Just as groups in the Strait area are
looking for ways to diversify its economy, the region’s largest employer is looking
to diversify the products it manufactures. Since restarting the former NewPage paper mill in Point
Tupper in October, Port Hawkesbury Paper has been looking to expand its product
line. The year-long closure of the mill following its former
owning filing for bankruptcy protection prompted some soul-searching among
local municipal, business and development officials about the need to further
diversify the region’s economy. While the mill did reopen after obtaining
financial assistance from the province and a negotiated power rate structure,
only one of the mill’s two paper machines has been restarted and it employs
about half as many people as it did prior to shutdown. Speaking at the Strait Ahead conference in Port Hawkesbury
on Thursday, mill development manager Marc Dube said the forestry sector has
been in decline for more than a decade, although there will remain a need for
paper. Since restarting, the mill’s supercalendered paper machine has begun
making a new higher-brighter grade of paper under the product name Artisan that
has been accepted by the market beyond expectations. It is the only mill that
makes a product with 35 per cent clay in it. It replaces coated paper. They had estimated that Artisan could make up about 15 per
cent of orders. “It’s really exciting, the marketplace loves it,” Dube said.
“About 25 per cent of our orders today are coming in that grade and we should
be at 50 or 60, because we could be easily, but we made commitments to people
on other paper sales.” The machine has proven to be the most efficient of its kind
in the world, and its thermomechanical pulp plant is the top-producing plant
globally, creating the best-quality pulp. “Even with all of that, it’s not simple to do business in
North America in pulp and paper today,” he said. Owner Ron Stern gave the mill the challenge to find an equal
amount of revenue from other sources. They can’t do that by restarting the
idled newsprint machine because the market for the product is not there, he
said. Instead, they are looking areas such as using some waste streams to
produce methane to be used as fuel for the biomass boiler. In order to ensure the mill is sustainable its business has
to evolve and move into the bioeconomy sector, Dube said in an interview,
adding that was something they focused on in discussions with the province
prior to reopening the mill.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Tembec Closes NBSK Pulp Mill Sale
Tembec announced the
closing of the sale of its NBSK pulp mill and related assets located in
Skookumchuck, British Columbia to Paper Excellence Canada Holdings, this
according to a company news release. Total consideration for the transaction is $94.6 million,
including $25.5 million in working capital. Tembec, a manufacturer of forest products, will use the cash
proceeds to pay down revolving operating debt and for general corporate
purposes.
Stora Enso Stops Production On News PM
Stora Enso is proceeding with its plans to reduce newsprint
capacity by another 475,000 tpy before the start of price negotiations for the
second half of the year. Negotiations on job cuts in Hylte and Kvarnsveden
still ongoing. Yesterday, Stora Enso has stopped production on two
newsprint machines in Sweden, PM 2 at the Hylte mill and PM 11 at the company’s
Kvarnsveden mill. In February, Stora Enso announced it would permanently shut
down the two machines during the second quarter due to continuing structural
weakening of newsprint demand in Europe.
According to Stora Enso, newsprint production on the 205,000
tpy PM 2 in Hylte has been closed down for good, but determination negotiations
with employee representatives on the total number of job cuts have not been
concluded yet. The outcome of these proceedings is expected for June. In the case of the 270,00 tpy PM 11 in Kvarnsveden, the
company explained it had halted production for the time being in what is said
to be a market related stoppage. Negotiation between the company and employee
representatives regarding the permanent shut down of PM 11 and the total number
of jobs affected by the closure were still going on.
Metsä Fibre-Week Of Maintenance At Finnish Pulp Mill
Metsä Fibre will halt
production at the Äänekoski pulp mill to facilitate annual maintenance work
during week 21. The shutting down of normal production processes will proceed
starting on Saturday 18 May, as the company said in a press release received by
Lesprom Network. Maintenance work will be performed during the stoppage by
the mill's own personnel as well as by some 550 employees of its cooperation
partners. A gradual restart of production operations will commence on
Saturday 25 May. It will take about 24 hours for the mill to reach its normal
production mode.
