufacturing operating conditions continued to improve at a solid pace, with the Global Manufacturing PMI, a composite index produced by JPMorgan and NTC Economics in association with ISM and IFPSM, stood at 54.0 – well above the no-change value of 50.0.'

However, the PMI fell in each of the previous two months, suggesting that the current positive growth in global manufacturing is losing momentum. Rates of growth in output, new orders and employment were all slower than in November.

At 56.6 in December, the Global Manufacturing Output Index was broadly consistent with solid growth of global IP of around 6% saar.

National data showed that Denmark recorded the fastest growth in production, followed by Switzerland. The rate of expansion in the USA remained solid, but eased further from September’s recent high. December data pointed to a shift in the focus of global, new order growth towards Japan and the Eurozone and away from the USA.

New business in the Japanese manufacturing sector rose at its fastest pace for almost two years, while new order growth in the Eurozone hit a near one-and-a-half year peak.
www.ntc-research.com

04 Jan 2006

According to Södra Cell’s PulpServices Online, global stocks of white market pulp in November, remained unchanged at 33 days of supply.

Historically, global stocks tend to rise robustly in November, primarily due to high levels of production in the cold northern hemisphere. However, there are variations year on year and in 2005 production tended to be lower than normal.

Total global shipments, of white market pulp, improved by 1.6% in November 2005, compared to the same month in 2004. One reason behind the increase was strong shipments of hardwood pulp to Asia, up by almost 19%. Latin America increased its volumes shipped to Asia substantially. Total deliveries reached a shipment-to-capacity ratio of 95% in November, compared to almost 93% in October. By comparison, the hardwood sector returned a stronger performance than the softwood sector.

In November, global producers’ inventories of bleached softwood kraft market pulp rose by one day of supply and totaled 31 days at the end of the month. The average shipment-to-capacity ratio improved from 91% in October to 93% in November and the average ratio for the first eleven months reached 93%. Global shipments fell by 0.6%, with Latin America up by 14%, Canada down by 4%, the USA up by close to 2% and Sweden down by 7%.

Amongst the major suppliers Canada reached a shipment-to-capacity figure of 90%, the USA as high as 99% and Latin America 102%. Sweden reached a shipment ratio of 92% during the month.

Shipments of softwood kraft from Canada to Europe fell in November and during the first eleven months of 2005 declined by 8% compared to 2004. This declining trend of shipments to Europe has been evident for some years, as the Canadian industry increasingly focuses on the Asian market. Volumes from Canada to Asia, especially China, are growing.

Sweden reports a stock increase of 9000 tonnes, while the stocks of hardwood kraft, sulphite and unbleached kraft fell slightly. The production of bleached softwood kraft market pulp reached a utilization rate of 95% during the month. At the end of November, producers’ inventories totaled 331,500 tonnes, compared to 412,100 tonnes at the end of December 2004.

For full details contact Södra Cell at www.pulpservices.sodra.com

04 Jan 2006

Papermaking costs are climbing, especially on the energy front but in today’s competitive climate it's difficult to compensate rising costs with price increases.

‘We feel for all our customers that are struggling with profitability and your situation naturally affects us as well.’ says president of Södra Cell International Ulf Edman. ’As we speak, it seems there is widespread pessimism as we go into 2006 as well.’

But personally Mr Edman believes that 2006 will be a better year than 2005. ‘The economic situation looks quite good in both Europe and USA and naturally in China, where growth is continuing to increase at a rapid pace. Good economic cycles usually have a positive effect on the pulp and paper industry.’

Market prices of pulp and paper are not something that producers themselves can affect. On the other hand, everyone can influence their own effectiveness and thus their profitability in total.

‘This is where our PulpServices offers can be of value.’ says Mr Edman. ‘In the past year we have seen clearly how interest in these services, in areas such as logistics, IT, technical collaboration and price stabilisation has grown amongst our customers. We have seen that those customers that have really used these service offers have got a lot out of them and improved their margins.’

During the coming year Södra Cell will be developing its PulpServices programme further. Further options are being planned for the PulpServices concept and the new concepts will be presented at a customer conference next autumn.

‘The news will be related to our service offer as well as the products themselves, our pulp bales.’ said Mr Edman.

04 Jan 2006

The PTS Symposium on ¡¥Chemical Technology¡¦ has been held in Munich for more than 30 years.

PTS is inviting speakers from industry and science to present their latest findings and results, for the next one due in 2006. An international programme committee of top-level experts is to compile an attractive programme from convincing abstracts on the following subjects;
„X Market developments and their effects on manufacturing technology and quality requirements;
„X Novel and improved product functions in the industrial sectors of newsprint and magazine papers, administration papers/fine papers, packaging papers and paperboard;
„X Optimum use of fibrous raw materials (recycled, mechanical and chemical pulps);
„X Targeted use of fillers based on recent findings;
„X New additives, optimum additive use and prevention of failures and operational trouble for maximum process efficiency and product quality;
„X Detrimental substances ¡V how to combat and avoid them effectively;
„X Innovative and improved plant technology and measuring systems in process technology and process design;
„X Quality assurance for zero defect operation.

Those wishing to present a paper, please send me a concise but detailed abstract which conveys both the content of the work and any new ideas involved, how they are put into practice and what benefits they can bring to the industry.
Contact Dr.-Ing. Reinhard Sangl, e-mail address: r.sangl@ptspaper.de

Please ensure that abstracts arrive before 28 February. Proposals received after this date cannot be considered by the programme committee.

03 Jan 2006

Ahlstrom, a leader in high performance fibre-based solutions, announced today its decision to invest about €2 million in production capacity expansion of filtration media at its Tampere plant in Finland.

The investment will further strengthen the plant's position as an important developer and manufacturer of advanced filtration media.

‘This investment improves the plant's capability to supply advanced filtration materials for the demanding end use applications within transportation and air filtration. Both of these market areas offer us promising growth opportunities.’ said Jukka Moisio, president & CEO of Ahlstrom Corporation.

The investment is a single step in the long-term development plans of Ahlstrom Tampere Oy. This phase began in 2000, when the plant was transferred from the city centre to the new industrial facility located in the outskirts of Tampere.

‘The plant's focus will be on fully synthetic, multi-layered non-woven filtration materials. The investment project will commence immediately and is estimated to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2006. It will not directly increase the number of employees, but enables us to focus our offering on new, more demanding end use applications,’ said Raimo Piittala, the general manager of Ahlstrom Tampere.

03 Jan 2006

Production of paper and board in CEPI countries during the third quarter of 2005 was 25.1 million tonnes, which represents a 1.6% increase over the same period of 2004.

This is the second highest production recorded in a single quarter and represents a strong recovery from the previous quarter, where overall output was severely affected by the problems experienced in Finland during May and June 2005. Total pulp production for the quarter was 10 million tonnes, a decrease of 0.8% over the same period of 2004.

Comparison with 2nd Quarter 2005

There was an increase in overall output of paper and board output of 6.6% compared with the 2nd quarter of 2005. Production for the period July - September 2005, totaled 25.1 million tonnes.

In the different sectors, output of graphic papers increased by 1.4 million tonnes to 12.6 million tonnes for the quarter (+12.6%) and production of packaging grades was 9.9 million tonnes, a rise of 2% (+197,000 tonnes). Sanitary and household production fell by 1.3%. Output of all other grades fell by 3.9% (-43,000 tonnes).

In the graphic grades, production of newsprint increased by 3.8% (+101,000 tonnes). Output of uncoated mechanical grades rose by 28.6% (+397,000 tonnes) compared to the 2nd quarter of 2005. The total of 1.8 million tonnes is a record output for this grade in any one quarter. Production of uncoated woodfree grades increased by 0.5% (+12,000 tonnes).

The total output of coated grades rose to 5.4 million tonnes. Coated woodfree production rose by 11.9% (+279,000 tonnes) and coated mechanical output rose by 28.3% (+618,000 tonnes) to a record level of 2.8 million tonnes. This means that mechanical grades recorded an increase of 28.4% (+ 1 million tonnes) and output of woodfree grades rose by 5.9% (+291,000 tonnes) ahead of the second quarter of 2005.

Output of all packaging grades showed an increase of 2% (+197,000 tonnes). In total, production of packaging grades was 9.9 million tonnes for the 3rd quarter of 2005. Production of case materials fell by 1.6% (-98,000 tonnes). The output of carton board and other packaging grades rose by 6.7% (+190,000 tonnes) and the production of wrappings rose by 12.5% (+105,000) to reach 947,000 tonnes.

Total production of pulp increased to 10 million tonnes (+21%). This represents a recovery to close to the total for the 1st quarter of 2005. Output of chemical pulp increased by 19%, whilst production of mechanical pulp rose by 24.6%.

Comparison with Q3 2004

Total paper and board output in this quarter was 25.1 million tonnes which represents a 1.6% increase (+406,000 tonnes) on the 3rd quarter of 2004. Graphic paper production showed rose by 0.8% (+106,000 tonnes), whilst output in the packaging sector increased by 2% (+193,000 tonnes). Output of newsprint fell by 0.9% (-24,000 tonnes). There was a fall in the production of uncoated woodfree grades by 2.1% (-55,000 tonnes) but coated woodfree production rose by 0.9% (+24,000 tonnes), giving an average decrease in production of woodfree grades of 0.6%.

Overall production of mechanical grades increased by 3.6% (+161,000 tonnes). Production of coated mechanical grades rose by 3.5% (+94,000 tonnes), whilst output of uncoated mechanical grades increased by 3.9% (+67,000). Output of coated papers rose by 2.2% and the production of uncoated grades rose by 0.3%.

In the packaging sector case material production was up by 3% (+172,000 tonnes). In carton board plus other paper and board for packaging grades, output decreased marginally by 0.2% (-5,000 tonnes). Production of wrappings showed a 2.8% rise on the previous year.

Production of sanitary and household papers rose by 6.2% (+91,000 tonnes). Production of all other paper and board rose by 1.5% (+16,000 tonnes).

Overall pulp production decreased by 0.8% (-76,000 tonnes) .Chemical pulp production fell by 0.5% and mechanical pulp output decreased by 1.1%.

Comparison of January - September

In the first three-quarters cumulative production of paper and board for 2005 was 73.8 million tonnes, which was -0.4% or -261,000 tonnes on the first nine months of 2004. Overall output of graphic grades decreased by 1.9% (-707,000 tonnes) and packaging grades rose by 0.5% (+158,000 tonnes).

Newsprint production fell by 2.8% (-237,000) and the output of woodfree graphics grades fell by 2.4% (uncoated -2.2% and coated -2.7%). Mechanical grades decreased by 0.7%
(uncoated -4.4% and coated +1.9%). Output of coated grades fell by 0.4% (-68,000 tonnes), whilst production of uncoated grades decreased by 3% (-402,000 tonnes).

Production of case materials reached a record 17.7 million tonnes for the first time, 2.3% higher than in the same period of 2004. Carton board and other paper and board for packaging production decreased by 2% and output of wrappings also fell by 2% year on year.

Sanitary and household production increased by 5.1% compared with 2004. Output of all other paper and board rose by 1.9%.

Total output of pulp was 28.5 million tonnes, which represents a fall of 4.9% (-1.5 million tonnes). Production of mechanical pulp (10 million tonnes) was down by 5.4% and chemical pulp output fell by 4.6% to 18.5 million tonnes.

International comparison

Results from the other major paper producing regions have begun to show a slight decline when compared to the same period in 2004, although there continue to be wide variations between grades.

Paper and board output by mills in CEPI countries decreased by 0.4%. In Canada there was an overall decrease of 3.8% in production with declines in output recorded for all graphic grades except uncoated mechanical. There was a fall in production in the USA of 1.2%. Production of graphics fell by 1.8%, with uncoated mechanicals again the only positive grade.

Total paper and board output in Japan saw an increase of 0.2%. Here production in the graphics sector rose by 1.2% and in sanitary and household by 3.3%.

29 Dec 2005

In 2005, UPM's non-recurring costs amounted to €94 million net.

In the last quarter of 2005, non-recurring charges of approximately €261 million will be booked in operating profit.

In UPM's paper divisions, an impairment charge of approximately €155 million related to the production facilities at the Miramichi magazine paper mill in Canada as well as a one-time write-off of €8 million related to the rebuild of the paper machine at Nordland fine paper mill in Germany will be booked in the last quarter.

In Wood Products Division, an impairment charge of €25 million related to the fixed assets of sawmills in Finland and a provision of €16 million related mainly to operations in France will be booked.

Of all UPM's non-recurring items of 2005, charges of €253 million net will be booked in operating profit, income of €101 million after operating profit and income of €58 million in taxes.

29 Dec 2005

Martin & Christine Swayne at Silverback wish all visitors to the site a Happy Christmas and Peaceful and Prosperous 2006

The site will be open and attended by Silverback's 'King Kong' over the Holiday period

The People's Republic of China has revised its reported 2004 Gross National Product figure upwards by $283 billion (€238.9bn; £161.3bn).

Some questions asked by a number of Wall Street’s economists are, ‘Where did they find that mind blowing amount? Does this equate to carelessness on the part of the comrades' in discovering they had understated the nation's GNP during 2004 by an amazing $283bn or 16.8%? It is considered unlikely to result in heads rolling. The oversight has undoubtedly helped deflate world pressure on China's political leaders to revalue the yuan.

The discovery of this 'error', as 2005 reaches an end, has elevated China several places up the world economic rankings, overtaking Italy to occupy sixth place behind the USA, Japan, Germany, France and the UK.

The BBC's correspondent in Beijing Louisa Lim is reported to have said, ‘Some sceptical economists point out that China has a long tradition of massaging statistics for political expediency.’

The revision will be welcomed by the World Bank, according to Ms Lim, ‘It is not uncommon for countries with dynamic economies to under-represent rapidly growing enterprises.’

23 Dec 2005

Stora Enso's profitability improvement programmes are progressing faster than anticipated.

The Profit 2007 programme, with pre-tax profit improvement of €300 million net, will have approximately €50 million of provisions recorded in the fourth quarter 2005, mainly for costs of redundancies. As previously announced, provisions of about €310 million related to asset closures under the Asset Performance Review (APR) will also be recorded in the fourth quarter of 2005.

In addition, some €30 million will be recorded as a non-recurring item in the last quarter of 2005, mainly due to redundancies at the four mills under scrutiny. There will also be approximately €40 million of asset write-downs due to additional restructuring during the fourth quarter of 2005, mainly in the Wood Products segment.

In summary, the fourth quarter 2005 non-recurring items will total about €430 million. These provisions will have a cash impact of about €160 million, which will be incurred as the payments become due, mainly during 2006. However, there will be no cash impact in the fourth quarter of 2005.

23 Dec 2005

Century Pulp and Paper, located in Lalkua, and one of the largest paper producing companies in India, has set itself the challenging objective of manufacturing high quality products at optimum cost efficiency.

To fulfil it vision of producing for the International market, Century has decided to substitute top grade recycled DIP fibres for part of its virgin fibre raw materials with the help of Voith Paper’s de-inking technology.

The DIP fibre stock will be used for printing and writing paper production on the mill’s existing Escher Wyss PM3 as well as on the new PM4 ordered from Voith in March 2005. The main requirements for the DIP are a brightness of 85% ISO and a very low level of stickies and dirt speck content.

In cooperation with its joint venture company Voith Paper India and local manufacturing partner Larsen & Toubro, Voith will supply a 2-loop DIP system for 200 tpd complete with full Advanced Wet End Process (AWEP) technology for the approach flow.

Main features of the DIP line’s ‘Loop No.1 comprise high consistency pulping with a PreClean system, high consistency cleaning including a 2-stage Protector system, hole and slot coarse screening and an EcoMizer intermediate consistency cleaner.
The stock will then be de-inked in an EcoCell pre-flotation stage before being slot screened, at low consistency, using C-bar baskets. It is then washed in a VarioSplit before being thickened in a Thune screw press. This will be followed by dispersion in an EcoDirect disc disperger and bleaching in an EcoReact bleaching tower.

Loop No.2 will be a similar design, with EcoCell post-flotation, a Thune disc filter and screw press thickening, followed by kneader type dispersion and bleaching.

The AWEP system and component philosophy provides optimum hydraulic stability, homogeneous mixing of stock components and high cleanliness of the stock on entry into the paper machine’s headbox.

Voith’s joint venture partner Meri has been selected to supply the water, sludge and reject handling subsystems. Voith is providing basic and detail engineering for the process and automation, as well as erection and start-up supervision.

Start-up of the new PM4 and stock preparation systems is scheduled for the end of 2006.

23 Dec 2005

Martin & Christine Swayne at Silverback wish all visitors to the site a Happy Christmas and Peaceful and Prosperous 2006

The site will be open and attended by Silverback's 'King Kong' over the Holiday period

Following the successful installation of sheet break analysis systems on PM1 and PM2 at Nordland Papier GmbH last year PM3 will also be equipped with an OnV WebVision system.

A total of 24 color cameras will be installed, which permit video monitoring of particularly critical points in the paper production line. As soon as a sheet break occurs, the system’s computer is informed and it automatically saves the video recording for subsequent analysis in to the cause. This ensures exact identification of the fault, which facilitates prevention of future sheet breaks.

In addition, the cameras are connected to a quad unit so that the operator can follow the camera images either individually or in a quadruple view on a real-time monitor.

The cameras will be installed on PM3 during the rebuild in the summer of 2006 and are expected to go on stream in September. Two cameras with the appropriate system hardware will be supplied by Voith Paper Automation at the beginning of the year to familiarise the operating personnel with the OnV WebVision System.

Nordland Papier, a subsidiary of the Finnish UPM-Kymmene Corporation, is one of the world’s largest fine paper producer for woodfree, uncoated and coated writing and printing papers. With more than 1850 employees,the mill produces up to 1.3 million tpy of fine paper .

22 Dec 2005

PMT Italia S.p.A. and Sca Hygiene Products have completed the start-up phase of the new tissue mill in Valls, close to Tarragona, Spain.

The mill originally launched production of saleable paper on the 230 tpd PM at the end of July and the start-up went according to the original planned schedule, 16 months after the order was placed.

The new 5.5 m width TM has an operating speed of 2000 m/min, is a crescent former PM, supplied by PMT, with the two lines of stock preparation equipment and auxiliary systems. It manufactures tissue from virgin pulp in a basis weight range of 14-28 g/m2 that Sca Hygiene converts into toilet tissue and kitchen rolls.

PMT carried out the installation on a ‘turnkey’ basis, including all the mills auxiliary systems such as cranes, bale handling, steam plant, air systems, roll handling, compressor plant, vacuum plant, fresh water treatment, waste water treatment, electrification and control systems.

The whole detailed and mill engineering was also completed by PMT.

22 Dec 2005

Papierfabrik Schoellershammer PM5 has achieved a machine speed of 1002 m/min on the board machine following a major rebuild supplied by Metso Paper.

This is considered an excellent initial result for this machine concept and the board grade produced. The rebuild also resulted in a significant reduction of the total time taken for tail threading, which has improved efficiency.

‘We have now reached the target that was set for the rebuild. This was made possible because of strong commitment between Metso and the mill.’ says Armin Vetter, executive board member of Papierfabrik Schoellershammer. He continued, ‘We feel that the concept offered by Metso was the best one and we are very satisfied with the project.’

The start-up curve has been steep and is continuing. with plans to raise the machine speed up to 1200 m/min in the future.

The rebuilt PM5, which produces testliner and fluting, started-up successfully in September following a 16-day shutdown. The rebuild included the press and dryer sections, the size press and reel and tail threading equipment for the entire machine, which were limiting the capacity and efficiency of the existing machine.

The main target of the rebuild was to raise the machine speed from 870 to over 1000 m/min and increase the capacity from 185,000 to 220,000 tpy.

The family-owned, Papierfabrik Schoellershammer, located in Düren, Germany, produces 220,000 tpy (target for 2006) testliner and fluting board grades from 100% recycled fibre and 8000 tpy of high quality speciality papers. The company has a favourable position in their main market area in Europe.

22 Dec 2005

PMT Italia has recently carried out studies for the supply of a new tissue machine for Georgia Pacific’s Allo mill in Spain.

The machine, which will be started-up before the end of 2006, will have a capacity of 230 tpd from of 100% virgin fibre pulp. The whole installation to be supplied by PMT Italia, includes the tissue machine and related air systems, mist and dust removal and the machine hood

The Crescent Former machine, designed for a sheet width at reel of about 5500 mm and an operating speed of 2000 m/min, is based upon the most very latest technologies. The project will be developed starting from the current research and the experience of PMT Italia in Pinerolo, with the aim of producing the best final quality of the tissue.

GP intends to reinforce its presence in the Iberian Peninsula market, with this new TM3. The Allo mill already has two tissue machines in operation.

21 Dec 2005

Jaakko Pöyry Oy, which is part of the Jaakko Pöyry Group's forest industry business group, has been assigned by Norske Skogindustrier ASA, Saugbrugs, Norway, to provide engineering services for the rebuild project at the Halden TMP mill.

The value of these services is €2.5 million. Jaakko Pöyry's contract includes engineering management and detail engineering services. Through an investment of Nkr700 million in the TMP plant rebuild, Norske Skog will be able to achieve new paper qualities. The project is scheduled to be implemented in March 2007.

This assignment is a continuation of the co-operation between Norske Skog and Jaakko Pöyry, dating back for more than 20 years. Jaakko Pöyry has served Norske Skog in its paper mill projects worldwide.

21 Dec 2005

Conventional paper machine drive systems generally require a concrete or steel plinth as well as several mechanical elements such as universal joints, gear boxes and couplings, all of which require space, maintenance and guarding.

The new Voith Drive is an intelligent drive solution which, in the case of a dryer section, is mounted directly on to the cylinder or felt roll journal. Space saving is considerable and as normal drive elements are not required, maintenance is greatly reduced giving lower operating costs.

The system is water cooled therefore eliminating oil spill contamination. It operates wear free and produces high torque even at low rotational speeds. The drive operates quietly giving a safer working environment and due to its efficiency can save a significant amount of energy.

Normally fitted to the operating side of the paper machine and contained within the dryer hood for easy access, the new units can also be retrofitted to the machine’s back side drive position.

20 Dec 2005

Hankuk Paper Mfg. Co., Ltd. has successfully started-up its fourth fine paper making machine at its Onsan mill in South Korea.

‘The start-up went according to plan and first reels of paper were produced on 13 December. said Mr. Kim, production manager for PM4. ‘We are very pleased with the co-operation between the Hankuk Paper and Metso Paper start-up teams and specialists. The PM4 start up was the easiest and best what we have ever carried out.’ stated Mr. Seung-Suk Seo, mill manager and Mr. Cheong-Hwan Rha, vice mill manager

Hankuk Paper's new OptiConcept paper production line is a complete single-supplier delivery by Metso Paper. The line features the most advanced fine paper making technology from headbox to reel. It comprises an OptiPress I press section, with new technology for single nip solutions and a metsoDNA machine control system supplied by Metso Automation.

