below please find a selection of the latest news from the world of pulp and paper.

Valmet will supply a boiler diagnostics system to Shandong Sun Paper Industry Joint Stock Co., Ltd. in China. The system will be installed in a new recovery boiler of Sun Paper, and it will optimize the recovery boiler availability and operation. The order is included in Valmet's orders received of the third quarter 2019. The system will be delivered during the last quarter of 2019. The value of the order will not be disclosed.

In May, Stora Enso announced the decision to convert the Oulu paper mill in Finland into packaging production to strengthen its position in the growing packaging business. Gilles van Nieuwenhuyzen, EVP Division Packaging Solutions, discusses the drivers and applications.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has acquired the Swedish company KEMPULP, a specialist provider of process technologies for the chemical pulping industry. The company designs and markets technologies used in chemical pulping, including pulp washing, oxygen delignification and bleaching technologies.

As “one of the leading suppliers of fibre-based materials”, Ahlstrom-Munksjö always relies on a smooth production process. For a retrofit project, in which an existing paper machine had to be modernised, Ahlstrom-Munksjö decided to utilise the services provided by the retrofit specialists from airinotec - with excellent results: Energy consumption and noise emissions were lowered and production conditions could be improved.

Sun Paper, Voith’s long-term partner in China, recently awarded two new orders to the paper machine pioneer. This sets a new record for cooperation between Voith and Sun Paper with 11 paper machines having now been ordered in total. The new order includes PM 39, a graphic paper machine, and the major components for PM 40, an MG paper machine.

Battery Ventures, a global technology-focused investment firm, announced that it has acquired two companies: Forest2Market, Inc. a firm supplying data, analytics, supply chain expertise and strategic consulting services to the global forest products industry; and Fisher International, Inc. a firm supporting the pulp and paper industry with business intelligence and strategy consulting services.

The ongoing development of its products is just as much an integral part of the corporate philosophy of paper and board manufacturer Papier- und Kartonfabrik Varel (PKV) as the constant improvement of production efficiency. To achieve these goals the company, which was established in 1938, has been working with Voith for many years. For its current rebuild of the PM 4, PKV is also relying on the expertise of the technology group from Heidenheim.

Sappi has appointed Kouris Kalligas as Head of Digital Transformation for Sappi Europe. Kouris started his career in Sappi in 2008 as a management trainee and then became the Supply Chain Service Manager for Sappi Europe. He then spent 5 years in Silicon Valley navigating the world of Venture Capitalists, gaining first-hand experience of running a tech start-up.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has successfully started up the PrimeLineCOMPACT tissue production line, including stock preparation, delivered to Africaine Paper Mills (APM) in Algeria.

Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, has today published its sustainability targets for 2030. One of the company’s targets is to achieve fossil free mills by 2030 with zero fossil CO₂ emissions. This ambitious target includes both emissions from the company’s own energy production (scope 1) as well as purchased energy (scope 2). Currently, 82 % of the energy used at Metsä Board mills is fossil free.

Stora Enso is investing EUR 10 million in the making of bio-based carbon materials for energy storage at Sunila Mill in Finland. We talked with Lauri Lehtonen, Head of Innovation, Biomaterials, about this exciting innovation to replace fossil-based and mined raw materials with renewable solutions.