Greys Paper-Turns Rags Into Office Paper
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Greys+anatomy+Inside+Edmonton+plant+that+turns+recycled+paper/8397573/story.html
The office paper and used clothing and linen that Edmontonians toss into recycling bins is being turned into stationery by a new eco-friendly recycling plant. “What we are doing is trying to close the loop on recycling,” said Rajan Ahluwalia, CEO of Greys Paper Recycling Industries. “You give me your waste paper and we take cotton clippings and cuttings, or bedsheets and towels from hotels, and we shred them and pulp them and then mix those two in my own secret recipe where I mix those two pulps together and roll sheets of paper.” The cotton adds strength to the paper’s wood fibre, which is less durable and has a shorter lifespan. More than 100 local businesses, including most major hotels, provide waste paper and used cotton fabric to Greys. These companies and the City of Edmonton have also committed to purchasing the recycled products. The plant also uses old, non-reusable clothing and linens collected at 14 recycling depots and Eco Stations. Ahluwalia gave city officials and media a tour of the $20-million plant at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre in the city’s northeast on Thursday. Two months ago, it started one of its two production lines which produces as much as five tonnes of paper a day. The plant has started making envelopes and note pads. Other products will be rolled out later in the year. A second larger production line is expected to start up in mid-June, producing as much as 40 tonnes daily. The 100-per-cent post-consumer recycled paper, which feels rougher than conventional paper, is light grey in colour — giving the company its name. Greys employs 55 people and at full production will need a minimum of 100 workers. The technology which Ahluwalia brought to Edmonton with him from India uses no chemicals and a fraction of the water of traditional paper mills. “This is all done by mechanical processes,” he said. “There is no emissions and no pollution.” The plant is a partnership between Greys and the City of Edmonton, which contributed $5 million to build the two giant white domes housing the plant.
The office paper and used clothing and linen that Edmontonians toss into recycling bins is being turned into stationery by a new eco-friendly recycling plant. “What we are doing is trying to close the loop on recycling,” said Rajan Ahluwalia, CEO of Greys Paper Recycling Industries. “You give me your waste paper and we take cotton clippings and cuttings, or bedsheets and towels from hotels, and we shred them and pulp them and then mix those two in my own secret recipe where I mix those two pulps together and roll sheets of paper.” The cotton adds strength to the paper’s wood fibre, which is less durable and has a shorter lifespan. More than 100 local businesses, including most major hotels, provide waste paper and used cotton fabric to Greys. These companies and the City of Edmonton have also committed to purchasing the recycled products. The plant also uses old, non-reusable clothing and linens collected at 14 recycling depots and Eco Stations. Ahluwalia gave city officials and media a tour of the $20-million plant at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre in the city’s northeast on Thursday. Two months ago, it started one of its two production lines which produces as much as five tonnes of paper a day. The plant has started making envelopes and note pads. Other products will be rolled out later in the year. A second larger production line is expected to start up in mid-June, producing as much as 40 tonnes daily. The 100-per-cent post-consumer recycled paper, which feels rougher than conventional paper, is light grey in colour — giving the company its name. Greys employs 55 people and at full production will need a minimum of 100 workers. The technology which Ahluwalia brought to Edmonton with him from India uses no chemicals and a fraction of the water of traditional paper mills. “This is all done by mechanical processes,” he said. “There is no emissions and no pollution.” The plant is a partnership between Greys and the City of Edmonton, which contributed $5 million to build the two giant white domes housing the plant.
Global & China Dissolving Pulp Ind Rpt, 2012-2015
Dissolving pulp refers to the pulp with the cellulose
content above 90%, including wood pulp, bamboo pulp and cotton pulp. The report
touches on the first two categories. In the world, the dissolving pulp capacity concentrates in
regions with abundant forest resources such as North America, South Africa and
Brazil. Between 2011 and 2012, China’s intensive release of dissolving pulp
capacity made it possible to become one of the major producing regions of
dissolving pulp all across the globe. Major dissolving pulp producers worldwide
include Aditya Birla, Sappi, Sateri, Rayonier, Buckeye, and Lenzing, the
combined capacity of which in 2012 accounted for 61.4% of the world’s total. In 2010, the dissolving pulp capacity of China import dependence rate surpassing 80%.
The considerable demand for dissolving pulp encouraged many companies to build
new dissolving pulp projects, leading to the substantial rise in capacity to
937,500 tons by 2012. However, due to the bleak demand in global textile market
as well as the international low-priced dissolving pulp, China-made dissolving
pulp products took a nosedive in price, forcing most industrial players to slash
their output and even suspend their production in order to reduce losses. In
2012, China’s dissolving pulp output was just about 335,000 tons, with the
operating rate down to 35.7%. There were only 9 companies in China in the production of
dissolving pulp in 2012. Most of them are medium- and large-sized papermaking
and chemical fiber enterprises. Among the papermaking companies, they were
Yueyang Forest & Paper, Sun Paper and Fujian Qingshan Paper Industry which
were specialized in the production of wood dissolving pulp.
Japan Paper Shipments Rise-1st Time In 11 Mths
Shipments of paper products increased in Japan for the first
time in eleven months last month as the weaker yen made imported products more
expensive, enabling domestic paper producers to regain sales. Domestic
shipments of paper and paperboard, which includes everything from newsprint and
packaging to cardboard, increased 3.3 percent in April to 2.18 million metric
tons, the Japan Paper Association said today in a statement. Japanese exports
surged 43 percent to 83,000 tons last month, whereas imports dropped 33 percent
to 141,000 tons in March from a year earlier. Japan’s currency has fallen 19 percent since Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe’s election victory on Dec. 16, making domestic-made goods including
paper, vehicles and steel, more competitive than those from abroad.