The new line, which produces woodfree copy and printing papers, has a web width of 5.2 m at the pope reel and a design speed of 1200 m/min. The capacity of PM4 will amount to 200,000 tpy.

Hankuk Paper Mfg. Co., Ltd. is the leading paper producer in Korea. Since its founding in 1958, the company has been a pioneer in the Korean paper industry, employing advanced technology to produce a variety of woodfree printing and writing papers. Following the start-up of PM4, the company has a total capacity of 560,000 tpy of fine paper grades. The new machine is Metso Paper's third production line delivery to the Onsan mill.

20 Dec 2005

Kemira Oyj and the German company Lanxess have reached an agreement on the acquisition of Lanxess' paper chemicals business by Kemira.

The net sales of the Lanxess’ paper chemicals business totaled about €240 million in the year 2004. The debt-free price for the business is €88 million. It has been estimated that the deal will raise Kemira's earnings per share from the year 2007 onwards. It has also been estimated also that the deal will dilute Kemira's earnings by 5 to10 cents per share in the year 2006 as the business has been loss-making and because of the cost of integration.

After the following three years Kemira expects synergy and cost benefits in the area of €20 million annually arising from the integration of these businesses.

Lanxess is a global supplier of paper chemicals, with special competence in wet-end chemicals for paper machines. ‘The acquisition of the Lanxess paper chemicals business is in line with Kemira's growth strategy. Through this deal we will further strengthen our position in the market for paper chemicals.’ says Lauri Junnila, president of Kemira’s pulp and paper chemicals business sector. ‘Once finalised, this agreement will position Kemira as the largest supplier of pulp and paper chemicals, globally. On one hand the business we acquire will complete our range of products in speciality chemicals very well indeed, and on the other hand the deal will add to our strength in geographical presence, especially in Germany, North America, Asia and South America.’ he continued.

The main range of Lanxess products consist of colourants, optical brighteners and sizing. Lanxess ranks as number three globally in the sales of optical brighteners to the paper industry. It is also the leading supplier of direct anionic dyes and organic pigments to North America.

The company's production plants are located in Leverkusen, Germany, and in Bushy Park, South Carolina, USA.

The agreement is subject to approval by the authorities and other conditions and terms of the contract being met. Kemira's net sales in pulp and paper chemicals will total about €1.1 billion, subject to the agreement being finalised.

‘We have sold this operation to a globally positioned partner. The Kemira Group provides this paper operation with outstanding potential for development.’ said Lanxess’ CEO Axel C. Heitmann. ‘Consolidation is continuing in the paper industry, with fewer and fewer companies dividing up the market between them. In addition, many customers want the complete range of services from a single supplier, but our Business Unit was unable to cover the entire spectrum.’ explained Mr Heitmann.

20 Dec 2005

Engineers from Voith Paper Manchester Roll Service Centre recently checked the condition of two large rolls on PM1 at UPM’s., Shotton Paper mill, in the UK.

The press section centre roll is 1650 mm diameter with a face length of 9.5 m and is covered with CeraleaseTM, a ceramic based material. Since installation four years ago it has run continuously in this position without any problems or regrinding.

The cover inspection process measured roughness, cleanliness and surface tension values all of which were found to be well within required tolerances. The roll was immediately reinstalled in the press and continues to run at optimum performance. It will be examined again after a further 12 months.

At the same time Voith engineers checked the 1378 mm diameter suction press roll which was fitted with a refurbished shell in February this year covered with AqualisTM polyurethane. The roll has run continuously since installation and the inspection confirmed that the surface, the suction holes, the blind drilled holes and the grooving were all in excellent condition.

This particular roll at 12 m long, with a face length of 9350 mm and weighing 42 tonnes is the largest and highest loaded polyurethane covered suction press roll currently running in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.

It is designed to optimise de-watering with the addition of blind drilling and grooving and the return to an AqualisTM polyurethane cover, following years of running a hard nip with tungsten carbide coated shells, giving improved felt life based on recent similar experiences.

20 Dec 2005

Representatives of the global forest industry have told Ministers in Hong Kong that freer trade in forest products would be good for business, good for development and good for the environment.

At a roundtable at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong, industry representatives urged ministers to take decisive action to open up international markets for wood and paper products. They urged ministers to seek an outcome from the Doha negotiations, which includes a strong formula for the reduction of tariffs applied to forest products combined with a sector agreement to accelerate tariff reduction, as well as appropriate transitional arrangements and transparent flexibility mechanisms for developing countries.

Their call builds on the negotiating proposal for trade liberalisation in the forest products sector submitted on 18 October by the Governments of Canada, Hong Kong China, New Zealand, Thailand and the United States.

Speaking on behalf of the New Zealand industry, Stephen Jacobi said that there is strong support for trade liberalisation on the part of the industry.

He said ‘CEOs from the forest products industry from around the world, meeting in Vancouver last May, agreed on the desirability of liberalising international trade in wood and paper products. The majority of CEOs also agreed with the proposal that there be sector discussions in the Doha round. We therefore urge Ministers in Hong Kong to take the steps needed to deliver a strong outcome for our sector from the Doha negotiations.’

Marta Morgan, vice president, trade and competitiveness at the Forest Products Association of Canada, said that the liberalisation of forest products trade conformed fully to the development objectives of the Doha Development Agenda.

She said ‘All countries stand to gain significantly from freer trade in forest products. Of the world’s 20 leading exporters, 12 are developing countries. Developing countries are already increasing their exports significantly. Further trade liberalisation could provide significant benefits in the form of increased trade, investment in added value production and job creation in rural communities.”

Speaking on behalf of the American Forest & Paper Association, Jacob Handelsman said increased trade would benefit global consumers. ‘Consumers will benefit from lower costs and a greater variety of products available. In countries which rely on imports, basic development needs, such as housing and education, can be assisted by lowering the cost of construction. Wood is also derived from one of the world’s most sustainable and renewable materials and uses less energy in manufacturing than competing products.’

Speaking on behalf of the European paper industry, Bernard Lombard agreed that trade liberalisation coupled with sustainable forest management went hand in hand with environmental responsibility.

‘The European paper industry, like our counterparts in other countries, promotes sustainable forest management. Trade liberalisation in forest products increases the intrinsic value of forests and provides revenue so that land can be maintained in forest production. Worldwide, the forest industry has developed credible management systems to assure customers that the products they sell come from well managed forests.’

19 Dec 2005

Ahlstrom, a global leader in high performance fibre-based materials, today announced it will expand the production capacity of its Mikkeli plant in Finland.

The €5 million investment will consist of an additional building of approximately 6000 m2 and new machinery. The construction work will begin in the Spring of 2006 and it is estimated to be completed in December the same year.

The Mikkeli plant manufactures glassfibre products for the composite industry. Some 95% of the plant's production is exported, mainly to other European countries.

‘We have built five new production lines in the Mikkeli plant during 2005, and our capacity is now fully utilised. This expansion enables us to increase capacity by up to 50% within the next few years. The investment does not directly increase the number of employees, but makes future growth possible.’ commented Pertti Tilli, the plant manager.

Besides the new machinery, the new building will also include storage capacity for raw materials and finished goods, which are currently outsourced to three separate warehouses. This is expected to bring significant cost savings. In addition, the maintenance area, staff rooms, and the shelter will be renovated.

‘Our target is to continue profitable growth at a rate that exceeds the market average. The investment in Mikkeli will support this objective. In addition, we are currently planning a significant investment to increase the converting capacity of the Karhula plant. We are assessing possibilities to operate in the Americas and in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia.’ said Tommi Björnman, senior vice president for glass nonwovens.

19 Dec 2005

Jaakko Pöyry Tecnologia Ltda, which is part of the Jaakko Pöyry Group's forest industry business sector, has been assigned, by Suzano Bahia Sul Papel e Celulose S/A, to provide plant engineering for the new pulp line to be built at the Mucurí mill in Bahia, Brazil.

The value of the Engineering, Procurment, Construction Management (EPCM) services is put at €19 million.

The second pulp production line at the Mucurí mill will have a capacity of one million tpy of market pulp for export, mainly to Europe, the USA and Asia. The estimated total investment including the industrial plant and purchase and development of plantation forests is US$1.3 billion. Start-up is scheduled for the third quarter of 2007.

Jaakko Pöyry has participated in the development of the project during the conceptual and feasibility phases as well as in the basic engineering, and is now providing owner's engineer services in the implementation phase. The current assignment comprises engineering of the interconnections between the packages and the auxiliary plants, the Balance of Plant, within an EPCM services framework.

19 Dec 2005

Stora Enso is to upgrade and modernise board machine No.2 (BM2) at its Fors Mill in Sweden to improve product quality and cost efficiency and increase production flexibility.

One of the boilers will also be modified to enhance the mill's energy supply by replacing oil with bio-fuel. The folding boxboard capacity of BM2 will be slightly increased, by 13,000 tpy. Capital expenditure on the project, which is scheduled to start in 2006 and be completed in 2007, will amount to €35 million.

‘This investment during a profit improvement programme is essential for the long-term competitiveness of the Fors mill. It also demonstrates Stora Enso's commitment to maintaining and developing the quality of its assets, and improving the competitiveness of its production in Europe.’ says Håkan Moldén, managing director of the Fors mill.

As a result of long-term quality improvements, Stora Enso's Fors Mill was today presented with the Swedish Quality Award by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. The mill received the award in recognition of its sustainable and determined work over a long period. The award confirms that the Company has successfully built up a corporate culture of continuous development and its operations are world class.

16 Dec 2005

Modern Karton Sanayi Ticaret AS has confirmed its contract with Metso Paper for the delivery of a board making line to its Turkish mill.

The value of the agreement is around €80 million, following the signing of a letter of intent in February 2005. The board machine will be started-up in the last quarter of 2007.

In addition to the PM4 board machine, Metso’s delivery covers the complete board making line including, an OCC line, stock preparation and water management systems, a WinDrum Pro winder and paper machine ventilation. The contract also includes mill engineering and metsoDNA machine controls by Metso Automation.

The capacity of the line, using 100% recycled fibre as the raw material, will be 400,000 tpy of corrugating medium and testliner. The wire width of the machine will be 8.6m and the design speed 1800 m/min.

16 Dec 2005

UPM is continuing measures to improve its Magazine Paper Division's profitability in accordance with a programme launched in August.

PM4 producing matt finished coated magazine papers (MFC) at the Jämsänkoski paper mill will cease production in 2006. PM4 originally started up in 1974 and its present capacity is 120,000 tpy.

UPM will investigate an alternative, competitive grade of speciality papers, such as label papers, for PM4 to produce. The other alternative is the permanent closure of the paper production line. Final decisions will be taken during the first quarter of 2006.

UPM’s Jämsänkoski mill manufactures printing papers for magazines and speciality papers for self-adhesives. The mill´s production capacity, on four paper machines, is 870,000 tpy. Located in Central Finland, the Jämsänkoski mill employs approximately 870 people.

Last week UPM announced three-month layoffs at its Miramichi magazine paper mill due to profitability reasons. The annual paper production capacity of Miramichi mill is 450,000 tons of coated magazine papers.

15 Dec 2005

Metso Paper is to supply a kraftliner board machine to Lee & Man Paper Co. in China.

The machine will have a capacity of 400,000 tpy and is scheduled to start up in December 2006 in Changshu, China. The total value of the order is approximately EUR 40 million.

Lee & Man Paper's new board machine will be a single-supplier delivery from Metso Paper. It will have a wire width of 7250 mm and a design speed of 1150 m/min. The delivery includes Metso Automation's metsoDNA machine control systems.

The new machine, designated PM8, will produce kraftliner board grades to be used by local box plants. The Changshu area, close to Shanghai, serves as an important base for a large number of manufacturing companies in various industries.

Lee & Man Paper is one of the largest containerboard producers in China. The company, which was founded in 1994 and is listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, owns three container board mills in Huangyong, Changshu and Hongmei. These three mills have a combined production capacity of 1.6 million tpy.

The company also owns waste paper operations in the USA and Europe, as well as an unbleached kraft pulp mill in the USA with a capacity of 200,000 tpy, making Lee & Man Paper a fully integrated containerboard manufacturer. All of the company's board mills are ISO14000 certified for environmentally acceptable operations.

15 Dec 2005

Metso Paper is to deliver a pulp drying line and three complete baling lines to Suzano Bahia Sul Papel e Celulose S.A. in Brazil.

The drying line is a part of Suzano Bahia Sul's expansion project at the Mucuri mill in the State of Bahia. The value of the order is about €100 million. Start-up is scheduled for the second half of 2007.

The trim width of the drying line will be 9990 mm and the production capacity 3340 tpd of eucalyptus ktaft pulp. Metso Paper's delivery includes bleached stock screening, wet-end, dryer, high-speed cutter and three baling lines. The line will include the largest airborne dryer ever built, and the production of the line will be highest ever made on a single drying line.

Additionally, Metso Paper will provide engineering, procurement and construction services (EPC). A significant part of the delivery will be locally manufactured in Brazil and pre-assembled in Metso Paper's large facilities in Sorocaba, Brazil.

Suzano Bahia Sul's pulp drying line will be the first installation that is entirely based on Metso's new DryWay concept. The main advantages of the selected DryWay technology are its high specific capacity and low specific power consumption

Suzano Bahia Sul Papel e Celulose S.A. manufactures eucalyptus pulp, paperboard, as well as both coated and uncoated wood-free printing and writing grades. The company's current paper and board production capacity is 820,000 tpy and pulp production capacity of about 1.1 million tpy.

14 Dec 2005

The Aker Kvaerner subsidiary Kvaerner do Brasil has been awarded a price as the ‘Preferred Supplier of machines and equipment for pulp production in 2005’ from ABTCP (Brazilian Pulp and Paper Technical Association).

‘This award is a significant compliment for us and we are delighted to accept it. In our daily business we focus hard on our customers’ needs in the South American pulp production market and this respected award encourages and inspires us to intensify our efforts.’ says Aristides Labigalini, president of Kvaerner do Brasil.

The recognition as Preferred Supplier in Brazil follows two recently announced major orders from Suzano (Brazil) and ENCE (Uruguay), and is a further acknowledgement of Aker Kvaerner’s commitment to and successful presence in the South American pulp production market.

13 Dec 2005

Chinese industrial output grew at an annual rate of 16.6% in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. October’s rate was 16.1%.

Production was supported by strong exports, investment growth and consumer spending, according to the bureau. However, figures for the first nine months of the year showed production growth was marginally less marked than in 2004 and 2003.

At 16.3%, the annual pace was down slightly from 16.7% in 2004 and 17.0% in 2003, when the investment boom was at its peak.

13 Dec 2005

The month of November saw new open interest records established for both pulp futures and pulp options: 2319 for the futures contract, set on 29th November; and 1592 for the options contract, set on 16 November.

Open interest levels remained close to record levels in both futures and options heading into December. In the futures, the contract month with the highest level of open interest was December2006. Among the pulp call options, the December 2005 550 calls showed the most open interest; for pulp put options, the April 2006 525 puts were the open interest leaders. Of all open option contracts, 65% were call options.

NYBOT’s pulp futures and options have reached open interest levels that are approximately quadruple those reached by other futures markets that have traded pulp.

The market now recognizes the NYBOT futures price as a fair representation of the prices that are encountered in commercial business. NYBOT prices are becoming incorporated into swap deals and forward agreements, which is a good sign in terms of the development of market awareness, benchmarking, and the development of lay-off business at NYBOT.

13 Dec 2005

Küsters of Krefeld in Germany has prepared for tougher market and competitive conditions in the worldwide business.

With immediate effect the textile business will be conducted exclusively from the traditional textile location of Zittau instead of, as in the past, from two locations. In addition, Küsters Textile GmbH located there will direct the worldwide activities with subsidiaries in India, China and the USA. In future the Küsters headquarters in Krefeld will concentrate on the business sectors of paper machines and nonwovens, for which growth potential is expected to open up through the new majority shareholder Andritz.

‘With the clear split of the textile machine business on the one side and the paper machine and nonwoven business on the other the new positioning of the Küsters Group has now been clearly outlined.‘ said CEO Dr. Erich W. Bröker says, explaining the most recent changes. The objective is to create the best industrial environment for each individual business sector.

The traditional location in Krefeld will remain the centre of expertise for the Paper and Nonwoven Divisions. This will also include textile calenders, which means that this section of the textile business will remain in Krefeld because of its technological proximity to the other calender production location.

The US subsidiary Küsters Paper Corporation will be controlled from there. Together with the Austrian technology group Andritz, which will become a 60% majority shareholder in the Küsters paper and nonwoven business, effective 1 January 2006 (subject to an antitrust examination). The product programmes in the paper machine business, in particular, complement each other.

Technologically Küsters is a leading producer of rolls, calenders and shoe presses which will enable the new group to gain access to complete retrofit projects for the pulp, paper and board industry. This potential was also recognised by Jagenberg and is why they were ready to accept Andritz as a new majority shareholder in Küsters’ nonwoven and paper business.

The strong market position of the Nonwoven Division, in particular in calender production and finishing technologies, will in future enjoy strong support by Andritz. Decisive steps for a completion of the product range in this area were taken recently.

13 Dec 2005

Voith Paper Automation has been commissioned by StoraEnso Kabel to supply a sheet break analysis system for PM5 and the coating machine CM5.

The OnV WebVision system is used to analyse the cause of sheet breaks by monitoring the paper web with the aid of installed cameras.

At StoraEnso Kabel a total of eight colour cameras with dedicated lighting are fitted to PM5 and seven to CM5 so that the entire production line can be checked. Also, 17 additional connecting positions are planned at critical points in the process in order to allow the cameras to be positioned where they are required.

The delivery also contains a control centre, two operator stations and four real-time monitors with which the operator can keep up to four different camera images per monitor in view simultaneously. The cameras will be remotely controlled by a fibre-optic cable, which is advantageous in places that are difficult to access.

Through the set-up of a Remote Access Server, fast support from Voith Paper Automation is also possible if any problems occur.

The Kabel mill, with a capacity of 600,000 tpy, is one of the most effective production facilities in the StoraEnso Group. It concentrates on the production of high-quality, wood-containing, coated printing papers in rolls and cut-sizes. The products are used in the production of magazines, mail-order catalogues and other advertising matter. They are also used in the production of school books, brochures, picture books, wall calendars and letterheads.

12 Dec 2005

Norske Skog intends to invest some Nkr 700 million in its Saugbrugs mill at Halden south of Oslo to strengthen competitiveness and achieve further quality improvements.

‘This spending underlines our ambition to develop the business in Norway and to be recognised as a world leader in the paper industry.’ says chief executive Jan Oksum.
Developments among Norske Skog's European customers have resulted in a steady growth in the size of printing presses, with increased demands for paper quality. The thermomechanical pulp (TMP) plant at Saugbrugs is to be substantially developed to meet these new quality standards.

In addition, the Halden mill will be converted to deliver reels with a width of 4.3 m and a weight of seven tonnes.

Norske Skog Saugbrugs is a world leader for the production of magazine paper. The planned capital spending will help to reduce its manufacturing costs. ‘We are confident that this investment will strengthen the mill's position as a supplier to the largest and most demanding printing works in Europe.’ said Mr Oksum.

09 Dec 2005

Germany’s national PEFC forest certification system has successfully achieved re-endorsement by the PEFC Council for another five years until 2010.

The system was fully revised in an extensive and transparent process, during which the latest scientific knowledge, practical experience and new requirements were incorporated.

The PEFC system has become the preferred choice of hundreds of thousands of forest owners in Germany, who are committed to demonstrate social responsibility and manage their forests according to the stringent PEFC requirements. As a result, the overwhelming majority of the country's 40 million m3 annual timber harvest now comes from PEFC certified forests. In addition more than 550 producers and retailers of paper and timber products in Germany have chosen the system for their businesses and are sourcing their certified raw materials and products from well and sustainably managed PEFC forests.

At international level, independent forest certification systems from six continents are now part of the global PEFC certification movement, accounting for more than three quarters of all certified forests globally. The vast majority of them, 21 national systems, have passed the rigorous PEFC assessment and endorsement process and are entitled to use the PEFC logo for the labelling of timber and paper products from exemplary forest management. Another 11 systems are working towards PEFC endorsement.

09 Dec 2005

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) has gained international recognition by the PEFC Council, the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes.

An independent assessment showed that SFI complies with the international PEFC requirements for national forest certification systems. PEFC endorsed systems around the globe, including SFI, now account for more than 175 million hectares, an area larger than the combined forest area of all 25 member countries of the European Union.

‘We are delighted that it has been independently confirmed that the SFI programme meets the high international PEFC standards.’ said William Banzhaf, president of the Sustainable Forestry Board representing SFI. ‘The PEFC endorsement will further help SFI certificate holders to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility and guarantee them access to international markets for certified paper and timber products.’

‘PEFC has more than tripled its certified forest area in the last twelve months.’ said Ben Gunneberg, secretary general of the PEFC Council, welcoming the successful endorsement. ‘It is evident that PEFC has become the benchmark, which independent national forest certification systems all over the world aim to achieve.’

‘The availability of PEFC certified wood and paper products increases significantly with the more than 50 million hectares that have been certified under the SFI system. This is very good news for consumers of products from sustainably managed sources. PEFC certification is positively impacting on the world's forests.’ Mr Gunneberg added, pointing to a recent independent study on certification in Northern Europe, which revealed that PEFC certification improves and enhances sustainable forest management.’

‘We are also observing a fast growing market recognition for PEFC certified timber and paper products.’ he continued. ‘The number of timber and paper processing and trading companies with PEFC ‘Chain-of-Custody’ certification has nearly doubled in the past twelve months, ranging from renowned enterprises such as the international wine barrel producers Seguin Moreau from France to the paper merchant Antalis in Germany.’

08 Dec 2005

UPM will be participating in the Paperworld Fair, taking place in Frankfurt from 25 to 29 January 2006, for the sixth time.

The Finnish company will introduce an office paper innovation that should attract merchants and retailers alike, as well as professional end users.
With this new innovation UPM shows that the paper market has a long way to go before intelligent solutions are fully exploited. ‘We have succeeded in turning our customers' wishes into an innovation that makes us stand out in the market now and in the near future.’ says
Along with its new novelty, UPM will be exhibiting the three successful office paper brands UPM Office, Yes and Future, as well as papers for digital printing from the UPM DIGI range, preprint papers from the UPM Preprint range and envelope papers from the UPM Mail range.

