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

ipw news

Ahlstrom-Munksjö announced that it plans to temporarily idle #8 Paper Machine in December 2021, along with its #20 Supercalender and #21 Rewinder in July 2022 at its Rhinelander, Wisconsin Plant in the United States. #8 Paper Machine has a capacity of 14,000 tons per year. The total number of people affected is yet to be determined based on retirements and other potential job assignments.

Metsä Group is now inviting applications for its apprenticeship training programme that will begin in January 2022. Approximately 50 new jobs will be offered in our production units around Finland.

Valmet will build its fourth service center in China, in the city of Beihai, to further develop its local presence in the fast-growing pulp and paper industry in the Guangxi province. Valmet's new Guangxi Service Center will be in operation by the fourth quarter in 2023.

Mondi has won three awards for sustainable packaging at the Austrian Green Packaging Star Awards. The annual Green Packaging Star Awards recognise environmentally-friendly packaging and recycling solutions, as well as packaging-related improvements in operational processes in production, logistics, and distribution. The award is presented by Kompack magazine and the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology.

ABB and Södra have entered a long-term, strategic partnership to co-develop a roadmap to drive new levels of efficiency, engagement and digitalization across Södra’s enterprise to ultimately define the next generation mill. Together, Södra and ABB want to “lead the way in successful digital transformation with the aim of creating a new benchmark for both the forest and pulp industry, and the broader industry, globally”.

Voith was awarded a B- rating for the first time by the independent rating agency ISS ESG. Together with SKF Group and Johnson Controls, Voith is one of the three best companies within the plant and mechanical engineering sector worldwide. This was the first time since 2016 that the rating was improved from C+ to B-.

Valmet and UPM have signed an extension of the existing maintenance operations agreement for UPM’s Platting mill in Germany, for an additional three years. The value of the agreement will not be disclosed.

Lessebo Paper has announced the appointment of Jens Olson as the new Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, Olson will drive Lessebo Paper’s market expansion and partnerships worldwide.

ABB has helped Model Group, a packaging manufacturer headquartered in Switzerland, modernize one of its key paper machines with energy-efficient motors and state-of-the-art variable speed drives (VSDs). The result is increased productivity and reliability, together with a reduction in energy consumption of up to 900,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year – equivalent to 200 four-person Swiss households, with a projected payback in less than five years.

Holmen Iggesund launches paperboard coated with Bio E, a barrier coating solution made from 75 percent renewable raw materials and approved for industrial composting.

The global pandemic has caused major unpredictable challenges in both public and private areas. One of these effects is enormous cost increases in many industrial sectors, for example raw materials, packaging and transport.

A new kraftliner production line, PM 27, which was supplied by Valmet to Klabin, was successfully started up on August 30th, 2021 at Puma Project in Ortigueira, Paraná, Brazil. The order for the production line was signed in May 2019.

SCA increases prices on brown and white kraftliner by € 50 per tonne in Europe. The new prices are valid from October 1, 2021.

bio-fibre news

The year 2021 has brought extraordinary challenges for society and for industry. Alongside the Covid-19 pandemic, recovering demand, disruption in the global freight systems and dramatically increased energy costs due to reduced supply and emissions trading schemes and their consequences are driving significant cost increases for raw materials and negatively influencing supply chains. Prices for energy and freight currently lie well outside their historical ranges.

International technology group Andritz has received an order from Toyo Engineering Corporation, Japan, to deliver a PowerFluid circulating fluidized bed boiler with a flue gas cleaning system. The boiler will be part of a new biomass power plant to be built in Niigata East Port in Niigata Prefecture, Honshu Island, some 300 km north of Tokyo, Japan. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin in 2024.

Stora Enso has received four Nordic ScanStar awards for convenient, eco-friendly packaging designs that replace plastic. All winning designs are made of renewable wood fiber. This year the ScanStar awards received a total of 32 submissions from the Nordic countries and 14 awards were given out. The jury assessed the level of competition to be high.