below please find a selection of the latest news from the world of pulp and paper. And don't forget to visit our new LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. We look forward to a lively exchange.

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ipw news

Valmet has been selected as supplier for the modernization of the fiberline no. 1 plant to Cenibra's pulp mill in Belo Oriente in Brazil. The fiberline will be prepared for a capacity increase of 100,000 tonnes of pulp per year. The start-up is scheduled for September 2023. The order is included in Valmet's orders received of the first quarter 2022. The total value of an order of this type and delivery scope is typically around EUR 25-40 million.

ResourceWise, the newly formed parent company of Forest2Market, Fisher International and Tecnon OrbiChem, has acquired Wood Resources International (WRI). WRI is the publisher of Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ), a market report that tracks sawlog, wood chip, lumber, and pellet prices on a global basis. Effective immediately, the company will be known as Wood Resources International, a ResourceWise company. Håkan Ekström, Wood Resources International's President, will join the ResourceWise team. Terms of the acquisition, which became effective March 31, 2022, were not disclosed.

Chemspec Europe, the International Exhibition for Fine and Speciality Chemicals, is set to take place at Messe Frankfurt from 31 May to 1 June 2022. In its 35^th edition, Chemspec Europe will again provide a powerful and well-known industry platform to explore bespoke solutions, new approaches and innovative substances.

After a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Paper & Biorefinery Conference will once again take place in Graz, this time under the central theme of “Paper for Future: Mitigating climate change.” Industry professionals in the pulp, paper, and biorefinery sectors are invited to attend the trade show and conference dinner to discuss ideas and solutions for more sustainable industry practices.

On March 30, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Regulation on ecodesing for sustainable products. The Regulation provides an overarching framework to ensure sustainability considerations are properly accounted for, before a product is placed on the internal market.

Toscotec continues the expansion of its covered production area with the inauguration of a new building - Workshop 9 - at its headquarters in Lucca, Italy. The new workshop is primarily dedicated to equipment loading and logistic operations, and it frees up space for the increasing manufacturing and pre-assembly activities at the facility. This addition testifies to Toscotec’s growth as a prominent supplier of advanced, energy efficient technology for the tissue and paper industry and “global leader of turnkey tissue projects”.

Incorporated in 1996, Bahl Paper Mills has emerged as one of the leading manufacturers of industrial packing papers, producing an extensive range of environmentally friendly graded paper. All the firm’s products are manufactured from 100% recycled wastepaper and include 180 to 600 gsm duplex board, 18 to 110gsm poster paper and 18 to 160gsm kraft paper. The business produces nearly 300 tonnes of paper every day.

At the Paperex India convention at the Indian Expo Center in Greater Noida, Delhi-NCR from May 10 – 13 2022, Emtec Electronic will present specific testing and measuring devices that help manufacturers avoid common issues in paper manufacturing and converting.

In line with AFRY’s ambition to accelerate growth in cyber-security and to “become a leader in security within the industry and society as a whole”, AFRY has signed an agreement to acquire Weop to strengthen its offer of cyber-security advisory services in the Nordics.

Together with its subsidiaries BTG and Toscotec, Voith now offers a modular Yankee Serivce portfolio with the new ProServices. Eight different specialized measurement and diagnostic tools allow papermakers to troubleshoot most Yankee operational and safety issues to increase tissue production efficiency.

Stora Enso Ingerois mill and BTG have agreed to implement the DataParc solution for the board machine in South-Eastern Finland. The system is applied to support variability reduction goals by means of Statistical Process Control and Centerlining, which are integrated elements of DataParc software platform for digital transformation.

Andritz will supply state-of-the-art and environmentally friendly technologies for all main process islands in the fiber production and the chemical recovery plant, thus strongly supporting Liansheng Pulp & Paper in reaching its sustainability and financial goals. Start-up is scheduled for mid-2024.

Industry 5.0 is a recently started pilot project in which PulpEye is one of the participants. It is a two-year project aiming at finding more efficient and secure ways for remote monitoring of mills’ processes. Industry 5.0 is financed by the Swedish strategic innovation programme “Process Industrial IT and Automation”, and the participating partners.

To mark the importance of forest industries on International Forest Day, Södra’s CEO Lotta Lyrå was invited to take part in a podcast produced by the UN on the importance of forests for the circular economy.

Valmet Oyj (“Valmet” or the “Company”) announces that the statutory merger of Neles Corporation (“Neles”) into Valmet (the “Merger”) has been registered with the Finnish Trade Register on the effective date of the Merger on April 1, 2022. As a result of the registration of the completion of the Merger, Neles has been dissolved. Neles is consolidated to Valmet as of April 1, 2022.

Industrial cyber security is quickly becoming a critical focus area for many organisations as rapid industrial digitalisation is increasing their exposure to cyberattacks. AFRY is now consolidating and accelerating what they offer on cyber security with a focus on creating business value for the industry through security improvements adapted to the unique needs of industrial organisations.

With new translucent paper Crystalcon, Sappi is adding another innovative product to its range of sustainable packaging papers. Used in combination with Sappi’s heat-sealable Seal Silk, the new paper delivers a recyclable, easy-to-implement packaging solution for a variety of food and non-food applications – all from a single source.

bio-fibre news

International technology group Andritz has received an order from Forsyning Helsingør in Denmark to supply a Metris BOA measurement and analysis system including boiler operation advisor apps. Metris BOA – developed by Andritz – is a web app that utilizes live data as well as historical data from the plant to optimize and analyze power plant processes and monitor the equipment installed.

Lumber trade flows changed almost instantly when Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Trade sanctions and restrictions in financial transactions by Europe, North America, and major markets in Asia halted shipments from Russia and Belarus. In addition, exports from Ukraine were also disrupted. The total lumber exports from the three countries in the war zone were 34 million m3 in 2021. Over 25% of that volume was exported to countries with current sanctions against Russia and Belarus.