07 Dec 2005

UPM is increasing the prices of its coated and uncoated fine papers in Europe by €50 tonne in January 2006. This is due to the increasing costs and healthy development in demand since 2004.

05 Dec 2005

Timber producing countries are suffering from the effects of illegal logging and the international trade of illegally logged timber.

They are not the only ones. Illegal logging also causes environmental damage, costs governments significant revenue and undermines both established law and efforts to implement sustainable practices in international production and trade of timber. It also detracts from the competitiveness of the forest-based industries, such as pulp and paper, as well as the image of the entire sector.

With the aim of contributing to the pragmatic eradication of illegal logging, the Confederation of European Paper Industry (CEPI) has produced the ‘Code of Conduct on legal logging of wood,’ which was introduced during the annual CEPI event European Paper Week on 30th November.

The document urges members to comply with applicable laws and to purchase only legally logged wood. It requests that they follow the principles of the Environmental Management System, document all transactions and implement educational schemes for employees.

CEPI represents the interests of the European pulp, paper and board industry to the EU institutions and is firmly rooted behind the industries denunciation of illegal logging. Demonstrating their willingness to contribute to the measures necessary to combat illegal logging, and maintaining that primary solutions are grounded in relevant practices, CEPI members have called for the condemnation of and commitment against illegal logging, coupled with the encouragement of sustainable Forest Management.

The document, ‘Code of Conduct on legal logging of wood’ outlines six principles of conduct by which CEPI members express their on-going commitment to the combat of illegal logging, rendering the black market for timber altogether irrelevant.
To view the full document log on to: http://www.cepi.org/files/illegal%20logging-152955A.pdf

02 Dec 2005

AssiDomän, Frövi mill, Sweden, one of the world’s most advanced producers of liquid and packaging board recently ordered Papertech’s largest single WebVision® Plus digital event capturing system.

The 30 camera WebVision system will monitor the production of 380,000 tpy on Frövi’s BM5 machine and will be used to find the root cause of breaks using the latest real-time DefectDetector and PatternMatcher software to inspect the web for various defects, such as holes, slime and dirt, throughout the entire production process.

Bengt Nilsson, the project leader, stated that Frövi expects to reduce the machine downtime significantly by using WebVision’s video image analysis tools. He added that Papertech was chosen because of the system’s hardware and software architecture. Long video event history is required due to the very long sheet transport time. This is possible with WebVision, as is instantaneous video analysis following an event trigger.

Other key factors were Papertech’s application matched WebLite lighting technology, WebView cameras with AirKnife lens cleaning technology. In the past seven years Papertech has become one of the most experienced and widely used suppliers of digital event capturing camera technology in the paper industry.

The WebVision® Plus system offers papermakers one of the fastest and most complete ways of solving root causes of breaks and other paper quality related issues. There are now over 250
WebVision systems installed in 24 countries.

02 Dec 2005

Electrowatt-Ekono (Hamburg) GmbH, which is part of the Jaakko Pöyry Group's Energy business group, has been awarded an assignment to provide engineering services for a combined heat and power, CHP, plant in Ruedersdorf, Berlin by Vattenfall Europe Waste-to-Energy, Germany.

The assignment encompasses owners engineering services for the implementation of a power plant using refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The value of the assignment is about €3 million.

When completed the Ruedersdorf CHP plant will be the largest RDF-based plant in Germany with a consumption of 226,000 tpy of RDF. RDF is produced by extracting the high calorific fraction of solid household and industrial waste. The steam turbine will produce up to 36 MW of electricity, gross..

The energy business group, operating under the brand name Electrowatt-Ekono, had net sales of €146 million in 2004. Electrowatt-Ekono has offices in 22 countries and employs 1500 specialists worldwide.

02 Dec 2005

ENCE and Aker Kvaerner have signed a letter of intent under which Aker Kvaerner will supply the main process equipment for the Celulosas de M’Bopicuá new pulp mill to be built in Uruguay.

The order is worth more than US $250 million to Aker Kvaerner.

ENCE, an Iberian and American integral wood-transforming forest company a leading producer of eucalyptus-based pulp, will build the new pulp mill near Fray Bentos, in western Uruguay. The mill will produce 500,000 tpy of bleached eucalyptus pulp at a total investment cost of approximately US $660 million. The mill is due to be operational by 2008.

Aker Kvaerner will provide the latest available technology, developed and supplied by the company over several decades. These proven solutions ensure minimum impact on the environment, whilst delivering high-quality pulp based upon cost-effective production processes.

Kvaerner Pulping and Kvaerner Power, business units of the Aker Kvaerner group, will jointly deliver the complete fibre line including cooking, washing, oxygen delignification and bleaching and the recovery line, evaporation plant, recovery boiler, odorous gas treatment, white liquor plant and bio-mass boiler.
The final contract will be signed in the coming months.

02 Dec 2005

Metso Paper has recently patented and launched a new press design for tissue machines, the Advantage ViscoNip technology.

The new press design gives tissue makers an new tool for lowering energy consumption as well as increasing the bulk. The benefits of the new technology when compared with either a suction press of a shoe press include the following:

• Lower energy consumption
• Higher dryness
• Improved bulk
• Better runnability
•Smoother operation

Energy savings are the biggest benefit of the ViscoNip press, which results in higher dryness in a new installation. With the present high prices for energy prices such costs have become the most vital challenge for tissue makers.

Another advantage is that the new design gives higher bulk than conventional pressing at a given sheet dryness. Tissue makers can achieve bulk similar to that of a shoe press construction but without problems in runnability, felts or belts that the industry has experienced with the hard shoe pressed against the felt and the Yankee dryer shell.

The flexible nature of the pillows is the key to getting a softer, yet more efficient pressing action while still maintaining bulk. This gives tissue makers much greater flexibility in the choice between dryness and bulk.

An added benefit, that has been proved in pilot trials, with the ViscoNip press, is an improved dryness profile across the sheet. So runnability through the press is improved as it is through the rest of the machine and the converting section. The final quality of the product is also enhanced by the flatter dryness profile.

The new arrangement is designated as a 'Pillow Press' as the working pressure against the Yankee cylinder is delivered by several separate pillows. These pillows, positioned parallel to each other in the cross-machine direction, are hydraulically loaded to achieve linear loads of 80-160 kN/m, or higher. It is essential that the Yankee shell is able to take the load but the pillow design allows wide flexibility in distributing the loads.

As the pillows are made of flexible materials and are hydraulically loaded, a uniform load is delivered to the sheet, independent of the running conditions or any deformation of the Yankee. This self-compensating profiling ability offers significant benefits compared to traditional tissue press designs.

The ViscoNip press is suitable for either a new installation or for a rebuild in which a suction press or a shoe press can be replaced with the new pillow press technology.

02 Dec 2005

Some of the largest companies in the world today have announced that they have increased their purchases of renewable energy.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and members of its Green Power Market Development Group have announced 185 new megawatts (MW) of renewable energy purchases and projects, bringing the total number of MW under contract to 360 - the average size of a coal-fired power plant. At 360 MW, these companies are more than a third of the way to their goal of building markets for 1000 MW of new, cost-competitive green power in the USA.

At a press conference today as part of the United Nations' climate change meetings, WRI also announced the launch of a similar corporate renewable energy purchasing partnership in Europe.

The Green Power Market Development Group is a commercial and industrial partnership dedicated to building corporate markets for green power. In the United States its members are Alcoa Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, FedEx Kinko's, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, NatureWorks LLC, Pitney Bowes, Staples and Starbucks.

‘These companies are using clean energy to produce the products and services people use every day. They are demonstrating that low carbon technologies can be part of mainstream corporate energy purchases.’ said Jonathan Lash, president of WRI.

In fact, seven of these companies now purchase at least 10% of their annual US electricity consumption from renewables. Group members are also among the largest non-utility buyers of renewable energy in the United States. Johnson & Johnson is currently the country's largest corporate buyer of green power products. Johnson & Johnson and General Motors are the nation's second and third largest corporate users of solar photovoltaic systems.

GM and DuPont are the country's two largest corporate users of landfill gas for thermal energy while Starbucks, IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the three largest corporate buyers of renewable energy certificates (RECs) from wind farms. RECs are purchased separately from electricity and allow buyers to support renewable power facilities without being located near the site where the electricity is fed into the grid.

‘Over the past five years, this partnership has helped IBM develop its approach to renewable energy.’ said Greg Peterson, manager of global energy for IBM. ‘IBM now uses renewables to stabilise energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.’

Projects and purchases in 2005 are taking place at more than 140 facilities across 15 States:
• Alcoa is installing 42 MW of new capacity at its Tapoco hydro-electric facility in eastern Tennessee. The entire facility was just certified as low-impact by the Low Impact Hydropower Institute (LIHI), making it the largest LIHI-approved hydroelectric project on the East coast.
• Starbucks Coffee Company is purchasing 150 million kWh per year of Green-e® certified wind RECs - equivalent to 20% of the annual electricity consumed by its US company stores.
• IBM will be buying 96 million kWh per year of Green-e® certified wind RECs for its US facilities. This will be the fourth largest corporate purchase of certified RECs in the United States.
• NatureWorks, LLC has contracted for 59 million kWh per year of Green-e® certified wind RECs from the Great Plains, making NatureWorks® PLA the first greenhouse gas-neutral polymer.
• DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Staples are installing 2.2 MW of on-site solar photovoltaic systems to provide electricity for corporate facilities.
• FedEx Kinko's, Interface and Pitney Bowes committed to 7 MW of new renewable power and REC purchases.

Mr Lash added, "These firms are joined today in Europe by an expanded set of companies that will explore new renewable projects that complement progressive EU policies on renewables. Climate change is a global issue, and these leaders demonstrate that their companies can look across borders to find alternative green energy solutions to fit their local circumstances."

Four European companies - Tetra Pak, British Telecom, Holcim and IKEA - join the European businesses of The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, General Motors, Interface Europe, Johnson & Johnson, Nike (CSC) and Staples to form the Green Power Market Development Group Europe. This new effort will explore opportunities to install renewable energy generation systems such as solar, wind, and bio-mass at their facilities in Europe and to purchase green electricity from their utilities.

The European partners will evaluate and deploy a variety of renewable energy technologies and engage the market place to take green power to scale. Collaborating with WRI on this effort is The Climate Group, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to building coalitions of businesses as well as city, state and national governments to address climate change.

‘The launch of the Green Power Market Development Group Europe will demonstrate that companies can reduce their environmental impact whilst still running highly profitable businesses.’ said Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group. ‘Green power is a dynamic and exciting part of our low carbon future.’

30 Nov 2005

A Norwegian prize for best environmental reporting by a large company has been awarded to Norske Skog, while Norske Skog Follum received an honourable mention in the same class.

Hanne Aaberg, senior vice president for corporate communications, and mill manager Wenche Ravlo accepted the awards from jury chair Astrid Nøklebye Heiberg. The presentation was made at a national conference on corporate social responsibility organised by the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo.

These prizes are intended to encourage enterprises in Norway to make constant improvements to their environmental and sustainability reporting.

They are presented annually by a group of organisations, including the Norwegian Foundation for Sustainable Consumption and Production (Grip), the Norwegian Institute of Public Accountants and the Norwegian Financial Services Organisation.

Other backers are the Norwegian Shipowners Association, the Norwegian Society of Financial Analysts, the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry, the Norwegian Association of Masters of Science in Business and the Norwegian Savings Banks Association.

This is the third time Norske Skog has won the best reporting award in the 10-year history of the prizes. Its annual report will now participate in a European contest on the best environmental reporting.

The jury said, ‘This report from Norske Skog stood out as the clear winner in its class. The report is both detailed and nicely presented. Environmental information has also been given a fine setting in the annual report, with a good list of contents.’

A total of 18 reports on social responsibility from large companies and five from small firms were assessed by the jury, plus 21 on the environment from large companies and 18 from small ones.

25 Nov 2005

The Finnish forest products group UPM has acquired 99% of the shares of the Russian logging company ZAO Tikhvinsky Komplexny Lespromkhoz from 200 private owners.

Through this acquisition, UPM aims to improve the availability of quality timber for UPM's own production plants in Russia as well as to the company's mills in Finland.

ZAO Tikhvinsky Komplexny Lespromkhoz has a logging licence for almost 200,000 ha of forests in the Tikhvin municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Leningrad province about 250 kilometres east of St. Petersburg. The company also owns two small sawmills.

Mr. Juri Vasilievits Orlov will continue as a managing director of the company. UPM aims to develop the know-how of the Tikhvinsky staff and to improve the efficiency of the company's operations. One part of this is a development project, which will result in forest management and wood sourcing practices, fulfilling the criteria of the international forest certification standards

24 Nov 2005

The Austrian technology group Andritz intends, together with the German Jagenberg AG, to set up a joint venture for the operations of Küsters’ in the sector of machinery for the paper and non-wovens industries.

Both enterprises announced this decision in an ad hoc report last Friday. Andritz AG, based in Graz, will take over 60% of the shares and the industrial leadership of the new enterprise which will continue to be based in Krefeld.

Dr. Wolfgang Leitner, president and CEO of Andritz AG, gave the reasons for this involvement: ‘Küsters' successful de-watering and finishing technology, which has been in use for many years, offers a wide range of applications in the pulp and paper industries for Andritz.’

Comments and reaction from the Jagenberg company are also positive. CEO Stefan Kranzbühler stated, ‘Following the take-over of the Küsters Group in the summer of this year, the opportunity to further boost the development perspectives for Küsters’ paper and non-wovens businesses jointly with Andritz, and to secure them on a long-term basis, presented itself rather unexpectedly.’

The planned participation of Andritz in these particular business sectors represents a forward looking step for the new positioning of the Küsters Group. The decision to restructure the third Küsters division, machines for the textile industry, which will in future operate exclusively within Germany at the Küsters Textile GmbH based in Zittau (Saxony), had already been taken.

23 Nov 2005

Stora Enso’s Kaukopää mill in Finland is to replace its PQM, a previous generation pulp quality measurement system, with the new kajaaniMAP analyzer which includes automatic online freeness, fibre and shive measurements.

The analyzer will be installed in the BCTMP plant.

The new features of the kajaaniMAP system, supported by the experience gained from the kajaaniKSF freeness measurements, reliability, repeatability, speed of measurement dictated the reason for the decision. The same measurement technology has been integrated into the new system. The Kaukopää mill already has four kajaaniKSF analyzers in use.

kajaaniMAP was officially launched at the SPCI 2005 exhibition by Metso Automation and has already generated dozens of orders. Several have been delivered to Finland, the USA and Canada, and single units have also been ordered to Indonesia, Germany, France and Sweden. About 50% of the analyzers so far sold include all the measurement modules such as fibre properties, shive content and Canadian Standard Freeness. With a modular design, it is expandable with new measurement modules at a later date.

The new analyzer is applicable to paper machine stock preparation and to all pulping processes including recycled fibre, mechanical and chemical pulping processes.

23 Nov 2005

The installation of a double oxygen delignification stage on pulp line No.2; new drives, a new control system and a new control room for pulp dryer No.2; and a new medium-voltage switchboard plant are the three largest investments that have been made during a recent two-week shutdown at Södra Cell Mörrum.

The three projects represent a total investment of SEK 90 million with the total value of new equipment installed during the shutdown approx. SEK 130 million.
The key results of these new investments are, more efficient operation, increased quality and a capacity increase of 10,000 tpy.

A double oxygen delignification stage is already in operation in the bleach plant on line No.1 and a similar stage has now also been installed on line No.2. ‘This will give us higher pulp strength and improved final bleaching.’ says operating engineer Gösta Wik.

The reason for the major investments on pulp dryer No.2 is that the machine has previously been a bottleneck within the production process. The power drives from the wire section up to and including the slitter and cutter section have been extended and rebuilt. The entire dryer No.2 is now run from a screen-based control system in the new control room.

‘This means we can increase production stability in the pulp dryer.’ said project engineer Mats Lennvig.

Extensive work has also been done in the mill’s electrical distribution plant where an entire switchboard plant has been replaced with a modern distribution switchboard plant installed in the existing location. The other switchboard plant was replaced in 2004. ‘Now that we have replaced our old plants, from 1962 and 1970, we have better and more secure equipment with its own control system, which also opens new possibilities for plant monitoring and control.’ explained Jan-Olof Karlsson, electrical and instrument section manager at Södra Cell Mörrum.

‘Another important outcome is that our new switchboard plants make it possible for us to run our three electricity generator simultaneously.’

The Mörrum mill was at a standstill during weeks 43 and 44 while these major installations were carried out along with seven other major projects. A number of minor improvements and general maintenance work were carried out. The mill’s start-up was more difficult than normal, but as of last weekend production is running normally again.

22 Nov 2005

Kadant Lamort, of Vitry-Le-François, France, a subsidiary of Kadant Inc., has received its Quality Management System recertification under ISO 9001:2000 for a further three years.

The recertification audit in November revealed that Kadant Lamort’s quality system is well-managed and undergoing continuous improvement.

Alain Serres, president of Kadant Lamort, said, ‘This important achievement is a direct result of the participation and dedication of all of our employees. The recertification confirms Kadant Lamort’s commitment to quality and will allow us to provide the most advanced systems and equipment to our pulp and paper customers around the world.’

Kadant Lamort provides a range of products and services to the global pulp and paper industry. Products include stock-preparation systems used for the production of virgin and recycled packaging, printing, tissue, and special grades. The business also supplies paper machine doctoring equipment and other papermaking accessories, water filtration, formation, and cleaning and conditioning systems.

Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) is a leading supplier to the global pulp and paper industry, with a range of products and services for improving efficiency and quality in pulp and paper production, including paper machine accessories, and systems for stock preparation, fluid handling, and water management.

In addition, the company produces granules from papermaking by-products for agricultural and lawn and garden applications. Kadant is based in Acton, Massachusetts, and, with the addition of Kadant Johnson in May 2005, has annual revenues of approximately US $270 million.

22 Nov 2005

On 15th November, Investment AB Kinnevik, Sweden, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Korsnäs AB has entered into an agreement with Sveaskog Förvaltnings AB for the acquisition of its subsidiary AssiDomän Cartonboard Holding AB (‘Frövi’) for a total consideration of SEK 3650 million in cash on an enterprise value basis.

The acquisition fits well into Korsnäs’ successful operation within advanced highly refined board and paper products for the packaging industry.

Frövi’s technical production capacity is 400,000 tpy of carton board and 250,000 tpy of chemical pulp. In 2004 Frövi had revenues of SEK 2437 million and an EBITDA of SEK 542 million. In 2004 the combination of Korsnäs Industrial and Frövi, excluding Korsnäs Packaging and Korsnäs Forestry, had a total production capacity of 1.1 million tonnes of paper and carton board, revenues of SEK 6244 million and an EBITDA of SEK 1532 million. Frövi has recently received a concession to increase its capacity to 450,000 tpy of carton board.

The logic of the transaction is strong as the synergies between Korsnäs and Frövi are significant. The integration process is expected to produce annual run-rate EBITDA synergies of about SEK 150 million. The acquisition of Frövi will be mainly financed with an increase of Korsnäs’ existing syndicated loan facility.

Vigo Carlund, CEO of Korsnäs AB and CEO and president of Investment AB Kinnevik commented, ‘Ever since Kinnevik’s first acquisition of shares in Korsnäs in 1936, Korsnäs has delivered superior returns to our shareholders. The acquisition of Frövi is a unique opportunity for us to further invest in our world-class paper and carton board production and continue to generate solid returns to our shareholders.’

‘The paper and carton board industry is becoming more international by the day and today we face competition from almost every part of the world. Together with Frövi we can improve our efficiency and strengthen our efforts in product development, which enables us to maintain the most attractive product offering at competitive prices for our customers while continuing to achieve industry-leading returns for our shareholders. Both Korsnäs’ and Frövi’s mills are well invested and capital expenditure is expected to be below depreciations for both mills in the coming years.”

The transaction is subject to approval by competition authorities and is expected to be finalised in the first half of 2006.

22 Nov 2005

AC drives manufacturer Vacon, in Finland is to extend its product offering in the high-end power range from 3 MW to 5 MW.

This extension complements Vacon's product offering in the low voltage area. Vacon offers AC drive solutions from 0.25 kW to 5 MW in the entire low voltage area for various requirements. Up to 2 MW units are available as air- or liquid-cooled versions; units above 2 MW are liquid-cooled.
‘At Vacon, our market position demands the combination of a wide product range, the latest know-how in both technology and business, customer orientation, and pioneering technology.’ says Vesa Laisi, president and CEO, of the Vacon Group. ‘Vacon's other strategic choices include 100% focus on AC drives, multi-channel sales and efficient and flexible operating methods.’ he concluded.

‘As an independent supplier, Vacon is a major player in the AC drives market. With this extended power range, we will secure the company's future growth and improve its competitive edge, especially among OEM and end-customers as well as system integrator partners.’ said Heikki Hiltunen, vice president, marketing and sales.

In high-end solutions, the control of a 5 MW AC induction motor with a low voltage (690 V) AC drive is a notable technical achievement: 5 MW is close to a maximum power available from any single motor. In applications requiring motor powers higher than 5 MW, parallel motors are normally used.

22 Nov 2005

The PEFC Council has suspended the Swiss Q-Label Wood Certification Scheme for non-compliance with three PEFC requirements.

These three requirements are compliance with the international PEFC chain of custody rules; the provision of a publicly available certification report summary of the certification results and information from external parties being used as evidence in the forest certification process.

The Swiss Q-Label Certification scheme’s suspension will be lifted once sufficient evidence of compliance on all three issues has been presented to and approved by the PEFC Council Board of Directors.

All Swiss Q-label certified forest areas cannot be considered as PEFC certified, nor can the Swiss Q-label chain of custody be considered as PEFC compliant until the suspension has been lifted. In addition the PEFC logo and claims cannot be used in association with Swiss Q-label products until the suspension has been lifted.

The PEFC Council will work closely with the representatives of the Swiss Q-Label Wood Certification Scheme to ensure PEFC endorsement of the Q-label system is reinstated as soon as possible.

21 Nov 2005

This Pulp Update is an abbreviated issue. Next month’s edition, which will be distributed in early December, will feature a report of the NYBOT programme at Pulp Week in London during the week of 7th November.

The NYBOT programmes were lively and well-attended; the next Update will feature comments and observations of the participants.

Pulp futures at NYBOT reached a new high in October, reaching over 2000 contracts for the first time and increasing by over 90% since the end of September. Options open interest also rose, increasing almost 36% from the end of September. Open interest has risen since the last day of October and, as of today, there are 2111 pulp futures contracts open.

There is open interest in each of the seven futures contract months open for trading, but the highest level of open interest is currently in the December 2006 (612 contracts open), representing 30% of today’s open interest. We think the growing open interest in the back month contracts is a good sign for the market, and represents a growing acceptance and confidence in NYBOT pulp trading.

