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

ipw news

Core board manufacturer Papertech exceeded the targets of production increase originally set for the rebuild of its PM1 at Tudela mill, Spain. At the end of 2018, Toscotec carried out a turnkey rebuild of the dryer section, installing 20 new TT SteelDryers.

Sappi Europe is very happy to report that its Alfeld site PM 3 is operational again as of the 20^th of July, significantly ahead of the planned restart date. As previously reported the largest area of reconstruction focused on the machine hall with limited damage to the machine.

Holmen signed an agreement to acquire Martinsons, one of Sweden’s players in sawn and processed wood products. The purchase price is SEK 1.0 billion for 100 per cent of the shares. The acquisition will almost double Holmen’s sales of wood products to over SEK 3 billion, while also advancing positions in wood construction and providing Holmen with the capacity to process the majority of the raw material from its own forests in its own industry.

In 2019, Cepi members produced close to 90 million tonnes of paper and board, of which 54.6% were based on recycled fibres - compared to 53.1% in 2018 - as indicated by the utilisation rate of Paper for Recycling (PfR). This exceptional performance goes hand in hand with a 72% paper recycling rate after 71.7% the previous year, reinforcing our commitment to sustainable and circular business practices.

UPM has permanently ceased production at its Chapelle newsprint mill in Grand-Couronne, France, on Thrusday. The consultation process with employee representatives was completed on June 15^th, 2020 according to French legislation and approved by French authorities on July 15^th, 2020.

Informa Markets, the organiser of Tissue & Paper Bangkok has decided to postpone its 2020 event due to the evolving situation around coronavirus. The decision was made following extensive consultation with exhibitors and industry partners and taking into consideration the impact of the international travel restrictions during this period on both the event itself and the paper, tissue and related industries as a whole.

The hunt for materials that can replace plastic is intense. Innovation work is being done on a global scale to find renewable alternatives to plastic so that humanity can reduce the huge impact on the environment from our use of plastic. Many solutions are being tried but we still have no material with all of plastic’s great advantages without its devastating disadvantages. Instead of waiting for that magic material, which may never come, packaging buyers concerned about the climate should consider the existing alternatives and move to composite materials.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has successfully started up the first of two OCC lines, each with a capacity of 1,000 bdtm/d, supplied to Shandong Wamat Paper Co., Ltd., Shandong Province, China. Start-up of the second OCC line is scheduled for the end of this year. Both lines produce pulp for corrugated medium as the final product.

In collaboration with Voith Paper, Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS) is introducing a new measuring method to detect unwanted tacky contaminants known as stickies. The measuring method, which uses a near-infrared (NIR) camera, allows the reliable detection of contaminants along the papermaking process and offers higher measuring accuracy and a wider range of applications compared to conventional methods. The associated technical rule was recently published as DIN SPEC 6745.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has received an order from Vinda Personal Care (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. to supply a stock preparation system to feed its four tissue machines at the mill in Yangjiang, Guangdong, China. Start-up is scheduled for the second to third quarter of 2021.

ABB has launched the latest generation of its Advanced Process Control (APC) to provide complete digital control over wet end operations, optimizing productivity and profit for paper mills globally.

bio-fibre news

KaiCell CEO Hannu Heikkinen welcomes the decision: “It is very positive for the Kainuu region that the Paltamo mill project now has a clear path towards implementation. AVI’s decision further strengthens the venture’s credibility and enables us to seek financing also outside Finland. We can therefore take the next steps towards building the mill with confidence.”

Early in July, the scientific journal “the Nature” published an article “Abrupt increase in harvested forest area over Europe after 2015” based on a study by the European Commission Joint Research Centre bioeconomy unit based in Ispra, Italy.

A statement by CEPI.

On Wednesday, the European Commission published its Energy System Integration Strategy aimed at making the energy system more “circular” as a whole - across multiple energy carriers, infrastructures, and consumption sectors - with energy efficiency at its core.