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

ipw news

As of January 2022, Ilkka Hämälä takes over from his predecessor Ignazio Capuano as Chairman of Cepi, one of the leading and most influential trade associations representing the forest and bio-based industry sector in Brussels, the capital of the European Union. His mandate will last for two years.

Schumacher Packaging, a corrugated board producer and full-range supplier of paper-based packaging solutions, has commissioned Voith to rebuild PM 2 at its Myszków site in Poland. The line is scheduled to start up again in mid-2023 after a short rebuild period. After the rebuild, the line will double its production capacity of light weight containerboard from 500 to 1000 tons per day.

Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, won the Finnish Excellence Award and the Finnish Circular Economy Award, which was presented for the first time this year. Metsä Spring, Metsä Group’s innovation company, received the Quality Innovation Award for its Kuura textile fibre.

Andritz has successfully started up a new reel as part of the KM2 board machine rebuild at Knauf Petroboard, in Kommunar, Russia. The KM2 – with a basis weight range from 100 to 320 g/m2 – has a design speed of 700 m/min and a working width of 4.26 m. It has a maximum capacity of 155,000 t/a for production of gypsum board and uses 100% wastepaper as raw material.

Mondi is investing €20 million to further improve the sustainability of its pulp production at the Frantschach mill in Austria. The mill, which is celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2021, has already been self-sufficient in terms of energy for many years and supplies surrounding communities and industrial companies with surplus heat from the pulp production process.

Stora Enso’s Sustainability Report 2020 was chosen as the best in Finland in a competition organised by an independent group of expert organisations. In addition, for the fourth consecutive year, Stora Enso’s report has been included in the top ten sustainability reports globally, according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

As part of the Industrial Internet offering, Valmet has developed winder diagnostics to help board and paper customers optimize the overall performance of their winder. Winder diagnostics is an essential part of a winder reliability agreement.

Paper & Beyond is the annual event of the European Paper industry and its value chain. The theme of this year’s event is ‘shaping the next generation’. It brings together producers, manufacturers, policymakers and leading innovators in the sector. Today, during one of many sessions, was presented the concept of the Pulp, Paper and Recycling Mills of the Future, an ambitious vision for what might constitute the industrial basis of the future circular low-carbon bio-economy.

International technology group Andritz has received an order from the Brazilian pulp producer Suzano to deliver state-of-the-art and resource-efficient technologies for all main process islands in the fiber production and chemical recovery plant, for its Cerrado project in the municipality of Ribas do Rio Pardo, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Start-up is scheduled for the second half of 2024.

Daniel Solberg and SCA were nominated by Mid Sweden University students as one of three candidates for the award. Daniel has been a supervisor for Mid Sweden University student John Nilsson, who at the end of his master's degree in technical chemistry did his degree project at SCA.

Stora Enso has appointed René Hansen as EVP, Head of Brand and Communications and a member of the Group Leadership Team. He will start in February 2022 and be based in Stockholm. Hansen is a Norwegian citizen and joins Stora Enso from a position as Vice President, Head of Brand Management at Yara International, a fertilizer company.

In partnership with BillerudKorsnäs, Oatly has implemented an innovative secondary packaging solution for products produced in Oatly’s Singapore Factory, enabling a reduction in secondary packaging material by up to 35% and an estimated reduction of CO₂ emissions from secondary packaging by up to 50%¹, compared to conventional packaging solutions.

bio-fibre news

The board of the BIR Paper Division has appointed Mr Francisco Donoso as new divisional President. Mr Donoso is Managing Director at Alba Servicios Verdes (Spain), a long-standing member of BIR, and has been active on the Paper divisional board since 2008. He is also Vice-President of the Spanish BIR member association Repacar and board member of the ‘Union de Empresas de Recuperacion’. He holds a degree in biological sciences and a Master in Business Administration.

In the Canopy’s 2021 Hot Button Ranking, Kelheim Fibres once again occupies a high position: With a increase of 2.5 points in the evaluation, the Bavarian viscose speciality fibre manufacturer tied for third place out of around 40 viscose fibre manufacturers worldwide and a dark green/green shirt for the second year running. The Hot Button Report not only stands for responsible raw material sourcing - it is an overall sustainability indicator for viscose fibre producers.

Andritz has successfully started up a new 550 t/d Herb chemical recovery boiler (upgradable to 700 t/d) at Naini Papers Limited in Kashipur, India. The boiler is designed to handle a mixture of hardwood and agro-based black liquor and enables environmentally friendly and more energy-efficient operation compared to the black liquor incinerator previously used in the mill. Thus, the mill’s pulp production as well as the power-to-heat-ratio will increase substantially. The boiler also features a unique vertical air system to minimize air emissions.