In addition, the October futures volume of 2120 represents an 86% increase over September volume and the October options volume of 818 represents a 33% increase over September – both encouraging signs.

17 Nov 2005

Ahlstrom, manufacturer of high performance fibre-based materials, has today announced a €7 million investment in the construction of a new co-generation facility at its Turin mill in Italy.

The new facility, due for completion in early 2007, will secure a competitive supply of steam and electricity to serve the energy needs of Ahlstrom's Turin mill. It will be built and run by an external partner under an ‘own and operate’ agreement.

The Turin mill produces release base papers for the self-adhesive labeling industry and filtration media for automotive and specialty applications. This investment will enable the plant to satisfy its growing energy needs for the foreseeable future.

16 Nov 2005

The containerboard PM6 at Papierfabrik Palm in Wörth, Germany, supplied by Metso Paper has set a new world speed record for containerboard machines.

On 10th November, last week, PM6 ran at an average speed of 1463 m/min for a period of 24 hours, producing corrugating medium of 100-105 g/m². The top speed achieved was 1507 m/min.

The machine was supplied by Metso Paper in 2002 with a web width of 10 m, and is producing testliner in a range of 90 to 140 g/m², corrugating medium of 80 to 130 g/m² and Schrenz of 70 to 120 g/m². The quality of all grades produced on PM6 has been exceptional since start-up.

Metso’s delivery consisted of the complete recycled fibre lines and stock preparation systems, the containerboard machine itself, two winders and roll handling systems.

Papierfabrik Palm is one of Europe's most skilled users of recycled fibre with experience dating back to its establishment in 1872. The company employs 700 people in three mills. Its total production capacity is 820,000 tpy of base paper for corrugated board and 560,000 tpy of graphic grades.

16 Nov 2005

Economic growth in the eurozone increased to 0.6% in the third quarter (Q3) from Q2, resulting in a year-on-year expansion of 1.5%.

The quarterly GDP growth rate was a sharp acceleration from a 0.3% rise in the period April-June.

The strongest performer within the region was Finland, where the economy rose 1.9%, in the third quarter, against the second following two quarters of contraction. Greece was close behind, growing 1.7% after a negative second quarter.

German GDP expanded by 0.6% while France recorded a 0.7% rise. However, GDP growth in Italy slowed to a quarterly rate of 0.3% from 0.7% in Q2.

The economy of the European Union of 25 countries also grew 0.6% in quarterly terms and 1.6% year-on-year. GDP growth for Q2 was revised up to 0.2% after a previous estimate that the economy had stagnated.

UK consumer price inflation slowed to an annual rate of 2.3% in October from 2.5% in September. This is the first time inflation has dipped since September 2004. Consumer prices increased 0.1% on the month, following a gain of 0.2% in September.

The UK’s price of fuels and lubricants fell 1.4% in October, while vegetable prices dropped 2.5 percent. The core rate of inflation, decelerated to 1.6% from 1.7% in September.

15 Nov 2005

Metso Paper is to modernise the finishing line for paper machine PM6 at UPM's Kaipola mill in Jämsä, Finland.

Start-up of the upgraded LWC finishing line is scheduled for August 2006. The value of the order is approximately €9 million.

The delivery will comprise a rebuild of the JR1000 winders, installation of a new WinBelt rewinder and new StreamLine roll wrapping machine. The modernisation of the finishing line will improve the quality of the rolls produced and will enable the production of bigger rolls. PM6 has a wire width of 9.1 meters and an operating speed of 1600 m/min.

The finishing line will be up-graded to allow for the production of super jumbo rolls. The existing JR1000 single drum winders will be rebuilt with super heavy winding stations to produce rolls measuring 4.32 m in diameter and weighing eight tonnes. In addition, the automation level of these winders will have a new control system and automatic set change with tail gluing.

The WinBelt rewinder incorporates the latest winding technology to deliver high roll quality. The use of Winding Force as the primary winding tool to control roll structure enables winding of the widest rotogravure rolls.

The fully automated StreamLine represents the latest in super jumbo roll wrapping technology. The wrapping machine is equipped with two industrial robots and overlap wrapping. The delivery also includes roll conveyors from the winders through the wrapping machine to the warehouse. The wrapping machine and conveyor system are both completely non-hydraulic.

UPM's Kaipola mill operates three paper machines, which produce a total of 710,000 tpy of LWC, directory paper and newsprint.

15 Nov 2005

Kemira is to invest in a production plant for paper chemicals in Yixing, in the People’s Republic of China.

The unit will be built in connection with Kemira's existing water treatment chemicals plant, located about 160 km from Shanghai. The production of paper chemicals will be started during the first half of 2006. Including the investments in production at the Group's Yixing site next year, Kemira's total investment in the production of pulp and paper chemicals and water treatment chemicals in Yixing will total at the level of CNY 60 million (€ 7 million)

The investment will strengthen the position of Kemira Chemicals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., on the expanding market for pulp and paper chemicals in China. Kemira will step up its sales of pulp and paper chemicals and water treatment chemicals in China many times over during the next few years.

The infrastructure, administrative services and utilities of the existing water treatment chemicals plant will also be used for the new paper chemicals production line for.

‘The volume of paper production in China has risen to about 50 million tpy. It has been estimated that production figures will rise steadily for the next ten years. A sharp rise in demand for paper chemicals is expected with the anticipated transition towards finer paper qualities and following the increasing number of modern, big paper machines.’ says Juha Kuikka, MD, of Kemira Chemicals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd

‘We are talking about an investment in the expanding new pulp and paper chemical markets, in line with Kemira's strategy. The Kemira Group is the second largest global supplier in pulp and paper chemicals. As suppliers to paper producers with worldwide markets we are expected to be present on all continents.’ says Jukka Hakala, export manager, pulp and paper chemicals.

15 Nov 2005

By modifying two older type Finckh screens from centripetal to centrifugal operations at Metsä Tissue Raubach, Germany, the mill has achieved an increase in production while improving screening efficiency and reducing specific energy consumption.

Both screens operate in parallel as first stage screening in the approach flow system ahead of the PM3 headbox. A new, second screening stage ensures continuous, economic reject discharge with a minimum of fibre losses.

Rebuilding the Finckh screens required no civil works but just the exchange of the rotors and screen baskets as well as some adaptation to the piping. This meant the mill could carry out the rebuild during a minor shutdown in the summer earlier this year. Shortly after start-up PM3 was running smoothly and with excellent screening results.

Voith screens operate with both hole and C-bar wedge wire screen baskets. Metsä Tissue’s combination of the Voith Contour small hole screen basket with the MultiFoil rotor has proved to be very successful.

Following the rebuild, production on PM3 has increased by 20% to approximately 85 tpd within a basis weight range of 15.2 to 17.1 g/m2.

15 Nov 2005

The Georgia-Pacific Corp. in the USA and Koch Industries, Inc., have today announced that they have reached a definitive agreement for Koch Forest Products, Inc., a wholly owned Koch subsidiary, to make a $48 per share cash tender offer for all shares of Georgia-Pacific.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of Georgia-Pacific and Koch. It has an equity value of $13.2 billion and a total enterprise value of $21 billion, including all Georgia-Pacific debt. The price to Georgia-Pacific shareholders represents a premium of 39% based on the closing price of Georgia-Pacific common stock on 11th November.

Koch Forest Products expects to launch a cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of Georgia-Pacific common stock no later than 18th November, followed by a second step cash-out merger at the offer price. The closing of the tender offer is expected to be completed promptly, subject to customary closing conditions, including anti-trust clearances in various countries.

Debt financing has been secured by Koch through Citigroup. Koch has confirmed that Georgia-Pacific will be operated as a privately held, wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries. Georgia-Pacific will continue to do business worldwide under the Georgia-Pacific name and continue to operate its businesses from its Atlanta headquarters as an independently managed company.

Included in the transaction are all assets of Georgia-Pacific, including its North America and International consumer products segments, as well as its building products, packaging, and paper and bleached board segments.

‘This transaction is the most dramatic step yet in Georgia-Pacific's history and its transformation. We are pleased it offers very significant, incremental value to our shareholders, as is warranted by our company's tremendous assets and talented employees.’ said A.D. ‘Pete’ Correll, Georgia-Pacific’s chairman and chief executive officer.

‘Koch's acquisition of Georgia-Pacific will enable us to move into the future in an exciting fashion and continue achieving our financial and operating goals with committed new ownership that is exceptionally strong financially, has a long history of outstanding business success and a dedication to operational excellence.’ he concluded.

‘Georgia-Pacific is an outstanding company with highly talented employees, a heritage of leadership in the marketplace and strong branded products.’ said Charles G. Koch, chairman and chief executive officer of Koch Industries, Inc. ‘By joining our group of privately held companies, Georgia-Pacific will be able to maintain a long-term focus on growth and a commitment to delivering value for all of its constituents. As a wholly owned Koch subsidiary, it will benefit from our historical practice of reinvesting up to 90% of earnings in our businesses. We have extensive experience with cyclical, highly competitive businesses and the ability to commit appropriate resources to enhance the company's assets and pursue a growth agenda.’

Koch acquired Georgia-Pacific's non-integrated market and fluff pulp operations at New Augusta, Miss., and Brunswick, Ga., in May 2004. Since the purchase, Koch has invested in these businesses, which have been operating as Koch Cellulose. Upon completion of this transaction, these operations will be reintegrated with Georgia-Pacific businesses.

‘Through the experience we gained in our recent transaction with Koch, we are very familiar with Koch's outstanding strategic asset management approach and capabilities.’ said Mr Correll. ‘It is gratifying that the same highly effective leadership team we dealt with earlier took a focused interest in all of Georgia-Pacific and in our continuing success story as an industry leader. We are confident that this combination will be a winner, bringing superior strengths, shared core values and readiness to compete in all of our markets.’

Koch's president and chief operating officer Joe W. Moeller said, ‘We view this major acquisition not only as a key strategic investment for Koch but as a platform for future growth. We believe this transaction represents a unique opportunity in which each of our enterprises and employees will be able to prosper together.’

With its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific is one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of tissue, packaging, paper, building products and related chemicals. With 2004 annual sales of approximately US $20 billion, the company employs 55,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America and Europe. Its familiar consumer tissue brands include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Sparkle®, Soft 'n Gentle®, Mardi Gras®, Vanity Fair® and Lotus®, as well as the Dixie® brand of disposable cups, plates and cutlery.

Koch Industries, Inc., based in Wichita, Kan., owns a diverse group of companies engaged in trading, operations and investments worldwide, including a presence in 50 countries in such core industries as trading, petroleum, chemicals, energy, fibres, fertilizers, pulp and paper, ranching, securities and finance.

14 Nov 2005

The Zhuhai Hongta Renheng Paper Co. Ltd. in Zhuhai, China, has placed an order with Voith Paper for the rebuild of its board machine BM2.

The order will be handled together with Voith’s Chinese branch office in Shanghai and the Voith Paper manufacturing facility in Liaoyang.

The machine, which was supplied and started-up by Voith Paper in 1999, is to be upgraded to meet today’s requirements. In addition to the objective of increasing the machine speed from presently 430 m/min to 600 m/min, Zhuhai Paper’s investment is mainly to enhance product quality and thus its position as a leader of quality products in China.

BM2 has a wire width of 4800 mm and produces folding boxboard (FBB) in a basis-weight range of 170 - 400 g/m².

The order mainly comprises the supply and start-up of a ModuleJet headbox, the DuoShake wire-shaking technology for improving formation and CD strength of the sheet in the forming zone, the modernisation of the existing DuoFormer D, parts of the dryer section and an AquaJenty for uniform moisture application on the board surface in the calender area.

Re-start of the board machine is scheduled for the middle of 2006, following a short shut down for the rebuild.

14 Nov 2005

The majority of Automatic Slitter positioning systems sold are justified on the basis of time saved in making location changes, and knife placement accuracy.

The new Dienes 'Quik-Set’ positioning system maximises time savings by moving all knife holders simultaneously, with the benefit of high accuracy placement via computer controls.

In-line operations, such as extruders or paper machines, require rapid holder set-up changes. Dienes' new system can change all the holders in five seconds with a very precise positioning accuracy. The systems are available with any Dienes shear or crush cut holder. Shear cut systems require a motor driven female knife.

14 Nov 2005

UPM’s Raflatac has today celebrated the completion of the new coating line at its pressure sensitive labelstock production facility in Fletcher, North Carolina.

With the new coating line, the second at the Fletcher facility, Raflatac will expand its product range. The new coater will focus especially on manufacturing high quality thin films and hot melt adhesive labelstocks for the North American market.

Since 2000, Raflatac has developed from an importer of pressure sensitive labelstock to the second largest local manufacturer of pressure sensitive label materials in the USA. The investment further strengthens Raflatac’s position in the North American labelstock market, which is expected to grow by 4-6% annually.

‘Raflatac is currently implementing a strong global expansion strategy with major investment projects in North America, Europe and Asia. With our global investment programme we want to leverage our production and service capabilities to all major markets globally and our target is to be the number one choice for label converters whereever we operate.’ says Heikki Pikkarainen, president of UPM Labelstock Business.

‘This technology investment, coupled with the recent establishment of UPM Rafsec’s new RFID tag production facility in Fletcher, demonstrates our commitment to creating best-in-class production and distribution for the North American labelstock market.’ concluded Mr Pikkarainen.

11 Nov 2005

Stora Enso has signed an agreement with Gaofeng Forest - Pulp & Paper Company to purchase 34,000 ha of timber and land use rights in several state-owned farms owned by Gaofeng, in Southern China.

Gaofeng is a company assigned by the Guangxi government to be the Chinese owner of an integrated forest, pulp and paper project in southern coastal Guangxi. The agreement enables Stora Enso to increase the area of land concession rights and wholly-owned plantations in Guangxi province in to about 60,000 ha.

Stora Enso started investing in Guangxi in 2002 with the aim of establishing 120,000 ha of industrial hardwood plantations to provide fibre for integrated pulp, paper and board production in southern Guangxi.

‘We have started the application process for an integrated forest industry project in Guangxi, including production capacity of about one million tpy of chemical and chemi-thermomechanical pulp, and about one million tonnes of paper and board. Guangxi is one of the few places in China where Stora Enso could build a pulp, paper and board mill complex close to plantations.’ explained Markku Pentikäinen, president of Stora Enso Asia Pacific.

The industrial development project in the region is subject to final approval by Stora Enso's Board of Directors.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has carried out an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Guangxi plantations with the aim of assessing all their environmental and social impacts and recommending how any adverse effects might be minimised. This assessment has included scenarios of up to 120,000 ha of plantations.

Stora Enso's Suzhou Mill in Jiangsu Province with a production capacity of 240 000 tpy is one of the largest manufacturers of coated fine paper in China. In Hangzhou Stora Enso has a core factory with a capacity of 30,000 tpy.

10 Nov 2005

Ahlstrom, a leading global supplier of speciality label and packaging papers, today announced a €30 million plan to expand the production capacity of supercalendered release base papers at its La Gère mill in France.

Scheduled for early 2007, the investment will include modification of several components of the La Gère PM6 and related off-line finishing equipment. The resulting speed-up of the machine will increase current production capacity by approximately 25,000 tpy, and will significantly improve product quality.

The investment recognises the high level of requirements, of producers of silicone coated release liners, for two-side adhesive tapes and other speciality applications, who represent the mill's main customer base, in addition to major producers of self-adhesive laminates for the labeling business.

The investment follows a similar capacity increase, announced earlier, that is planned for the mill in Turin, Italy, in January 2006. Both are in line with Ahlstrom's strategy to consistently increase the capacity and product quality of its release base papers.

Average growth in worldwide demand for release base papers, used for the manufacturing of self-adhesive laminates and silicone coated release liners, is estimated at 5-7%/y. This growth is mainly driven by the increasing use of pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) labelling for product identification, decoration and tracking.

Ahlstrom's target is to exceed the average market growth in this business and to strengthen its global position. The company is also assessing opportunities to expand the production of release base papers outside Europe.

Ahlstrom is a global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of high performance fibre-based materials. Non-wovens and speciality papers, made by Ahlstrom, are used in a large variety of everyday products, such as filters, wipes, flooring, labels and tapes.

09 Nov 2005

The forest-based sector will today meet at European level and look to innovation and the challenges of a sustainable society to map its role in the 21st century.

A two-day forum in Stockholm entitled, ‘Innovative and sustainable use of forest resources: Research Forum 2005’, supported by the European Commission and attended by the Swedish Prime minister, Goran Persson, will for the first time bring together the sector, the research community and the political system to set out how this can be achieved.

Forest-based products and services already play an essential role in our daily lives, providing value goods, comfort, hygiene, security and information. Now, forest-based sector research is moving into an exciting and essential period of development. It has been predicted that the sector will be a key contributor to a sustainable European society by 2030.

In a new, bio-based and customer driven European economy, the sector would make significant contributions to society by fostering an extended use of renewable resources; delivering innovation in process, products and services.

In order to realise these predictions, all relevant stakeholders in the forest-based sector have joined forces under the umbrella of an industry driven Technology Platform (TP) and are collaborating to produce a Strategic Research Agenda that acknowledges the vital role research and innovation will play in growth and sustainability, and which will be outlined at the forum.

EU Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potocnik today recognised the sector’s vision and efforts:
‘I would like to congratulate you for developing one of the most advanced Technology Platforms. I trust that your Strategic Research Agenda will provide a clear view and roadmap for providing answers to some of the challenges with which we are faced in today’s global world. One of them is certainly improving European competitiveness. But at the same time preserving and improving the quality of life for all citizens of Europe is equally important. I believe that forestry related research can contribute to both goals.’

Björn Hägglund, chairman of the forest-based sector’s TP High level group said:
‘Future success for the forest-based sector lies in the development of innovative products and services. If the industry were invented now, it would be the breakthrough of the twenty-first century: using sun energy, water and carbon dioxide for the production of millions of tonnes of useful products for communication, packaging, hygiene, construction and energy.’

Potential research based innovations could include enhancing sustainability through the development of a new breed of ‘green chemicals’ from wood, both ‘fine’ and ‘basic’, as a substitute for oil based chemicals. Research could also lead to trees that are more resistant to the stresses caused by climate change.

Products providing ‘active’ information to consumers could be expected through the integration of conventional fibre-based printed products and digital media, leading to ‘hybrid media’. For example providing electronic links between newspapers or periodicals and home computers and allowing the delivery of tailored, up-to-date information. And, in the future, wood materials could be actively used a stabiliser to manage indoor climate (humidity and temperature).

09 Nov 2005

The Australian Commerce and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today gave unconditional approval of Norske Skog's acquisition of the remaining 50% of the shares in PanAsia Paper Company from Abitibi-Consolidated.

The deal is expected to be closed on 18 November, at which time the transfer of funds will also take place. PanAsia will be fully consolidated into Norske Skog financial accounts as from 18 November.

This deal makes Norske Skog the sole owner of PanAsia, which ranks as one of the largest newsprint manufacturers in Asia holding leading market positions in China, Korea and Thailand. Through the acquisition the Norske Skog group will become what is claimed as the world’s largest manufacturer of newsprint, with 30% of its newsprint production capacity located in Asia.

‘Sole ownership of PanAsia will give us full access to the largest and fastest-growing market for newsprint in the world.’ said Norske Skog chief executive Jan Oksum. ‘The investment is fully in line with our strategy. We have gradually increased our holding in PanAsia over the past seven years and we will be taking over a modern and competitive company. This region offers the most interesting future opportunities for Norske Skog. Although our collaboration with Abitibi has worked well, we see considerable advantages in being the sole owner.’

Following the acquisition, 25% of Norske Skog’s total capacity – including magazine paper and newsprint – will be located in Asia. This continent already consumes more newsprint than either Europe or North America and growth, particularly in China, is expected to remain substantial in coming years.

PanAsia is the sole owner of two newsprint mills in Korea. It has a majority holding in two mills in China and one in Thailand. Its total production capacity on a 100% basis is 1.8 million tpy. Paper machines built since 1990 account for 70% of this capacity. This means the mills are modern and efficient. In addition, PanAsia has very high health and safety standards.

08 Nov 2005

The Finnish forest products company UPM is to extend its co-operation with the Dutch shipping company, Spliethoff's Bevrachtingskantoor B.V

UPM and Spliethoff have signed a long term partnership agreement which covers UPM's export traffic from Europe to North America, clay shipments from North America and Brazil to Europe, export from Finland to UPM's discharge ports in Lübeck, and Rostock in Germany, Antwerp in Belgium and Tilbury in the UK. The value of the agreement is approximately €100 million and the total transportation volume is 3.5 million tpy.

According to the agreement, Spliethoff will continue to develop its fleet by investing in eight newbuildings (ConRo) for European trade. In addition, the company has an option to increase its North Atlantic fleet by two additional side-port vessels (S-type) to 16 vessels in total. The total value of Spliethoff's investment will be approximately €500 million.

The agreement will improve the cost efficiency of UPM's transport operations in the European and North American markets. In addition, concentration of transport flow increases customer service and improves delivery reliability.

Spliethoff operates about 100 vessels a size range from 3000 to 20,000 deadweight tons. The Spliethoff Group consists of Spliethoff Bevrachtingskantoor B.V. (Amsterdam), Big Lift Shipping (Amsterdam), Wijnne & Barends' shipping company (Delfzijl) and Transfennica (Helsinki).

08 Nov 2005

ABB is to deliver a drive system, two web imaging systems, and three Quality Control Systems (QCS) to Nordland Papier GmbH, part of the paper division of UPM-Kymmene, in Germany.

ABB´s Drive System will run and monitor the entire production line of PM3 including a new winder. The paper machine drive system includes 54 drive sections. UPM is investing about €82 million in rebuilding PM3. Following the investment, production capacity on PM3 will be 340,000 tpy. The PM is scheduled to start-up after the rebuild in the third quarter of 2006.

The web imaging system HDI8 ensures defect-free paper quality. The new generation HDI8 includes smarter and more accurate cameras and new detection algorithms. The systems will be delivered to both PM3 and PM4 to replace the existing system delivered earlier by ABB.

Nordland Papier has also ordered three complete Industrial IT Quality Control Systems; one system for the off-machine coater (SM1) and a system on each of the two associated supercalenders (SK1, SK2). The order includes up-grading six existing measurement platforms to the very latest Smart Platform and Smart Sensor technology plus one new Smart Platform with Smart Sensors.

In addition, Smart coat weight sensors will be added for more accurate and faster measurement of the coat weight application. There are four CD coat weight actuator systems on the coater. Two of these will be interfaced to the new system and two have been replaced to increase the actuator resolution to 50 millimetre spacing.

07 Nov 2005

Voith Paper Automation has signed an OEM agreement with Rockwell Automation to extend all automation components from Voith Paper Automation to the Rockwell ‘Integrated Architecture Platform’.

This platform will be used predominantly for Voith’s paper machines and process solutions in the US market. This additional automation platform enables Voith Paper Automation to offer the right system solution to any customer and market requirement world-wide. The co-operation combines Rockwell Automation’s knowledge of automation, power, control and information technology together with the comprehensive process know-how and automation expertise of Voith Paper Automation.

This transfer of knowledge is the basis for the development of application-oriented solutions for the pulp and paper industry to help increase the efficiency and production capabilities of mills.

The OEM agreement includes close co-operation with joint development activities between Rockwell and Voith Paper Automation. This makes it possible to cover all pulp and paper production applications including machine (MCS) and drive controls, standard (DCS) process controls and more complex process controls, quality control technology and information system.

From the second quarter of 2006 all the main products, systems and application solutions will be converted to the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture, primarily for modernisations and rebuilds. The new architecture will be implemented throughout the production line starting from the third quarter of 2006 and the first fully integrated Voith paper machine and process line solution using the Rockwell platform will then follow at the end of 2006.

07 Nov 2005

ABB, one of the world’s leading power and automation technology groups will deliver a new drive system to UPM´s Docelles paper mill in France.

UPM is to invest approximately €26 million in rebuilding PM1. ABB´s drive system will run and monitor the paper machine. The system will also be integrated with the existing the automation system also delivered by ABB. The drive system provides reliability and control precision as well as efficiency and safety.

The rebuild will be completed in the third quarter of 2006. The investment will improve the paper quality, allows for the development of new paper grades and will increase the production capacity up to 155,000 tpy.

07 Nov 2005

PMT Italia has recently started up the new MHI-CIV headbox, at the Lucart Group’s, Cartiera Lucchesse Porcari mill, in Lucca, Italy, successfully

This rebuild, of the paper machine, has consolidated PMT Italia’s experience with dilution profiling headboxes, on MG grades and on light weight grammages, as well as for tissue.
The improvement in the basis weight profile, achieved 24 hours after start-up, led to a reduction in 2-sigma of 80% compared to the values before rebuild.

‘The highly technical PMT Italia Team together with the paper mill’s team, Messrs. Martella, Calamari and Bruni, co-ordinated by director Giorgio Pasquini, responded very well to the challenging project.’ The new headbox has started-up on schedule and has achieved very good results from the very beginning.

This installation confirms that MHI-PMT high level of technological knowledge offers significant solutions suitable for most papermills’ requirements.

04 Nov 2005

Metso Paper will supply a new hardwood fibre line to the Indian pulp and paper producer Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd.

In addition, Metso Paper will supply a new bleaching process for the company's bagasse fibre line. The total value of the orders is about €25 million. The new systems are scheduled to be started up at the beginning of 2007.

Both of the deliveries include main process machinery, pumps, field instruments and engineering. Erection and start-up supervision will be ordered separately.

Metso Paper's supply for the hardwood fibre line, from cooking through bleaching, includes a SuperBatch cooking process for pulp digesting. This cooking technology produces produce high pulp quality and is a very flexible cooking process. The new line is designed to produce 300 tpd of fully bleached pulp using mainly eucalyptus as the raw material. The digesting process for Tamil Nadu will be the 15th SuperBatch cooking system installation worldwide

The process following cooking features TwinRoll wash presses in each stage of washing, both for brown stock and bleaching. Both knots and shives will be screened out using DeltaCombi screening technology and the pulp will be further delignified in a two-stage OxyTrac oxygen delignification process prior to final bleaching.

For pulp bleaching a short sequence O-D-EOP-D elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching process is to be used. Altogether, the selected process represents an environmentally sound, modern, pulping technology.

The bleaching process for the bagasse line is designed for a capacity of 500 tpd, and will be the biggest of its kind in the world. The pulp is produced in two existing fibre lines and the new bleaching system will be common to both lines. The bleaching sequence is D-EOP-D, representing a modern ECF-process. For each stage of washing in the bleach plant, TwinRoll wash presses will be installed.

Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd. mill is situated at Kagithapuram in the Karur District of the State of Tamil Nadu south west of Chennai (Madras). The company produces newsprint and printing and writing papers using hardwood and bagasse as the primary raw materials. Tamil Nadu is the largest bagasse-based mill in the world and it has India's largest production capacity, at a single location.

03 Nov 2005

Suzano Bahia Sul Papel e Celulose S.A. (‘Suzano’) has signed a letter of intent with Aker Kvaerner for a cooking plant and a complete recovery island for the expansion project at the Mucuri mill in the state of Bahia, Brazil.

The order is worth more than US $350 million to Aker Kvaerner. ’This is one of the biggest orders ever in this area for Aker Kvaerner. It marks yet another important reference on the fast growing South American market.’ said Inge K. Hansen, president and CEO of Aker Kvaerner.

The contract is part of Suzano's expansion project consisting of a new bleached kraft pulp line at the existing Mucuri mill, in southern Bahia State. The new line will increase the mill's pulp production by one million tpy, using eucalyptus its raw material.

Aker Kvaerner will provide engineering, procurement and construction services (EPC) under the new contract. Start-up is scheduled for the third quarter of 2007.

Kvaerner Pulping, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will deliver the cooking plant, featuring the latest Compact Cooking technology, and the white liquor plant. With a capacity of 10,000 m3 per day the white liquor plant will be the biggest single-line in the world.

Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will deliver a new recovery boiler, modernisation of an existing recovery boiler and a new evaporation plant. The new recovery boiler rated at 4700 tpd of dry solids, will be one of the largest in the world. The recovery boiler to be modernised, rated at 3400 tpd of dry solids, was originally delivered by Kvaerner Power in 1990. The new evaporation plant has a capacity of 1100 tph of evaporated water.

03 Nov 2005

UPM’s president and CEO, Jussi Pesonen, comments on UPM’s interim report for January – September in the third quarter of 2005.

’UPM's financial results in the third quarter of 2005 reflect systematic cost-reductions and high levels of self-sufficiency in resources. However, this year is again marked by a sharp increase in the cost of both raw materials and energy. To restore targeted profitability, both significant improvements in our operational efficiency and increases in paper prices are needed. The biggest challenges are in our magazine paper and newsprint businesses, where it is clear we must further improve our cost-competitiveness.'

Key figures for July – September 2005 (July – September 2004):
• Operating profit, excluding non-recurring items: €157 million (€137 million);
• Earnings per share, excluding non-recurring items: €0.19 (€0.19);
• Profit before tax, excluding non-recurring items: €141 million (€121 million);
• Sales: €2243 million (€2449 million);
• Balance sheet strengthened, gearing ratio 65%
‘We intend to remain the cost leader in the industry. Large production units and high self-sufficiency in both energy and chemical pulp give us a clear competitive advantage. However, we continue to look for ways to improve efficiency throughout the organisation. It is vital that we achieve the very highest degree of cost-competitiveness.

The start-up of Changshu’s new paper machine in China was very successful. During its first months of operation, we established a solid customer base. The machine achieved a positive operating profit in September. Demand, for its fine papers, has developed as projected and prices are firm.

Advertising driven paper has continued to be in good demand. Average prices have been raised somewhat since the summer. Prices outside Europe have continued to show a positive trend and are well above those in Europe. Further price increases are expected from the beginning of next year.

Demand for papers during the fourth quarter is predicted to be as good as in the same period last year. Average paper prices are forecast to be higher. Converted products and plywood continue to be in good demand, but the markets for sawn timber will remain over supplied. The rise in costs is likely to be only moderate thanks to greater efficiency and high energy self-sufficiency.’

02 Nov 2005

Swedish market pulp producer Södra says, in its monthly pulp market report, that in September, global producers’ stocks fell from 37 days of supply to 33 days and inventories declined in all of the major producing regions.

Total pulp shipments rose by 9.9% from September the previous year and the average shipment-to-capacity ratio reached 100%. Production, on the other hand, was well below demand due to maintenance shuts. Also the hurricanes across the Southern USA caused interruptions in production.

Softwood kraft returned a stronger performance than hardwood kraft during the month, with a shipment-to-capacity ratio of slightly above 100%. Shipments to Western Europe were up strongly by almost 10%, with softwood kraft up 9.3%. Deliveries of softwood kraft to Asia, excluding Japan, increased by 32% during the month, while deliveries of hardwood kraft to the region remained almost flat.

Global shipments of bleached softwood kraft market pulp increased by 14.6% compared with September 2004, with exceptionally strong shipments to Western Europe, North America and to Asia excluding Japan. The total deliveries during the month reached a volume of 1.74 million tonnes, which is one of the highest monthly volumes on record.

The average shipment-to-capacity ratio reached 101%, compared to 98% in August. During the first nine months of the year, the accumulated deliveries of bleached softwood kraft have risen by 3.6%.

Global production in September was well below deliveries, indicating a substantial decline in producers’ inventories. Globally, stocks fell by three days of supply, down from 34 days to 31 days at the end of the month. In August, global stocks fell from 37 days of supply down to 34 days so during the two months, global producers’ stocks of softwood pulp fell by roughly 200,000 tonnes.

Shipments from Canada and the USA increased, compared to 2004. The US industry reached a shipment-to-capacity ratio of almost 96%, while the Canadian shipments were above nominal capacity. Latin America is also reporting an upturn in shipments, by 2.2%.

Western Europe excluding the Nordic countries is reporting a major improvement, up 13% from one year ago, while Sweden reduced its deliveries of birch hardwood kraft by some 38%. This was as a result of hurricane Gudrun, in January 2005, making it urgent to process the salvaged wind blown softwood species before they deteriorated.

Producers’ inventories of hardwood kraft pulp fell in September, as average global stocks declined from 40 days to 36 days.

Much more information is available on application to Södra’s PulpServicesTM Online.

02 Nov 2005

At its General Assembly, the chairman of the PEFC Council, Henri Plauche-Gillon, called on governments developing procurement policies to harmonise them, in order to avoid artificial trade barriers.

Mr Plauche-Gillon said: ‘Much effort has gone into the multi-stakeholder developed voluntary forest certification systems, which now cover 20% of the world's industrial roundwood production and more than 7% of the world's forests. Governments are rightly developing public procurement policies to promote sustainable forest management and we applaud the French, German, Dutch, Belgian, Danish, UK, Spanish and Japanese governments for their efforts to give preference to certified timber.

They must however be mindful that timber is traded internationally and that as major buyers of wood, their procurement policies affect this trade. In order to avoid the same certified timber being recognised as legal and sustainable in one country but not in another, governments, especially in the EU countries, where most procurement policies are currently being developed, must make every effort to ensure a harmonised approach. Failure to achieve this will put at risk the efforts and achievements of civil society in developing certification as a tool to promote sustainable forest management.’

At its General Assembly in Brussels, on 28 October, the PEFC Council also announced the endorsement of the Brazilian forest certification system. The newly endorsed system covers plantation and natural forests in Brazil and will give public and private procurers the possibility to buy tropical wood from sustainable forest management.

The 30 PEFC Council member countries welcomed Belarus as a new member within PEFC. The European Association for Manufactures of Educational and Commercial Stationery joined the PEFC Council as an Extraordinary Member, to demonstrate its commitment to the responsible sourcing of paper products.

Delegations from six continents together with representatives of international organisation among them the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) attended the event.

01 Nov 2005

As anticipated in a previous announcement, Stora Enso and the Chinese board producer Foshan Huaxin Packaging Co., Ltd. have signed an agreement regarding the establishment of a joint venture in liquid packaging boards.

The agreement is subject to final approval by Stora Enso's board of directors. The joint-venture plan will be filed for approval with the Chinese authorities. Stora Enso will have an 80% majority shareholding in the joint venture.

A letter of intent. was signed in August 2005. The final decisions on the project are expected to be taken by the end of 2005 after all authority approvals have been obtained. The new company will be called Stora Enso Huaxin (Zhuhai) Packaging Boards Co., Ltd.

Foshan Huaxin Packaging Co., Ltd. has begun building a white lined chipboard machine with a production capacity of 250,000 tpy. Through the new company, Stora Enso plans to change the scope of the investment by modifying the machine to manufacture primary-fibre-based products such as liquid packaging boards, cup stock, cigarette boards and other carton boards, thereby becoming the first producer of liquid packaging board for aseptic end uses in China.

01 Nov 2005

Metso Paper is to supply a coating machine for thermal paper production to Jujo Thermal Ltd., located in Kauttua, Finland.

The coating machine will start-up during second half of 2006. The value of the delivery exceeds €10 million.

Jujo Thermal Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of direct thermal papers for self-adhesive laminates within the retail and logistic use, and is also an important supplier of high-quality direct thermal papers for cash receipt, fax and special applications.

The company is a Finnish-Japanese joint-venture owned by Ahlstrom Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ltd., and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Founded in 1992, Jujo Thermal had net sales in 2004 of €56 million.

01 Nov 2005

Stora Enso is planning the closure of 400,000 tpy of capacity and the divestment of a further 535,000 tpy of paper and board and 305,000 tpy of pulp production.

The pulp and paper industry is generally suffering from poor profitability and Stora Enso is facing several challenges in Europe, such as rising costs, structural overcapacity and increased competition from low-cost regions.

‘The two improvement programmes, Profit 2007 and Asset Performance Review (APR), will improve the competitiveness of our European platform through continued development of core assets. At the same time we are increasingly focusing investments on new growth markets.’ Explains CEO Jukka Härmälä.

Two main initiatives are Profit 2007 targeting an improvement in annual pre-tax profit of €300 million and Asset Performance Review (APR) a short-term reduction of about 400,000 tonnes in annual capacity

The main savings will be achieved by reductions in raw material and maintenance costs, and a review of mill organisation. Costs will be reduced through energy-saving programmes at various mills, reduced use of chemical pulp and recipe changes, more efficient and globally co-ordinated purchasing, and further optimisation of logistics.

The Asset Performance Review (APR) to secure a competitive European production base will include. Planned closures of four units with approximately 400,000 tpy of capacity and the divestment of six production units.

The closures and divestments, which are subject to local rules and regulations, include:
• Planned closure of PM3 and PM4 at Corbehem Mill, France (LWC, 250,000 tpy);
• Divestment of Wolfsheck mill, Germany, which is changing from SC to other paper grades (155,000 tpy);
• Planned closure of PM1 at Varkaus Mill, Finland (WFC, 95,000 tpy);
• Divestment of Grycksbo Mill, Sweden (WFC, 280,000 tpy);
• Possible divestment of Celbi Mill, Portugal (short-fibre pulp, 305,000 tpy);
• Planned closure of Hammarby Mill, Sweden (plastic coating, 35,000 tpy);
• Planned closure of PM31 at Stevens Point Mill, USA (coated specialities, 25,000 tpy);
• Divestment of Pankakoski Mill, Finland (FBB, WPB, SBS, 95,000 tpy);
• Divestment of Veitsiluoto Sawmill, Finland (300 000 m³/y);
• Divestment of Linghed Sawmill, Sweden (40 000 m³/y)
The divestment of these units would decrease net sales by €490 million.
In addition, the following mills are under scrutiny and final decisions about possible actions will be taken within one year. The performance of the mills will be evaluated using a range of financial and operational measures, with long-term profitability the key criterion. All options for the future of these mills are currently open.
• Summa Mill, Finland (MF, newsprint, improved newsprint, 405,000 tpy);
• Reisholz Mill, Germany (SC, 215,000 tpy);
• Berghuizer Mill, Netherlands (WFU, 235,000 tpy);
• Uetersen Mill, Germany (WFC, coated specialities 270,000 tpy).

In addition, further analysis of the alignment of the Group's strategy with its product and production asset portfolio is underway.

01 Nov 2005

Södra's business unit Södra Cell is consolidating all its research to a newly built research centre at its pulp mill in Värö, Sweden, 50 km south of Gothenburg.

On a fine but blustery day with strong winds, scientists and employees of the company were given the honour of unveiling their new home. Once fully staffed some 50 employees will be based in the new building, which was built at a cost of SEK 55 million, for Södra Cell's centralised research organisation.

Brain child of R&D director Karin Emilsson and Södra's president and CEO Leif Brodén, it will be the largest research centre in the European pulp industry. It is not often that scientists in the pulp and paper industry have the opportunity of inaugurating their own customised series of laboratories with administrative offices on the floor above, located in a single building and alongside a major mill where new products can be produced in commercial quantities.

Södra Cell will work in close co-operation with customers, its own pulp mills, suppliers of equipment and chemicals, as well as to an increasing extent with Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg and other research institutes.

Facts about Södra Cell R&D
• Specialist competence: fibre knowledge and pulp technology;
• Divisions: product development, pulp technology, PulpAcademy (forum for research and development in conjunction with customers);
• Laboratories: process laboratories, which include a pulp mill in miniature, and a fibre laboratory with chemistry and physical testing facilities;
• 50 staff, of which six are researchers holding doctor's degrees. Co-operation with Chalmers University of Technology: Research cluster Avancell, educational co-operation for competency development of Södra Cell's employees.

31 Oct 2005

In a joint pilot project, Stora Enso and publishers Axel Springer, Time Inc. and Random House Group UK, have combine forces to improve the transparency of the wood supply chain.

For the first time, some of the largest international players in the supply chain of wood and paper have combined forces in order to improve the transparency of social and ecological conditions of wood supply from Russia. The Tikhvin Project particularly focuses on the legality and probity of wood, working conditions, welfare generation in the local community and environmental issues in Russia.

Wood from European Russia today makes up 20% of the fresh fibre used at Finnish pulp and paper mills. For Stora Enso, Russia is an important area in terms of wood procurement, direct investments and market potential. Stora Enso’s ambition is that all wood fibre used globally for the Group’s products meet its high sustainability requirements.

Paper customers such as Axel Springer, Time Inc. and Random House Group UK continuously express their interest in the tangible (e.g. printability, strength) as well as the intangible (e.g. supply chain integrity, social and ecological conditions) quality of the products they purchase.

‘One important innovative aspect of this approach is that potential competitors work together in this task instead of seeking short-term PR advantages for their individual companies.’ says Cobus de Swardt from Transparency International.
To date the project has:
1. Built a project team with members representing a variety of departments from different companies, different industries and different countries;
2. Overcome language difficulties and cultural differences, as well as developing personal relationships and mutual trust between the project partners;
3. Achieved a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the implementation of corporate sustainability values throughout globalised supply chains;
4. Developed the first public sustainability website (www.tikhvinproject.ru) for a wood producer in Russia as a means to promote transparency of social and ecological conditions of wood production at Russkiy Les in Tikhvin;
5. Designed a practical framework for analysing, monitoring and communicating working conditions, business practises and community involvement of wood suppliers.
6. Published the first project report as a basis for extending this transparency concept to other Russian wood suppliers and as a model ready to be applied with other suppliers of raw materials – not only in Russia;
7. Introduced the practice of inviting external experts providing independent knowledge on sensitive aspects of the wood supply chain. Specifically: Karelian Research Centre and Transparency International.
8. Started an open dialogue with the NGO Transparency International (TI) on ways to address transparency issues in the supply chain of wood and paper and invited TI to critically review the interim project report. This interaction also gave TI the opportunity to gain further experience in working with leading private sector companies and applying their expertise to the private sector.
9. Agreement on plans of actions for the project’s Phase II (October 2005 – December 2006).

31 Oct 2005

The Spanish paper producer SAICA, Zaragoza, has run PM9 at a new speed record of 1443 m/min.

PM9, supplied by Voith Paper, is one of the world’s highest performance paper machines. After having achieved production and speed records in September 2004 and in January/February of this year, PM9 challenged its own record to break it for the third time.

On 23 September this year, while producing packaging paper with a basis weight of 75 g/m², an average speed of 1443 m/min was held for 24 hours with a maximum speed of 1460 m/min for 10 hours. PM9 has a wire width of 8100 mm, producing corrugating medium in a basis weight range of 75 -110 g/m². Its design speed is 1500 m/min.

Since its start-up in October 2000, the paper machine has delivered success upon success.
In mid-2004, SAICA placed an order with Voith Paper for another machine (PM10) that will produce corrugating medium and testliner in a basis weight range of 65-175 g/m² from 100% recycled furnish (RCF). The wire width will be 8550 mm, the design speed 1800 m/min. Start-up is scheduled for March 2006.

Project teams already have the experience following five years of co-operation on PM9 which will continue to be shared by SAICA and Voith, on PM10.

31 Oct 2005

The European industries, recycling paper and board, have further highlighted their on-going commitment to sustainability by achieving a record new recycling rate of 54.6%

This means the industries are on track to hit their target for increasing European recycling rates to 56% by the end of 2005. Increased recycling makes an important economic as well as environmental contribution to Europe’s sustainable development. Greater utilisation of recovered paper is highlighted as a main contributing factor to the increase. The latest figures have been released in ‘The European Declaration on Paper Recovery Annual report’.

Paper recycling has an important and positive contribution to Europe’s objectives of sustainable development and long-term, robust growth and employment. As paper recycling both stores CO2 in paper fibres and saves primary CO2 emissions in production it also helps to achieve the Climate Change targets to which the EU is committed. Sustainability is further reinforced by the fact that recycling creates employment and saves energy and natural resources.

The voluntary 56% target was set by the Industry in 2000 with the launch of ‘The European Declaration on Paper Recovery’ (see www.paperrecovery.org). Hitting that figure by end of 2005 would mean that the actual amount of paper and board recycled will be 25%, or 10 million tonnes, higher than in the base year 1998.

2004 figures show that the recycling rate has risen to 54.6% from 53.9% in 2003, or from 48.9% in 1998 (base year). This means that more than half of the paper consumed in Europe is produced from recovered paper. One of the main contributing factors to this increased rate has been the higher use of recovered paper, which is up 21.0% over the past five years. The increase in recovered paper utilisation has been much faster than the growth in paper consumption during the same period, which has risen by 8.2%. In 2004 the utilisation of recovered paper summed up to 45.5 million tonnes.

The paper and board industries are not, however, complacent, recognising that each incremental increase in the recycling rate becomes progressively more difficult. A new and more ambitious commitment is under preparation for the period 2006 – 2010 and stakeholders continue to develop and support initiatives to promote recycling across the paper industry related chain.

31 Oct 2005

Pira International (Pira) and Moore & Associates have announced a long-term business agreement to bring strategic paper recycling consulting services to the European market.

Building on Moore & Associates’ success in North America, Pira will be offering a range of strategic recovered paper market research, pricing analysis and mill procurement optimisation consulting to Europe. These new consulting services will compliment and strengthen Pira’s established technical based offerings.

Graham Moore of Pira and Bill Moore of Moore & Associates noted that currently, no one provides the detailed level of strategic paper recycling consulting services in Europe. Through this business alliance, all the companies involved in the recovered paper market will benefit from the strategic insight, market, and pricing information that Pira will make available in Europe.

Some of the strategic consulting services to be offered include Fore$ightSM recovered paper price forecasting services, $martBuySM sourcing and procurement assistance, and Bench$martSM recycle mill cost benchmarking.

Further information about the companies can be obtained from their websites: Pira International, www.piranet.com; Moore & Associates, www.MARecycle.com.

31 Oct 2005

Five years after its first endorsement by the PEFC Council, the Norwegian Living Forest Standards and Certification Scheme has applied for PEFC re-endorsement.

The PEFC Council has appointed the independent external consultant Savcor Indufor OY to assess the Norwegian system against the international PEFC requirements for credible forest certification schemes. Part of the assessment is a 60-days public consultation period, starting 25 October, during which all interested parties and individuals are invited to comment on the Norwegian certification system.

The Norwegian certification scheme is already the fifth system, after Finland, Sweden, Germany and Austria, that is seeking PEFC endorsement for a second five year term. ‘The Norwegian certification system has proved to be a very successful tool for sustainable forest management, especially for the small scale forest ownership in our country.’ said Mr Svein Søgnen, secretary general of PEFC Norway. ‘Already 9.2 million hectares of Norwegian forests are certified against our national standard, which produce more than 95% of Norway's annual harvest of timber.’

‘To ensure credibility and transparency, PEFC certification requires public participation at all levels.’ said Ben Gunneberg, secretary general of the PEFC Council. ‘Be it during the certification audits at forest management level, the development of national standards in PEFC member countries through to the international endorsement of national certification systems - public consultation is undertaken at all levels. I invite everyone to review the system's full documentation at www.pefc.org and send in their comments.’

28 Oct 2005

Aker Kvaerner has secured a contract for a turnkey delivery of a bio-fuel-fired power station in Scotland in a consortium with Siemens.

The consortium will be the main supplier of the largest dedicated bio-mass power plant in the UK. Kvaerner Power, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will deliver the power boiler, fuel supply system and flue gas cleaning system to E.ON's new power station. The power boiler, with steam capacity of 126 MW, is using bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) technology and it will burn bio-fuels such as green wood and recycled wood. Siemens will supply civil works, the turbine and the condenser for the plant.

It will be built in Lockerbie by E.ON the world's largest private-sector energy services company. The level of E.ON's investment is approximately €130 million, of which Aker Kvaerner’s share is about EUR 50 million.

With a capacity of 44 mega watts (MW) of electricity production, E.ON's new station will provide some 70,000 homes with power. The use of biomass instead of fossil fuels will avoid about 140,000 tpy of greenhouse gases. The power station will be ready by the end of 2007.

The aim of UK energy policy is to produce 10% of all power from renewable sources by 2010. A market-oriented incentive system has been created for this purpose.

28 Oct 2005

Mondi Packaging Swiecie has been responsible for a recent range of new products.

The main driving force behind the development of the four Vistula innovations has been to meet the ever increasing stringent food packaging regulations, whilst also bringing cost savings to customers.

Vistula Fresco Fluting has a high level of strength in extreme climatic conditions with resistance to variations in air humidity. Due to the elimination of cracking during the converting process, the new fluting results in higher speed on the corrugator, showed the best test results for industrial products and food produce. Additionally it provides cost savings of up to 5%.

Vistula Extralite Kraftliner is a one-ply kraftliner made from 100% virgin fibres, with 10-15% higher strength properties than standard kraftliners. It is designedl for light weights with enhanced strength resistance and cost-effective conversion as a result of reduced starch use on corrugators. As the result of a new calender installed in the mill at the end of 2004, the liner has an extremely clean and smooth surface with excellent printing results.

Vistula Extralite Kraftliner is certified for food packaging, for direct contact with dry, moist and fatty food.

Aqualiner and Aquafluting are CCM products with sufficient resistance to water penetration to replace wax coated board, whilst eliminating any glue ability and runnability problems during the converting process. These two complementary products have been launched on the market this September. Aqualiner provides one of the best solutions for retaining flavour in food products and in their original condition, while still being 100% recycled. Excellent printability results show that Vistula Aqualiner provides a good solution for protecting and promoting its contents in a cost-effective way.

Mondi Packaging Swiecie, is Poland’s largest paper mill with five paper machines, and a capacity of 760,000 tpy of paper.

27 Oct 2005

The Jaakko Pöyry Group's Forest Industry business group has been commissioned by Kemira S.A. to provide project management and engineering services for the chemical plants to be built in connection with Botnia's pulp mill in Uruguay.

The contract value is more than €2.5 million.

In addition to project management and engineering services, the assignment comprises an option to deliver construction management, site services and commissioning services. The services will be provided by several business units of the Forest Industry business group.

Kemira is building chemical plants in connection with Botnia's chemical pulp mill in Uruguay to supply sodium chlorate, chlorine dioxide and oxygen for the mill's needs. Kemira's investment will total approximately €60 million.

23 Oct 2005

A new production record has been achieved on Mondi Business Paper SPC´s Ruzomberok PM18.

The new record amounted to 1128 tonnes of copy paper in 24 hours. The machine was running 1500 m/min for more than 10 days without any problems. PM18 is equipped with a Voith MasterJet headbox and a DuoFormer TQm. It is, so far, the only machine of its kind in Europe with a Voith Single-NipcoFlex press section.

This new record for paper production with only a single press nip shows the potential for shoe press and web-stabilizer technology. Such a high production speed was only achievable, previously, in a multi-nip press configuration. This new gain in production speed is enabled by the combination of a press concept with closed draw (Single NipcoFlex) and draw-reducing high-performance stabiliser boxes (ProRelease+) in the dryer section.

23 Oct 2005

UPM's Forestry and Wood Sourcing organisations in Finland and Central Europe have been granted an FSC chain-of-custody certificate.

The organisations already have a PEFC certified chain of custody. UPM's wood procurement operations in the UK received the FSC chain of custody in 2003.

The majority of wood used at UPM's mills is purchased from private forest owners. The individual forest owner decides on the certification of his forests and which certification scheme is used. For the time being the global availability of certified wood is limited, and varies from region to region. Some 85% of the wood UPM buys from Finnish forests is PEFC certified. However, the amount of certified imported wood is still limited, and so far it has not been possible to report it because the chain-of-custody has not been in place.

‘UPM's Forestry and Wood Sourcing organisation in Finland imports FSC certified wood from the UK, Sweden and Uruguay. The FSC certificate makes it possible to verify and report the share of FSC certified wood.’ says Sixten Sunabacka, vice president, Forestry and Wood Sourcing in Finland.

The chain of custody also sets requirements on the origin of uncertified wood. For example, in the Baltics and Russia, where the share of certified forests is still small, UPM's chain-of-custody ensures that the wood purchased is sustainable, legal and not from protected forest areas.

UPM started building its generic chain-of-custody model in winter 2005. In addition to the Forestry and Wood Sourcing organisations in Finland, Central Europe and UK, the Group's Caledonian, Nordland and Rauma paper mills and the Pietarsaari pulp mill have chain-of-custody certified to both PEFC and FSC. In future, the model will be rolled out and applied to all of UPM's wood sourcing and mill activities worldwide.

21 Oct 2005

This year’s technical seminar arranged by Södra Cell´s PulpAcademy will be the third one.

The location on this occasion will be in Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast, a comfortable distance from Värö, where Södra Cell´s new R&D-centre will be inaugurated the day after the seminar. The combined event will take place 25-26 October.

The sub-heading of this year’s seminar is ‘Faster, better, cheaper’ – with a combined focus on technical improvements, news in research and productivity. More than 100 customers of Södra Cell will be attending, as well as about ten trade press journalists, including Martin Swayne from Silverback, and relevant Södra representatives.

21 Oct 2005

Negotiations with employees’ representatives, at the UPM Kymi paper mill in Finland have been concluded .

The negotiations were related to closing down the mill’s PM1 and PM2 and the relevant employment arrangements. The negotiations, which started on 13 September, applied to 59 employees instead of the 65 previously announced.

The result of the negotiations is that the paper machines will be closed down by the end of this year. The arrangements will include various retirement plans and relocation of personnel to other positions at UPM’s mills in Kuusankoski and elsewhere within the Group. The aim is to implement these arrangements during 2006.

The shutdown of PM1 and PM2 is due to their unprofitable operations. Built in 1935 and 1936, these two paper machines are the oldest at the Kymi mill and have been used to produce bleached machine-glazed kraft papers. Their total annual production capacity is 20,000 tpy tonnes. The products’ end-uses are paper bags, labels and laminates for the packaging industry. Following closure, most of the product range will be transferred for production at UPM’s Tervasaari mill.

UPM’s Kymi mill is an integrated paper and pulp mill currently employing 1250 people. The mill will continue to produce coated and uncoated fine papers on three machines. Their total production capacity is 940,000 tpy. In future, the mill is aiming to further develop operations on these paper machines. The end uses of Kymi’s fine papers include high-quality printing papers, advertising materials, books, magazines, envelopes, business forms, and printing and copying papers.

21 Oct 2005

UPM Shotton, in the UK, has secured the national accolade of 'Employer of the Year 2005' in the National Training and Modern Apprenticeship Awards – Wales 2005.

Held at Cardiff City Hall on Thursday 13th October, systems engineer, John Frodsham, attended the ceremony to receive the award. He said: ‘We are delighted to be recognised by the Welsh Assembly for our training and development programme.

“We take on four apprentices each year and have a four year scheme that enables the employee to progress through the company and to make personal achievements by learning how a business functions.’ UPM Shotton was also nominated for apprentice Scott Smales achievement in the individual awards. The apprenticeships include on-the-job training that enables them to learn about the paper making process.

21 Oct 2005

Norske Skog is to commit NOK 22.5 million to a further five-year collaboration with the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), in securing new generations of readers for print newspapers.

The 'Newspapers in Education' scheme retains a key place in this project, but work will also be intensified on developing young journalists. In addition, greater efforts will be made to encourage product development and marketing by newspapers aimed at young readers as a specific category.

The current collaboration agreement with the WAN expires in 2007, but Norske Skog has resolved to extend its involvement from 2008 to 2013.

‘We see that purposeful work with young readers is yielding results.’ says Jan Oksum, president and CEO of the Norwegian-based company. ,This involves a long-term commitment, where results take years rather than days to emerge.

‘It is important for us as the world's largest newsprint manufacturer, and for our customers, that new generations improve their reading skills and discover the value of reading a daily newspaper.’

‘No other information channel can beat a newspaper for the breadth and depth of the information it conveys, or for its ability to surprise, please and entertain.’ said Mr Oksum. ‘You need neither broadband nor electricity to read a newspaper. You can enjoy it wherever you are and whenever you want.’

Newspapers in Education currently has activities in more than 60 countries and this figure has risen substantially since Norske Skog's collaboration with the WAN began in 2003. The aim has been to establish newspapers in the classroom in new democracies where the Press has gradually achieved improved working conditions.

Timothy Balding, director general of the WAN, says that the partnership with Norske Skog has put work on young readers into a completely different league. ‘We are very pleased that Norske Skog wants to continue this collaboration beyond the agreed period.’ he said. ‘The work of winning new generations of readers for printed newspapers is the most important - and challenging job facing the industry in coming years.

‘Norske Skog's sponsorship differs clearly from other forms of backing. The company has obviously taken the Young Readers programme to heart. The way it supports us shows that this is not just business."

With its headquarters in Paris, WAN represents more than 18,000 newspaper publishers and industry associations worldwide. Norske Skog is a leading supplier of publication papers with mills and sales offices on five continents.

19 Oct 2005

Mondi Packaging Richards Bay in South Africa is the 2nd largest producer of white top kraftliner.

The mill is situated close to the port of Richards Bay which is considered to be the world’s 5th largest port. From Richards Bay white top kraftliner is exported throughout the world.

Baywhite is a white top kraftliner, with a base sheet made from unbleached virgin softwood pine, long fibre and a top sheet made from 100% hardwood eucalyptus short fibre which is bleached through an elemental chlorine free (ECF) process.

With its wide selection of grammages Baywhite can be used for a range of corrugating applications from consumer and food packaging, accredited with certification, to shelf ready packaging and innovative POS displays. As a result of Baywhite’s edgewise compression and bursting strength the corrugated cartons made from this product have a high stability in transportation, high protection against extreme climatic change and good resistance to air and humidity, so that fresh produce arrives safely at the point of sale.

18 Oct 2005

Soaring energy prices and the enormity of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have a significant impact on the US economy, putting future holiday retail sales at risk.

However, the economic havoc, generated by the two deadly hurricanes, in and of itself is unlikely to trigger a recession, The Conference Board has reported today.

‘While the economic damage assessment is still underway, it is already clear that the impact from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be the biggest among natural disasters in recent US history.’ says Ken Goldstein, senior economist of The Conference Board. ‘But economic growth could slow down enough to make it feel like a recession, even if one does not occur technically.’

The economy will feel as if it is moving forward as early as the first quarter of 2006 and this momentum will continue into the spring as massive rebuilding gets underway. Long-term trend growth should be back on track in the second half of 2006. But the fallout from the hurricanes will have a major impact on the economy and the business cycle:
• It has already produced energy-price shocks that will cut into consumer spending;
• The magnitude of damage to lives and property is still being measured;
• Consumer confidence has fallen, a further danger sign for consumer spending;
• The labour market continues to cool off.

The US economy was already losing steam. ’From an energy standpoint, the storms could not have come at a worse time for US consumers and businesses.’ says Mr Goldstein. ‘While Katrina wasn’t necessarily a bigger storm than Hurricane Andrew that crippled southern Florida in 1992, it disrupted energy supplies at a time when the balance between supply and demand was already precarious. Hurricane Rita’s impact was less than Katrina’s because it largely spared the chemical and petro-chemical facilities in the region.’

The loss of natural gas production will be felt more than the loss of crude oil, since it cannot quickly be replaced either with imported oil and gas or drawn from the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

But economic growth was already losing steam before the hurricanes hit. The Conference Board says that the impact of Katrina-Rita will intensify the economic slowing that was already underway, with the main impact felt in the third and fourth quarters of this year. The key number to watch will be consumer spending.

Beside energy shocks, the hurricanes could erase as many as half a million jobs. In terms of incomes or output, the losses could mount t as high as half a trillion dollars, which would slow the economy to a growth rate of less than 2% for at least one quarter.

Faced with higher energy prices, higher interest rates and slower job growth, over the next few months, consumers’ willingness and ability to spend will be severely tested. If consumers curb their spending, it could spell major trouble for retailers in the rapidly approaching holiday season.

On the positive side, energy prices can be expected to fall back in the near future and government and private sector spending on reconstruction is already adding jobs in the areas directly affected by the hurricanes. Oil prices will likely stay in the range of $60-$65 per barrel for the rest of 2005, and then ease to about $55 during the first half of 2006.

In 2006, the economy will recover and resume a growth path closer to its long-term average rate of about 3.5%. The overall growth rate for the year will be 2.5%. The outlook assumes the Federal Reserve Board will not raise the federal funds rate higher than 4%. Should the Fed continue to hike rates and the yield curve invert, the outlook will be significantly worse.

17 Oct 2005

UPM is restructuring its information technology (IT) operations and organisation.

The aim of this restructuring is to build an integrated global IT function that meets current and future business needs in a better and more cost-efficient way.

The restructuring will be discussed in consultation with the employee representatives in several countries. The changes concern the IT units located in Finland, Germany, Belgium, the UK, France, the USA, Austria, Canada, Italy and Russia. The negotiations are expected to last until the beginning of December.

The negotiations will concern reorganisation of IT work, a significant decrease in the number of IT locations as well as a partial outsourcing and near-shoring of global IT services to eastern Central Europe.

17 Oct 2005

Ahlstrom, a leading global supplier of release base papers and specialty papers for flexible packaging, wet-glue and self-adhesive labeling, today announced that it will increase prices of its paper grades as a consequence of continuing cost escalation.

Oil prices have been rising rapidly for over two years, especially during this summer. This has adversely impacted many cost components in the highly energy intensive manufacturing of speciality papers. Additionally, prices of transportation and oil-based chemicals and raw materials have also risen.

These effects have significantly exceeded what can be considered normal inflation, for which the company strives to compensate with continuous efficiency improvements and cost-cutting programmes. Several pulp suppliers are also raising their prices. It is therefore inevitable that Ahlstrom should revise its price lists.

Increases between 5% and 12% will be applied not later than 1st December this year depending on different products and regions and unless provided for by existing contracts.

14 Oct 2005

Less than a week after Prime Minister Paul Martin publicly raised the spectre of energy restrictions as a lever in the Canada/US softwood lumber dispute, the federal government is launching an aggressive push to sell wood and energy to China - According to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

‘Now is the time to diversify Canada's trade and investment relations, especially in China, and especially in energy and other natural resources.’ said revenue minister John McCallum.

Mr. McCallum, who became acting Natural Resources minister last month after John Efford stepped aside because of health concerns, is in Beijing in advance of the G-20 summit, for talks with senior Chinese officials.

‘The government is saying that if the USA does not respect NAFTA rules on wood, then what does that mean for NAFTA rules in other areas, including energy?’ asked Mr. McCallum. ‘Canada believes that NAFTA is too important for both of our countries to sow doubts like this in people's minds.

Under the Bush administration, the USA has officially re-classified China as a ‘strategic competitor’. In conservative circles in Washington, China is increasingly viewed as the United States' next great economic and military rival.

Last month, a NAFTA panel ruled that US tariffs on softwood lumber, which have cost the Canadian lumber industry $5-billion in the past five years, are illegal under US trade law. The US government has ignored the ruling, even though, under NAFTA, the panel that made the ruling is supposed to be the final arbiter of any dispute.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) of the USA issued a statement shortly after the ruling, calling on the White House to swiftly retract the costly lumber duties imposed on Canadian softwood.

The verdict, according to NAHB's statement, is ‘the latest in a series of unanimous NAFTA rulings, showing once again that there is absolutely no justification for the Administration to continue imposing punitive tariffs on Canadian lumber shipments. It is time to eliminate this hidden tax that has cost American consumers billions of dollars.’ said David Wilson, president of the NAHB and a custom home builder from Ketchum, Idaho.

The US government imposed countervailing and anti-dumping duties totaling 27% on softwood lumber in May of 2002, charging that Canadian imports represented a ‘threat’ to domestic lumber producers. The percentage was subsequently reduced but remained above 20%.

On Aug. 10, a NAFTA Extraordinary Challenge Committee upheld a previous NAFTA verdict that found no threat of injury from Canadian imports. It also stipulated that the US was required to refund the billions of dollars in duties that Canada had paid to date.

13 Oct 2005

Celso Foelkel one of the world’s leading authorities on eucalypts, for use in the pulp industry has launched the second issue of the Eucalyptus Newsletter.

Included in this issue, is a great deal of valuable technical information and some curiosities about the eucalyptus species. Also in this edition Celso, has released the second chapter of the Eucalyptus Online Book, entitled: ‘Mineral elements and nutrients in the trees of the eucalyptus: environmental, physiological, silvicultural and industrial aspects about the minerals present in the eucalyptus trees’. (only available in Portuguese until February 2006).

Prof. Foelkel says, ‘In this chapter, I decided to continue using the same writing style of the previous chapter, introducing both forestry and industrial subjects, since they are related in many instances. I have always had a special attraction to the issues related to forest site sustainability: the needs to respect the natural resources and to defend an environmental quality to the plantation forests. For this reason, following the first chapter dealing with the importance of the eucalyptus tree bark, I decided to concentrate on the minerals and nutrients of the trees.

These are the same minerals that come into the mills following the wood in their chemical compositions - the same minerals that are exported from the forest soils. In case we do nothing about them, the forest soils will become weaker and poorer. I consider this subject could be considered an extension of the previous chapter. I hope you may like this wide revision of this topic. It is available for downloading and reading. In case you eventually like it, please, feel free to send it as a recommendation to your friends.’

The next two editions of the Eucalyptus Online Book and Newsletter will include the first and second chapters of the book, but written in English. From March 2006 onwards, the subsequent chapters will appear every two months, both in English and Portuguese. The goal is to have the book and the newsletter published on a monthly basis, as soon as possible. Prof. Foelkel has listed 160 chapters in this project and timing is fundamental to pursuit of this target.
To get free registration go to - www.eucalyptus.com - to receive the Newsletter, and the book’s chapters attached. There are no costs involved. In current edition of the newsletter, there are a number of interesting things concerning the eucalyptus. For fun, as well as learning.

13 Oct 2005

In September, NYBOT’s pulp futures trading volume stabilised and managed a very small gain compared to the previous month.

Options volume picked up more dramatically, increasing by almost 85% from its August level. Reports from the physical market are that activity is still very slow (including the swap market) and has not registered any significant increases over the summer months.

Gustaf Dyrssen, NYBOT’s European representative, reported last month, ‘The infrastructure of the market is being put in place as more industry participants complete the process of opening futures brokerage accounts, a sometimes lengthy process but a necessary step for engaging in activity in NYBOT futures or options markets. It is also interesting to note that NYBOT has already achieved open interest levels that have never been reached in previous pulp futures markets.’

Many market participants have told NYBOT that they believe the addition of a Chinese delivery point to the current list of European and North American licensed warehouses would increase the attractiveness of its pulp contracts. In response, the Exchange is moving forward with the goal of adding a licensed warehouse facility in China.

The Exchange, in conjunction with the NYBOT Pulp Committee composed of members of the pulp industry, conducted an internal review of the commercial viability and confirmation of adherence to acceptable international business practices in relation to a Chinese facility. The results of the internal review were positive, and a decision was made to go forward with the process.

The next step is to address regulatory requirements. NYBOT, like all US-based commodity and futures exchanges, is regulated by the US government through the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC). In order to add a licensed warehouse facility in China, the Exchange needs to conduct a legal review and present a legal opinion to the CFTC. The Exchange will begin the legal work shortly. Progress reports will be furnished as the project develops.

11 Oct 2005

Jaakko Pöyry Oy, which is a part of the Jaakko Pöyry Group's Forest Industry business group, has been commissioned by Myllykoski to provide engineering services for the uncoated publication papers machine to be built in the Czech Republic.

The investment is subject to the local authorities' approvals. The value of the contract is more than €10 million.

The new production line will have a capacity of 380,000 tpy and production is scheduled to start-up in early 2007. The assignment is a continuation of Myllykoski Group's and Jaakko Pöyry's co-operation comprising four de-inking plants and two paper mill projects.

10 Oct 2005

Dienes Werke of Overath in Germany has launched its latest product development, the fully automatic ‘Twin Cut’, slitting system.

It is designed to process products, such as paper, film, foil and non-wovens, using a set of identical knives in the top and bottom positions, employing non-compression technology.

This system allows for adjustable slit widths and can be operated at speeds between 0 to 2500 m/min.

The control panel has been designed to be particularly operator friendly, allowing the operator to create slitting program sequences without the need of any EDP knowledge.
All programs are menu driven. Saved slitting formats can be retrieved and new slitting setups can be programmed very quickly.

The new concept of operating two driven knives in a non-compression mode results in a considerable improvement of the slit edge quality, especially in multi layer slitting applications.

Automatic slit width adjustments, which are realized by positioning the top and the bottom knives, guarantee precision and high accuracy slit width repeatability.

A typical format change can be achieved in less than a minute. In addition a new feature allows format changes without stopping the web.

06 Oct 2005

In Södra Cell’s monthly ‘pulp briefing’ it is reported that in August this year, the global shipments of bleached chemical paper grade market pulp were up by 7.8%, or 223,000 tonnes, from August 2004.

Softwood is showing a stronger performance than hardwood, softwood kraft was up 14% while hardwood kraft was up by 1%.

Global producers’ stocks fell by one day of supply in August, down from 38 days to 37 days of supply. Divided by grade, softwood kraft fell by three days of supply from 37 to 34 days, while hardwood kraft increased from 38 to 39 days.

In Europe, the inventories increased by 17,000 tonnes, mainly due to the re-stocking process in Finland following the labour conflict. In North America, the stocks fell by two days of supply and in Latin America the inventories declined by four days.

Södra also reports that hurricane Katrina destroyed and damaged large areas of forest lands in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. ‘One estimate, made by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service is estimating a damaged volume of 85-90 million m3. This volume is comparable, or even higher, than the volume flattened by hurricane Gudrun that hit the southern part of Sweden in January 2005.

Later, hurricane Rita damaged substantial volumes of timber stands in Eastern Texas and Louisiana. Now the race is on to salvage as much as possible, before insects attacks the downed trees. The process will soon expand the supply of pulp wood and at least one pulp producer has already reduced the import volumes of eucalyptus chip to the USA.’

More information from Södra Cell’s PulpServices Online at www.pulpservices.sodra.com.

06 Oct 2005

John Gillen, 46, has been appointed president of Stora Enso North America Corporation, and region manager for North America, effective from 1 January 2006. He has also been invited to become a member of the Stora Enso Management Group.

Lars Bengtsson, currently senior executive vice president of Stora Enso's North American operations and member of the Stora Enso’s executive management group will retire on 31st December 2005.

John Gillen is currently senior vice president, coated mechanical papers at Stora Enso's North American operations, a position he has held since 2002. In his role as president of Stora Enso North America Corporation and region manager, he will report to CEO Jukka Härmälä.

In addition to his new duties, he will continue to oversee coated mechanical operations at the Biron, Niagara and Whiting mills in Wisconsin. In that capacity he will report to Bernd Rettig, senior executive vice president, Stora Enso Publication Paper.
North American Organisation
The North American business sectors became part of the Stora Enso global product divisions on 1 September 2005. The support areas will continue to be locally led. Organisational units reporting to the region manager include:
• Communications;
• Human resources;
• Power & energy;
• Purchasing & logistics;
• Shared services (Finance, IT and legal);
• Strategy, investments and Mergers & Acquisitions;
• Wood supply US.

Other North American support services including research, engineering and maintenance will continue to report to Russ Wanke, senior vice president, fine paper, North America.

05 Oct 2005

Metso Paper has reached preliminary agreement with the Finnish based Myllykoski Corporation to supply a major paper making line, to be located in the Czech Republic.

As the investment is still subject to local authority approvals, a dissolution clause is included in the agreement. Project engineering has been started on separate terms, in anticipation of the final confirmation. Myllykoski is scheduling the line to start-up in early 2007. The delivery will be valued at well over €200 million.

The 380,000 tpy production line will produce a full range of uncoated publication papers. Metso's supply will include the wood handling and PGW plants, stock preparation, an 11.3-m-wide paper machine with a design speed of 2000 m/min, on-machine calendering, winders; and roll finishing systems. Metso Automation will supply a large automation system package.

The Myllykoski Corporation is a family-owned international paper industry group operating mainly in Europe and North America. The Group’s products include wood-containing and recycled fibre-based uncoated and coated publication papers, and newsprint for publishers, printers and producers of catalogues worldwide. Myllykoski operates nine paper mills with a total capacity of 2.8 million tpy.

05 Oct 2005

Activity in the euro area, service sector, showed a marked improvement in September, according to data released today by The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NTC.

The seasonally adjusted RBS/NTC Eurozone Service Sector Business Activity Index rose from 53.4 in August to 54.7, registering the strongest improvement in business levels for 14 months and the 27th consecutive monthly rise.

All euro member countries surveyed reported improved business activity growth rates, with the exception of France, where growth slowed to the weakest so far this year. Of particular note, Germany recorded the fastest growth of the big-four for the first time in the Eurozone Services PMI's seven-year history, seeing its largest monthly gain in services activity for five years.

Also released today was the RBS/NTC Eurozone Composite Output Index, which measures the output of the combined manufacturing and service sectors. That index rose from 52.8 in August to 54.3 in September, signalling an acceleration in the rate of growth to the highest recorded for 13 months.

05 Oct 2005

UPM's Pietarsaari pulp mill and Rauma paper mill in Finland and the Nordland Papier paper mill in Germany have now received FSC chain of custody certificates.

The mills also have PEFC chain of custody certification. UPM's Caledonian Paper mill in Scotland has had both FSC and PEFC chain of custody certificates since autumn 2004.

’We want to offer our customers the chance to use the chain of custody certificate of their choice. Therefore we have applied for both certificates as part of our generic chain of custody model. Our aim is to increase the amount of certified wood at all of our mills and ensure credible control of the origin of wood through the whole chain from the forest to the customer.’ says Jaakko Sarantola, vice president, Forestry and Wood Sourcing.

The majority of wood used at UPM's mills is purchased from private forest owners. The forest owner decides on the certification of his forests and which certification scheme is used. The dual certification of UPM's generic chain of custody makes it possible to report to customers the amount of both FSC and PEFC certified fibre in the products, where this fibre is available. For the time being the global availability of certified wood is limited, and varies from region to region.

UPM started building its generic chain of custody model in February 2005. In the future, the model will be rolled out and applied to all of UPM's wood sourcing and mill activities worldwide.

05 Oct 2005

The corporate assembly of Norske Skog yesterday agreed with the board's recommendation to close the Norske Skog Union mill in Skien south of Oslo, Norway (see pulpandpaper Monday).

Operations at this facility are now scheduled to be wound up during the first quarter of 2006.
Agreement on a severance package has been reached between the company and the workforce, with the main emphasis on helping those affected to find new jobs in Norske Skog or elsewhere. This agreement also embraces severance payments for all employees as well as special measures for older workers.

The decision was reached by nine votes to nine and the decision was therefore reached through the chairman's casting vote.

05 Oct 2005

NTC-Research.com Economic News reports today that growth in the US manufacturing sector hardened further in September, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

‘Growth was reported in sixteen industries, including paper and wood-product manufacturers, electronic components and equipment, chemicals, instruments and photographic equipment, transportation, textiles, and rubber and plastic products. However, chemical manufacturers reported substantial difficulties in sourcing raw materials following the devastation of the Gulf coast region and the port of New Orleans.

The ISM said its monthly index climbed to 59.4 in September from 53.6 in August, posting its highest level in thirteen months. Improved trends were recorded for orders, production, employment and exports, quelling fears of a widespread impact following Hurricane Katrina.

Input prices were up sharply, with the Prices component jumping to 78.0 in September from 62.5 in August. Increased energy prices were widely blamed for the surge.
The trend in global manufacturing operating conditions recovered sharply in September, supported by robust growth of new business and production, according to data released on Monday.

The Global Manufacturing PMI – a composite index produced by JPMorgan and NTC in association with ISM and IFPSM – posted 54.7, its highest level for a year. The improvement in operating performance remained broad-based, with all of the national PMI surveys for which September data were available signalling expansion.

The Global Manufacturing Output Index rose to 57.3 in September, its highest reading in over a year. At its current level, the Output Index is consistent with buoyant annual growth of global industrial production of around 6%.

Rates of expansion in output improved across the major industrial regions (the US, the EU and Asia-Pacific) covered by the survey. The performance of the US was especially positive, as the ISM PMI Output Index advanced 7.2 points to a fourteen-month high of 63.1, its largest month-on-month gain since January 1999.

Japanese manufacturing production rose at the fastest rate for almost one-and-a-half years. Output growth in the EU hit an eleven-month high and ticked up slightly in China, although rates of expansion were soft in comparison to the US and Japan.

The rate of expansion in new business was also up sharply on that recorded one month earlier, with the Global Manufacturing New Orders Index rising to a thirteen-month high of 57.5 in September.'

04 Oct 2005

The board of directors of Norske Skog today accepted the recommendation from the management to close the Union mill, in Skien south of Oslo.

This approval was given by 6 votes to 3. A proposal from employee’s elected members of the board, to postpone the decision, was voted down. A final decision on the closure is to be taken on Tuesday 4th October by the corporate assembly of Norske Skog.

If the assembly votes to accept the board's recommendation, operations at Norske Skog Union will cease in the first quarter of 2006.

Agreement on a severance package has been reached between the company and the workforce, with the main emphasis on helping those affected to find new jobs in Norske Skog or elsewhere. The agreement also embraces severance for all employees and redundancy payments as well as special measures for older workers.

03 Oct 2005

Votorantim Celulose e Papel (VCP) has awarded Aker Kvaerner a contract for two wash presses for the Jacareí mill in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Kvaerner Pulping, will provide engineering, procurement and construction services (EPC) under the new contract. The wash presses are scheduled for start-up in August 2006. The contract is worth approximately US $8 million.
The two new wash presses are the Compact PressTM design and will be installed in two of the Jacareí mill's fibre lines. One will replace old equipment in the Line B bleach plant to facilitate increased production while the second will improve both pulp quality and capacity in Line C's brown stock washing section.

VCP is one of the largest companies in Latin America's pulp and paper sector, focusing on market pulp and printing papers. Through a recent expansion plan VCP has increased its pulping capacity to 1.42 million tpy, and its paper production to 685,000 tpy.

03 Oct 2005

Södra Cell is raising the price for its hardwood market pulps (birch and eucalyptus). The new price from October is US $600 per tonne.

Södra Cell’s market pulp is produced at four kraft mills – Södra Cell Mönsterås, Södra Cell Mörrum, Södra Cell Värö, Södra Cell Tofte – and one CTMP mill, Södra Cell Folla. Some 90% of Södra Cell’s customers located in Europe. The number of the organisation’s Asian customers is increasing in both number and volume. In Western Europe, Södra Cell´s market share for long fibre pulp is 15%.

30 Sep 2005

In late June the official ground breaking ceremony, for an ultra-modern factory building, took place at Wangner's Reutlingen site in Germany.

Construction of the building is now underway. It will be home to a new heat-setting line, which will be installed in the middle of next year.

Until recently, a building from the era of metal wires was still standing on the site where the cornerstone for a new factory building has been laid. Construction of the new building will be completed by the end of the year.

According to the schedule, the wall to the adjoining shop floor that houses the heat-setting line AF16 will be removed in the third quarter of 2006, at which time the foundations for the new AF17 heat setting system and its installation will also be ready. The new heat-setting line respectively the linked AF16 / AF17 systems will commence production during the fourth quarter of 2006.

With the expansion of its manufacturing capacity in the heat-setting of forming fabrics, Wangner has clearly signaled a commitment to a growth strategy which is aimed to secure its future.

30 Sep 2005

From 1 October Lanxess Deutschland GmbH is raising prices in some of its paper chemical segments - namely the Retaminol®, Baysize®, Blankophor® and dyestuff ranges.

This has been deemed necessary following dramatic increases in the cost of raw materials and freight, which is having a major impact on production costs. Commenting, Eckhard Wenderoth, head of the Paper Business Unit at LANXESS, said: ‘Despite increasing production at our sites in Leverkusen and Bushy Park, USA, on a clearly vigorous market we find ourselves forced to implement targeted price adjustments. Increased costs can no longer be compensated for by internal structural measures.’

The Retaminol® retention and drainage agents can be used with a variety of different pulp systems for acidic, neutral and alkaline paper production, such as in the production of coated and non-coated fine papers, magazine grades and linerboard.

The Baysize® range comprises internal and surface sizing agents for producing fine, packaging and speciality papers.

Whitening agents from the extensive Blankophor® range are mainly used in the paper industry for internal and surface application, or for adding to coating colours.

Lanxess supplies the paper industry with a wide range of dyes. The AstraTM range enables brilliant colours to be produced cost-effectively and is used for dyeing and shading printing and writing papers based on wood-containing raw materials, liner and packaging papers, and tissue based on recovered paper. The Levacell® and Pontamine® direct dyestuffs are particularly well suited to dyeing printing, writing, sanitary and packaging papers, liner and specialities.

30 Sep 2005

Norske Skog was been notified, by the Norwegian Competition Authority, yesterday that its conduct over the recommendation to close the Norske Skog Union mill has not contravened section 11 of Norway's Competition Act, which prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.
The authority finds that neither the Act nor relevant practice provides any basis for compelling Norske Skog to sell Norske Skog Union. In the authority's view, weighty considerations argue in favour of allowing companies a free hand to restructure their activities to ensure efficient operations.

This decision is entirely in accordance with Norske Skog's expectations over the issue. The management's recommendation to close down Norske Skog Union will be considered by the Norske Skog board of directors and corporate assembly on 3 and 4 October respectively.

29 Sep 2005

Stora Enso's CEO Jukka Härmälä said today that Stora Enso has made preliminary plans to build a second eucalyptus fibre line at Veracel Pulp Mill in Brazil.
Mr Härmälä was speaking at the formal inauguration of Veracel, which was attended by Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.

‘We have been so encouraged by the excellent co-operation and support we have received that, although no decision has yet been taken, we see it as a natural development to invest in a second fibre line jointly with Aracruz, our partner in Veracel.’ Mr Härmälä said. Stora Enso will announce more details of the plans when further decisions have been taken.

Veracel Pulp Mill, a joint venture between Stora Enso and Aracruz Celulose, started sustainable production of low-cost, high-quality eucalyptus pulp in May 2005. The capacity of the mill in full production is 900,000 tpy, Stora Enso's share being 450,000 tpy. Pulp shipments to Stora Enso's mills in China and Europe commenced in July 2005.

When in full production, the present mill will be the largest single-line pulp mill in the world. It is also one of the most modern, with the very latest technologies and processes meeting the strictest international environmental standards. The total investment, including plantations, the mill and infrastructure, was about US $1.2 billion.

28 Sep 2005

Kiev Cardboard & Paper Mill in Obukhov, in the Ukraine, manufacturer and converter of folding boxboard and tissue, has chosen Voith Paper to upgrade the stock preparation of BM1.

The order includes the modernisation of four stock preparation lines consisting of top-liner, under-liner, filler and back-liner as well as the supply of an additive preparation system for the under-liner. Apart from in the top-liner, 100% secondary fibres are used as the furnish.

The delivery comprises all process machinery and pumps for feeding the pulpers, pulping, cleaning, screening, flotation, refining, dispersion, de-watering, water clarification and reject handling. The order also includes the complete automation technology consisting of basic and detail engineering, PCS, electrical equipment, field instruments and installation material.

The stock preparation system is being rebuilt in accordance with Voith Paper’s EcoProcess technology. The characteristic feature of this process is a reduced number of chests and the use of a specialised control strategy. EcoProcess reduces investment and operating costs and it enables the papermaker to start and stop the whole system, including flushing programmes, at the press of a button.

27 Sep 2005

From this week Silverback’s website on www.pulpandpaper.co.uk incorporates www.pulpanapaperworldwide.com and www.pulpandpaperworldwide.net.

So whomever you may be in the Pulp and Paper industry you have access to our free news pages. We try to keep these pages up-dated on a daily basis.

26 Sep 2005

Ahlstrom Corporation, a leader in high performance fiber-based materials, today announced its decision to invest in a new spunlace machine at its Green Bay, WI, USA plant.

The additional capacity will primarily serve the growing North American wipes market with spunlace composites technology. It will also have the production flexibility to meet demands in other key nonwovens markets including automotive, medical and technical nonwovens.

Ahlstrom has become one of the leading suppliers to the wipes market mainly through organic growth with proprietary technology, as demonstrated in the recent start-up of a spunlace composites line at its Windsor Locks, CT, USA facility as well as through the acquisition of Green Bay Nonwovens, a US based nonwovens manufacturer. The North American wipes market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. In addition, Ahlstrom is assessing opportunities to further expand the sales and production of wipes products outside the US.

Of the investment, Claudio Ermondi, senior vice president, nonwovens said: "The addition of the new line in Green Bay will allow us to better serve our existing and potential customers, grow with them and increase our level of product innovation. The investment further widens our service and range of products and strengthens our position as a leading supplier to this market."

"This investment confirms Ahlstrom's commitment to grow in strategic nonwovens markets", said Jukka Moisio, President and CEO of Ahlstrom Corporation, "The wipes market, with its demand for innovative and sophisticated products, is indeed one of these".

The investment will begin immediately with commercial output expected in January 2007.


Nonwovens in brief:
Ahlstrom's Nonwoven business is ranked among the top 10 nonwoven manufacturers worldwide and serves customers in the food packaging, medical, wiping, building and technical goods sectors. The Nonwovens business operates from seven principal sites across Europe and the USA and has sales offices worldwide. The Nonwovens business is part of Ahlstrom's FiberComposites segment which in 2004 had net sales of EUR 663.8 million and employed 2858 people.

Ahlstrom in brief:
Ahlstrom is the global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of high performance fiber-based materials. Nonwovens and specialty papers, made by Ahlstrom, are used in a large variety of everyday products, e.g. in filters, wipes, flooring, labels, and tapes. The company has a strong market position in all business areas in which it operates, built upon the company's unique fiber expertise and innovative approach. Ahlstrom's 5,700 employees serve customers via sales offices and production facilities in more than 20 countries on five continents. In 2004, Ahlstrom's net sales amounted to EUR 1.6 billion. The company website is www.ahlstrom.com.

24 Sep 2005

Metso Automation will deliver a pulpexpertDCD analyzer to Metsä-Botnia's Äänekoski mill.

The new analyzer replaces the former version, Dirt Count Analyzer. The delivery includes dirt, brightness and colour measurements. This analyzer, the fifth delivered to Botnia's mills, will be installed at the Äänekoski mill in mid-November. pulpexpertDCDs have also been delivered to Indonesia, Brazil and Canada.

In less than ten months, the recently launched kajaaniPulpExpert automatic pulp laboratory, has gained a significant foothold. Several units have been delivered to Finland and Sweden, and single units have also been ordered to the Netherlands, Spain, France and New Zealand. Pulp and paper mills use the analyzer mainly in their RCF/DIP, TMP, GW, BCTMP and pulp applications.

24 Sep 2005

In the scope of the rebuild of PM 4 at Langerbrugge, Belgium, two polyurethane suction press roll covers – Aqualis - were ordered from Voith Paper Rolls.

The custom-made surface design of Voith Paper’s Aqualis suction press roll cover decisively contributes to optimized dewatering of the paper sheet and the increase in dryness content. Due to the innovative cover construction, AST bonding and the use of high-tech materials, this cover generation has proven to be first choice in modern, fast paper machines. With more than 650 covers in use today, Aqualis is the market leading standard solution for suction press rolls.
The world’s largest paper machine with a wire width of more then 11 m and a design speed of 2000 m/min was started up after the successful rebuild in March 2005.
Voith Paper is a division of the Voith Group and one of the leading partners to the paper industry. More than one third of the world's paper production is produced on Voith Paper machines.
Voith sets standards in paper technology, power transmission engineering, power generation and industrial services. Founded on January 1, 1867, it has a current workforce of approx. 30,000, sales of EUR 3.1 billion and over 180 locations worldwide, and is one of the largest family-owned enterprises in Europe.

24 Sep 2005

Metso Paper has established a new sales company, Metso Paper India Pvt. Ltd., near New Delhi, India.

With the new company, led by General Manager Manos Mukherjee, Metso Paper is able to offer the Indian pulp and paper industry a full range of products and services from the same source, including new machine lines, rebuilds, process improvements and aftersales service. The company's areas of business are paper, board and tissue making lines, chemical and mechanical pulping, and service.

The establishment of Metso Paper India demonstrates Metso Paper's high level of commitment to the emerging Indian market and its willingness to serve the Indian customers locally with high-quality technology and expert services.

In 2004, the Indian paper and board industry produced a total of 6.55 million tonnes and the consumption was 7.24 million tonnes. In 2015, both figures are estimated to be in the 13 million tonnes range, giving an average annual growth rate of approximately 6 % versus the global growth rate of 2.2 %. In 2004, the per capita consumption of paper and board in India was 6.7 kg. The main grades produced are printing and writing papers (34 %), industrial boards (47 %), and newsprint (10 %). Paper and board production in the country is very fragmented, excluding newsprint.

The major challenges of the Indian pulp and paper industry are related to the low scale of operation, capacity utilization, and efficiency of installed machine base, as well as the high cost of transportation, capital, and raw materials. The annual capacity of an average paper machine in India is only 14,000 tonnes.

Metso Paper has supplied paper machine rebuilds, components, and fiber systems to a number of producers all around India since the late 1980's. The new sales office will be located in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, the same premises with Metso Automation and Metso Minerals.

The General Manager of Metso Paper India, Mr. Manos Mukherjee, aged 55, has worked with the Indian paper industry for the last 35 years. Before joining Metso he was working in Sweden for a trading house dealing with pulp and paper machinery.

Metso is a global technology corporation serving customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, energy industry as well as in selected other industries. In 2004, the net sales of Metso Corporation were approx. EUR 4 billion, and it has some 23,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Metso's shares are listed in the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges.

23 Sep 2005

Pilz GmbH & Co KG and Chr Mayr GmbH & Co KG of Mauerstetten, Germany, have agreed to transfer the Mayr Systems division to Pilz, with effect from 1 August 2005.

With the integration of Mayr Systems, Pilz is rigorously pursuing its strategy of providing complete automation solutions consisting of sensor, control and actuator technologies. In this context, the issue of motion control becomes highly significant.
Mayr Systems has many years of expertise in the field of control technology for drives, as well as ample application knowledge and innovative products. Pilz's objective is for intelligent dovetailing of safety technology and control technology, including motion control.
"Both parties benefit by integrating this division into our organisation", explains Renate Pilz, Managing Partner of Pilz GmbH & Co KG. "On the one hand, it guarantees the continuity and ongoing development of proven product ranges such as primo, and on the other hand, we can provide users with automation solutions that include motion control."
The Systems division and its 24 staff will remain in Allgäu and will be managed as a competency centre for motion control under the Pilz name. In addition, the proven product primo, tendo DD and tendo AC product ranges will continue to be developed and serviced.
Primo motion control systems were developed specifically for the type of complex motion sequences typically found within the packaging industry. Modular control systems - which include the tendo DD digital servocontroller and the tendo AC servomotors - are used to synchronise axes as part of each cycle. Automation systems are therefore available for the widest range of tasks, from filling, wrapping or sticking, and beyond packaging to applications such as flying-shears.
As a medium-term objective, Pilz will merge these products with safe control technology. "This way we can offer our customers even more tailor-made solutions for safety and control technology", says Renate Pilz.

21 Sep 2005

Metso Paper will supply another OptiSpray coating station.

The start-up will take place in spring 2006. Several successful pilot trials at Metso Paper's Surface Treatment Technology Center in Järvenpää, Finland, convinced the customer to select OptiSpray technology.

OptiSpray is the first coating station using high-speed low-impact coating technology. Its operation is based on a controlled, high-pressure spray application of coating colour or surface size directly onto the surface of the paper or board, without any direct contact of blades, rods or rolls. OptiSpray coating station applies an absolutely uniform coating coverage, thanks to its unique and proven nozzle mechanics and a totally automatic and continuous operation. Good coating results are independent of base paper quality and moisture variations. OptiSpray coating station will provide excellent runnability and production efficiency and is a viable option for rebuilding existing machine lines to produce coated grades.

The first OptiSpray coating station is running at Myllykoski, MD Lang Papier in Albbruck, Germany, where they are very pleased with the coated paper quality. The operation of the OptiSpray coating station is also excellent.

Metso is a global technology corporation serving customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, energy industry as well as in selected other industries. In 2004, the net sales of Metso Corporation were approx. EUR 4 billion, and it has some 23,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Metso's shares are listed in the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges.

20 Sep 2005

Electrowatt Infra Latin America, which is part of the Jaakko Pöyry Group's Infrastructure & Environment business group, has been awarded an extension to their existing consultancy engineering contract with Metro de Maracaibo C.A. in connection with Line 1 of the light rail transport system in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

The total value of the contract extension amounts to EUR 1.5 million.

The contract relates to design review, site supervision, quality management, contract management, supervision of the maintenance of electro-mechanical equipment and rolling stock, planning and employee training. The services are to be carried out between by end of 2007.

Electrowatt Infra Latin America has a large number of major transport projects on its track record. Projects have been undertaken in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Electrowatt Infra has been the client's agent for the implementation of the Maracaibo transport system since 2002.

The Jaakko Pöyry Group's Infrastructure & Environment business group uses the brand name Jaakko Pöyry Infra. Its net sales for 2004 were EUR 142 million. The business group has offices in 25 countries and employs 2000 experts worldwide.

20 Sep 2005

Metso Paper has today published a new organization structure, which will become effective on January 1, 2006.

The partly renewed business line structure will bring the decision-making and target setting closer to the operations. Organizing the service operations into an own business line with profit centre responsibility emphasizes the strategic importance of service in the changing market situation. Customer service will continue to be developed in line with the customers' production processes, covering their whole life cycle.

The purpose of the change is to strengthen customer service and to clarify decision-making with special focus on engineering, production, purchasing and high-quality management of customer projects. Supported by these changes, Metso Paper targets to increase the sales of machines and rebuilds in a situation where the demand for complete production lines has decreased.

The business line heads as of January 1, 2006, will be:

Arto Aaltonen (Fiber), Metso Paper's Executive Vice President
Kari Kalliala (Paper and Board)
Hannu Mälkiä (Finishing)
Marco Marcheggiani (Tissue)
Jari Vähäpesola (Service)

The above mentioned persons will report to Risto Hautamäki, President of Metso Paper.

Metso is a global technology corporation serving customers in the pulp and paper industry, rock and minerals processing, the energy industry and selected other industries. In 2004, the net sales of Metso Corporation were approx. EUR 4 billion, and it has some 22,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Metso's shares are listed on the Helsinki and New York Stock Exchanges.

20 Sep 2005

15 September 2005 -Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has honoured the Aker Kvaerner company Kvaerner Pulping with the APP Best Partner Award for excellent support in various APP projects.

"It is with great pleasure we accept this award that further strengthens the relationship between APP and Kvaerner Pulping," says Per-Åke Färnstrand, President of Kvaerner Pulping.

"Our project managers and teams have done a great job in all projects with APP. However, excellence in project execution is what all our clients do, and have every right to expect from Kvaerner Pulping" says Per-Åke Färnstrand.

Through Kvaerner Pulping, Kvaerner Power and Aker Kvaerner Chemetics the Aker Kvaerner group continues to enjoy a close and fruitful relationship with APP, and remains confident that this collaboration will be maintained.

APP is one of the world's leading pulp and paper companies, and is ranked number one in Asia, excluding Japan.

15 Sep 2005

Voith Paper Automation has equipped Stora Enso Publication Paper, Kabel Mill in Hagen, Germany, with a quality control system for the offline coating machine SM 5.

The scope of supply for coating machine SM 5 comprised the replacement of the existing quality control system with the Voith OnQ quality control system as well as the disposal of the old system. Furthermore, the order also includes the start-up of the quality control system as well as the installation of the OnQ ModuleCoat actuator system for coat weight CD profile control at the four existing coaters. For the warranty period a full service contract was concluded for the quality control system of SM 5.
As an element within the Voith Paper automation solution, the OnQ quality control system ensures that the quality parameters of the end product are maintained within close tolerances. It uses adaptive control algorithms and process mapping functions. The user profits from the simple system maintenance.
The products of the OnQ quality control system include the OnQ measurement frames, the sensors, the CD profile control with the actuators and the Profilmatic control software, as well as MD controls.
Removing the old system and installation of the new quality control system including the installation at the four coaters was completed in a period of only three days. Coaters 1 and 2 for the precoat are SpeedCoaters with 38 actuators.

Coaters 3 and 4 for the top coat are JetFlow F smoothing-blade coaters with 76 actuators each. All Coaters were used in conjunction with the OnQ ModuleCoat actuator system for coat weight CD profile control. The operation system for the actuators was customized by Voith Paper Automation for Voith coating machines.
The guarantee values for the moisture and coat weight CD-profile were exceeded with the new quality control system.
Thanks to the cooperation in a spirit of partnership between the service and start-up teams of Stora Enso and Voith, trouble-free start-up was ensured. After start-up, the Voith team can now support the StoraEnso service team on site via remote access.
The Kabel Mill, with its capacity of 600,000 t/yr, is one of the most modern and effective production facilities of Stora Enso. Altogether, three paper machines and coating machines, in conjunction with the latest finishing technology, formed the basis for an extensive delivery programme. The mill in Hagen concentrates on the production of high-quality, wood-containing, coated printing papers in rolls and cut-sizes. The products are used for, among other things, magazines, mail-order catalogs, newspaper supplements and other printed advertising material. They are also used for school books, brochures, picture books, wall calendars and letterheads.
Voith Paper is a division of the Voith Group and one of the leading partners to the paper industry. More than one third of the world's paper production is produced on Voith Paper machines.
Voith sets standards in paper technology, power transmission engineering, power generation and industrial services. Founded on January 1, 1867, it has a current workforce of approx. 30,000, sales of EUR 3.3 billion and over 200 locations worldwide, and is one of the largest family-owned enterprises in Europe.

15 Sep 2005

M-real Corporation Stock Exchange Announcement 14.9.2005 at 3 p.m.

The Board of M-real Corporation has appointed Seppo Puotinen to Executive Vice President, Office Papers as of 10 October, 2005. His other responsibility areas remain unchanged. He is a member of the M-real Corporate Executive Board and responsible for the company's strategic development and the sales network.

There are no other changes in the Office Papers management team.

Peter Sandberg, the current Executive Vice President of Office Papers, leaves M-real to join another company.

14 Sep 2005

M-real Corporation Stock Exchange Announcement 14.9.2005 at 3 p.m.

The Board of M-real Corporation has appointed Karl-Johan Lindborg, Map Merchant Group's President & CEO, a member of M-real's Corporate Executive Board as of 14 September, 2005.

M-real's subsidiary Map Merchant Group is the third largest paper merchant in Europe, and Lindborg has been its President & CEO since the year 2000. Previously he has worked as President & CEO of Finnforest between the years 1996 and 1999 and prior to that in management positions in Enso Gutzeit, Tampella Forest and Rauma Repola

14 Sep 2005

Following a restructuring of the service facilities offered to its UK customers, Voith Paper Manchester has recently invested in a state-of-the-art service centre dedicated to fibre systems and equipment, currently the only centre of its kind in the UK.

Covering both in-house and on-site service, the new operation will assist customers with all aspects of maintenance, repair and upgrades to stock preparation plant, whether supplied by Voith or alternative sources. The implementation of new technologies and sub-system upgrades give improved machine performance for a relatively small investment.
With paper and board mills constantly looking to further improve efficiency, Voith Paper can really make a difference. The engineers operate quickly and efficiently from well equipped service vehicles utilizing specialist OEM knowledge and experience.
Competent and reliable staff deliver repairs, rebuilds, dismantling, spares, erection, commissioning and process optimization from a single source. The use of OEM drawings and spare parts combined with Voith Paper technical know-how enable the continued operation of systems and sub-systems both efficiently and economically.
The facilities offered also extend to on-site service contracts, where regular preventative maintenance helps keep system downtime to an absolute minimum and machine efficiency at optimum levels.
Voith Paper Fibre Systems Service Centre is staffed by qualified design engineers with the capability to produce detailed CAD layouts for repairs, upgrades or modifications. The centre is managed by Robert O’Shaughnessy who also runs the Voith Paper Rolls Service Centre.

14 Sep 2005

M-real Corporation will invest in its French office paper production facilities in Alizay, situated northwest of Paris.

The 8 million euro investment schedule comprises rebuilding the forming part of the paper machine.
With the investment, M-real strives for a clear increase in product qualities to meet the increasing market demands. The investment also enables M-real to further utilize Alizay mill's capacity and its convenient location near the key customers.

The main works are carried out during spring 2006.

13 Sep 2005

UPM has today celebrated the completion of the new fine paper machine at the Changshu mill in China which increased the Group's total investment in China to over 1 billion US dollars.

The celebration ceremony was lead by Mr Matti Vanhanen, Finnish Prime Minister. The company addresses were given by Mr Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO of UPM as well as Mr Hannu Jokisalo, Vice President & General Manager of the mill.

The new fine paper machine at UPM's Changshu mill has started-up 4 weeks ahead of schedule on May 24. After the investment, UPM has become the biggest producer of uncoated fine papers in China. The new paper machine is the world's biggest and fastest paper machine producing uncoated fine papers. The new machine more than doubles UPM's fine paper capacity in China. The first paper machine at Changshu started production in 1999.

"This has been a remarkable project for the Changshu mill and the whole of UPM. We can now celebrate the most modern and fastest fine paper machine in the world. The machine was completed in record time and it is the best of its class in terms of technology for making office and printing papers. In addition, our personnel at the mill are extremely qualified. The start-up of the new machine has proceeded well and the feedback received from customers has reinforced our expectations," says Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO of UPM.

Two thirds of the mill's production is sold through UPM's sales network to the Chinese market. The rest is exported to the Asia Pacific region. Changshu mill sells its paper to wholesale merchants and office machinery manufacturers. The products are sold also directly to the big printing houses and publishers.

The mill is logistically well located by the Yangtze River, about 100 kilometres from Shanghai and its 16 million inhabitants. The nearly 200 hectare mill site has a harbour, a power plant and an effluent treatment plant. Most of the output is shipped in containers to other Chinese ports and for exporting.

The Changshu mill has an ISO 14001 environmental management system as well as OHSAS 18001 occupational health and safety management system in place.

13 Sep 2005

Following a restructuring of the service facilities offered to its UK customers, Voith Paper Manchester has recently invested in a state-of-the-art service centre dedicated to fibre systems and equipment currently the only centre of its kind in the UK.

Covering both in-house and on-site service, the new operation will assist customers with all aspects of maintenance, repair and upgrades to stock preparation plant whether supplied by Voith or alternative sources. The implementation of new technologies and sub-system upgrades give improved machine performance for a relatively small investment.

As paper and board mills look to further improve efficiency, engineering personnel are often reduced and it is here where Voith Paper Fibre Systems Service can really make a difference. Voith engineers operate quickly and efficiently from well equipped service vehicles utilising specialist OEM knowledge and experience.

Competent and reliable staff deliver repairs, rebuilds, dismantling, spares, erection, commissioning and process optimisation from a single source. The use of OEM drawings and spare parts combined with Voith Paper Fibre Systems technical know-how enable the continued operation of systems and sub-systems both efficiently and economically.

The facilities offered also extend to on-site service contracts, where regular preventative maintenance helps keep system downtime to an absolute minimum and machine efficiency at optimum levels.

Voith Paper Fibre Systems Service Centre is staffed by qualified design engineers with the capability to produce detailed CAD layouts for repairs, upgrades or modifications. The centre is managed by Robert O’Shaughnessy who also runs the Voith Paper Rolls Service Centre.

13 Sep 2005

PMT Italia reports successful start-up of two more Smarnip®

Thanks to these two last installations the reliability of this new Press has been definitively
consolidated.

This confirms PMT Italia Leader in the Shoe Press technology offering to the market
solutions suitable for all papermill’s requirements.

13 Sep 2005

Tembec Pine Falls Operations has awarded Metso Automation a contract to implement a full TMP Advance Quality Control (AQC) system to assist the mill in reducing specific energy usage and process variability.

Based upon the successful results of a trial combined of Metso Paper Turbine Segments and Metso Automation’s AQC system for the main line refiners, Tembec has now proceeded to implement a full AQC system. It will control both quality and energy application for the main line refiners, reject refiner and screening system. This combined trial application has demonstrated savings in excess of 7% specific energy savings and dramatic variability reduction. In addition to the expansion of this successful trial to a full pulp mill control system, Pine Falls has also purchased a five year support contract to insure continuous optimization of the facility to insure long term benefits under and ever changing business environment.

Tembec is a leading integrated Canadian forest products company principally involved in the production of wood products, market pulp and papers. Pine Falls Operations are based in Manitoba, Canada.

13 Sep 2005

UPM continues to invest in the fast-growing labelstock business.

UPM's Raflatac will build a world class pressure sensitive labelstock production facility in Changshu, adjacent to UPM's existing paper mill in the Jiangsu province, China. Raflatac targets to become the preferred supplier of pressure sensitive labelstock in the region by providing its full product range and highest quality service also in China. For UPM the investment means enhanced and more diversified presence in the Chinese market. The total value of the investment is approximately USD 40 million.

Raflatac will start to apply permits for the new factory immediately and the target is to get the factory up and running at the beginning of 2007. Raflatac's current production facility in Shanghai will be closed after the start-up of the new Changshu factory.

"The announced investment highlights our ambition to become the preferred supplier of pressure sensitive labelstock in the world. We want to be able to provide our offering globally in all key markets. We expect the demand for pressure sensitive labelstock in China to grow strongly in the coming years driven by both strong export industry and quickly developing domestic consumer goods market", says Heikki Pikkarainen, President of Raflatac.

"This investment is a demonstration of our strong, long-term commitment to the Chinese market. Our new facility will form an excellent basis for us to provide top quality products and best-in-class service in order to help our Chinese customers grow their businesses, "says Jussi Vanhanen, Senior Vice President, Raflatac Asia Pacific

13 Sep 2005

Silverback consultant Martin Swayne will be in China for the next two weeks.

He will be visiting six of the latest investments in mills from Hainan Island in the south to Hebei close to Bejing via Shanghai and Ningbo.

A skeleton staff will be managing the web-site while he is away.

11 Sep 2005

This month, we have asked NYBOT’s European representative to provide some perspective on the development of pulp trading from his vantage point.

The following report reflects his views.
In August, NYBOT pulp trading declined from July levels. This decrease was not unexpected; summer has always been slow in the physical and derivative pulp markets. And while trading has been thin, it’s above the expectations of many, so market participants we speak to are quite happy, relatively speaking, while of course hoping for more activity. The time is approaching when activity picks up in the physical spot markets, where most transactions occur in the first and third quarters of the year.

Based on conversations and visits with traders and industry people, it seems that even though traders were first to be in the pulp futures and options markets, there is an increasing level of hedging participation from the pulp industry. Transactions in the market that are being done on the basis of NYBOT prices, plus a few OTC swaps are being done against NYBOT pulp contracts. To use a point that was included in a NYBOT presentation in Sweden, a storehouse of unhedged pulp moves up and down in value but one that is hedged is constant in value. And industry users are beginning to understand the flexible insurance value of NYBOT pulp options.

During the Prima conference just held in Stockholm, there were a lot of presentations on the interesting subject of trend tracking, and how you position yourself for the next price increase. There was, however, very little talk on what to do if your market view changes. Derivative instruments allow you to hedge to ensure that your precalc and your aftercalc reflect each other without too large a difference.

Brokers in Europe now have around 25 major accounts open, and a similar number are said to be in the pipeline. Opening accounts takes time: regulatory documentation (customer protection) needs to be completed and many companies require board approval before accounts are set up. While anyone looking for a revolution might be disappointed, I believe it is an evolution out there and it continues slowly but surely. This can also be measured in the open interest that continues to increase at NYBOT.

11 Sep 2005

In 2003, Södra Cell, a subsidiary of Södra, the Swedish forest products group, and NCT Forestry Co-operative of South Africa, formed a jointly owned company, Pulp United, to investigate the feasibility of constructing a new Eucalyptus based BCTMP pulp mill in South Africa.

Some of the key factors for a successful venture, such as electricity and other administered costs at competitive prices, and relatively low capital investments per ton of capacity, have however proven to less attractive than initially anticipated.

This, in combination with a continuously strong ZAR versus the US-dollar, has made Södra Cell's board of directors reluctant to continue to support the project. They have therefore, according to the shareholders' agreement, decided to offer NCT all of Södra Cell's shares in Pulp United.

The Board of Directors of NCT has decided to continue with the feasibility study in order to thoroughly investigate whether the above costs and investments could be substantially reduced.

09 Sep 2005

Metso Paper is to rebuild and modernise PM4 at UPM's Kaipola Mill in Finland.

The rebuild of the paper machine, producing catalogue papers, is to improve paper quality and efficiency of the production line. The project will comprise upgrading of the headbox and wire section, as well as changes to the press section. The rebuilt paper machine will be started up again in May 2006. The value of the order is below €10 million.

In the rebuild, the existing SymFlo headbox will be furnished with a dilution RetroDilu profile control system, developed especially for rebuild projects.

The present SymFormer wire section will be rebuilt using the latest hybrid former technology which will both improve the paper quality and raise the machine speed.

Kaipola PM4 was originally built in 1961. The latest rebuild of this machine, by Metso Paper, was in 1996. The width of the paper machine is 7.6 meters and its operating speed is1450 m/min.

08 Sep 2005

An agreement has been reached whereby, the Norwegian group, Norske Skog will acquire the 50% shareholding in PanAsia Paper Company held by Canada’s Abitibi-Consolidated.

This deal will make Norske Skog the sole owner of PanAsia, which ranks as one of the largest newsprint manufacturers in Asia holding leading market positions in China, Korea and Thailand. Through the acquisition the Norske Skog group will become what is claimed asthe world’s largest manufacturer of newsprint, with 30% of its newsprint production capacity located in Asia.

‘Sole ownership of PanAsia will give us full access to the largest and fastest-growing market for newsprint in the world.’ said Norske Skog chief executive Jan Oksum. ‘The investment is fully in line with our strategy. We have gradually increased our holding in PanAsia over the past seven years and we will be taking over a modern and competitive company. This region offers the most interesting future opportunities for Norske Skog. Although our collaboration with Abitibi has worked well, we see considerable advantages in being the sole owner.’

A final agreement on the acquisition is conditional on approval by the corporate assembly of Norske Skog tomorrow. Approval by the competition and regulatory authorities in relevant countries and regions is also necessary.

In addition, the acquisition depends on the completion of a share issue which is subject to approval by an extraordinary general meeting of Norske Skog’s shareholders to be held on 22 September. Norske Skog will consolidate PanAsia as a wholly-owned subsidiary with effect from the date of the closing of the acquisition, which is expected to occur before the end of this year.

Quarter of capacity in Asia

Following the acquisition, 25% of Norske Skog’s total capacity – including magazine paper and newsprint – will be located in Asia. This continent already consumes more newsprint than either Europe or North America and growth, particularly in China, is expected to remain substantial in coming years.

PanAsia is the sole owner of two newsprint mills in Korea. It has a majority holding in two mills in China and one in Thailand. Its total production capacity on a 100% basis is 1.8 million tpy. Paper machines built since 1990 account for 70% of this capacity. This means the mills are modern and efficient. In addition, PanAsia has very high health and safety standards.

After the take-over, PanAsia will change its name to Norske Skog PanAsia. Dag Tørvold, currently head of PanAsia in Korea, will become executive vice president for Norske Skog’s Asian operations.

Investment in Norway?
The Board of Norske Skog has approved a study of possible major investments in Norway.

The company’s Norske Skog Skogn and Saugbrugs mills are currently highly competitive, and the assessment will consider whether Norske Skog Follum can be expanded into a third, similar, unit. A decision on the possibility of investing in a new paper machine will be considered in conjunction with the closure of other, less competitive machines, at the mills in Europe. The study will therefore consider profitability, general business conditions, and market and capacity aspects.

Brazil project postponed
Norske Skog has carried out a thorough study on the possibility of investing in a new paper machine at the Norske Skog Pisa mill in Brazil. The study concludes that although such an investment will be positive for the company, certain aspects relating to the general operating conditions remain to be resolved.

The Board of Norske Skog has therefore decided that further consideration of this project will be postponed until further notice. A decision on the project may be taken in 2006, at the earliest.

08 Sep 2005

Metso Automation is supplying several fibre line optimisation control systems, including batch and continuous digester lines, brown stock washing lines and bleach plants.

The control systems are based on metsoDNA technology:

Stora Enso in Oulu, Finland is implementing a DNAcook-C system to optimise its continuous kraft digester line and DNAwash for the brown stock washing line. The systems supervise a previously installed distributed control system (DCS). Start-up is scheduled for this month.

Metsä-Botnia in Kemi, Finland has installed a DNAbleach system for the optimisation of its kraft pulp bleach line. Metso Automation’s newest bleaching controls incorporate adaptive controls which learn and model the non-linear nature of the bleaching process. Better process stability, improved pulp quality stability and chemical savings are projected. C