Stephen King-No E-Book Ed Of New Novel
Don't expect to see an e-book edition any time soon of
Stephen King's new novel, "Joyland," which will be published next
month. Digital books pioneer Stephen King is holding onto the
e-book rights to his upcoming novel “Joyland” in hopes of driving people to
bookstores. Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on Lunch Break. Mr. King, an e-book pioneer, held on to the novel's digital
rights in hopes of spurring his fans to buy the print edition in bookstores. He
said it is unclear when he will make the coming-of-age tale available
digitally. "Joyland" by Stephen King "I have no plans for a digital version," Mr. King
said. "Maybe at some point, but in the meantime, let people stir their
sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one." Mr. King's decision to support traditional book retailing comes
at a time when many bookstores are struggling to compete with online retailers
that sharply discount physical books and services that sell low-cost e-books. Mr. King's latest move to make "Joyland" only
available as a physical book is essentially the reverse of what he did in 2000,
when he became one of the country's first writers to make a new work available
exclusively in a digital format. Then, CBS Corp.'s CBS -0.89% Simon &
Schuster publishing arm issued Mr. King's 16,000-word ghost story "Riding
the Bullet" as an e-book priced at $2.50. Mr. King's effort was treated as a potential turning point
for a small but growing digital-publishing industry. Digital books generated $3
billion in publisher revenue in 2012, up 44% over the prior year, according to
a recent study by BookStats, which tracks data from nearly 1,500 publishers.
Introducing Esquire Weekly
Today marks the launch of our latest venture: Esquire
Weekly, first-of-its-kind weekly tablet edition of a monthly magazine.
Featuring original stories by Esquire’s best writers, it's free to digital
subscribers, or available a la carte for just $0.99 at the App Store once you
download the free Esquire app.
Out-Of-The-Box Thinking
Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Think direct mail is old school? Think again.
When direct is in your name, it can set a pretty high expectation among customers and other constituents that your marketing will, in fact, be direct (i.e. relevant and targeted). DirecTV went the opposite way on purpose to get attention for its addressable TV advertising capabilities.Now, I don't know about you, but when I get a package at work, I open it immediately. I mean, hey, it could be chocolate or popcorn or a Harry & David fruit basket. Or, it could be a pretty cooldirect mail piece as was the case last week when I tore into the big, white box delivered by messenger from DirecTV. But not at first. I deftly sliced through the tape, lifted the cover, and “What?!” The box contained the biggest Slim Jim I've ever seen, a copy of GQ, an athletic supporter, and an “airplane” bottle of Chivas Regal. Considering I'm a 49-year-old woman, this wasn't exactly my speed (well, except for the Chivas). But that was the point. After ogling what should have been goodies, the following caught my eye: “Does this feel off target to you?” Um, yes. I was hooked. So of course I read on. I was directed to a URL. Intrigued, I spun around to my computer to check out the site. Direct mail pieces (or in this case, direct, hand-delivered pieces) often get the short shrift. They're expensive. Potentially labor-intensive. But in this age of digital obsession they stand out. And when done well, they drive meaningful response—especially among high-value customers. Maybe it's time to rethink your direct marketing mix and if you're not doing mail, add it back in. Sometimes thinking out of the box means thinking about the box, and what should go in it.
When direct is in your name, it can set a pretty high expectation among customers and other constituents that your marketing will, in fact, be direct (i.e. relevant and targeted). DirecTV went the opposite way on purpose to get attention for its addressable TV advertising capabilities.Now, I don't know about you, but when I get a package at work, I open it immediately. I mean, hey, it could be chocolate or popcorn or a Harry & David fruit basket. Or, it could be a pretty cooldirect mail piece as was the case last week when I tore into the big, white box delivered by messenger from DirecTV. But not at first. I deftly sliced through the tape, lifted the cover, and “What?!” The box contained the biggest Slim Jim I've ever seen, a copy of GQ, an athletic supporter, and an “airplane” bottle of Chivas Regal. Considering I'm a 49-year-old woman, this wasn't exactly my speed (well, except for the Chivas). But that was the point. After ogling what should have been goodies, the following caught my eye: “Does this feel off target to you?” Um, yes. I was hooked. So of course I read on. I was directed to a URL. Intrigued, I spun around to my computer to check out the site. Direct mail pieces (or in this case, direct, hand-delivered pieces) often get the short shrift. They're expensive. Potentially labor-intensive. But in this age of digital obsession they stand out. And when done well, they drive meaningful response—especially among high-value customers. Maybe it's time to rethink your direct marketing mix and if you're not doing mail, add it back in. Sometimes thinking out of the box means thinking about the box, and what should go in it.
Time Inc.'s Opportunity For Change
Time Inc.'s Opportunity for Change:
With its upcoming spin-off, Time Inc. has a chance to initiate some big ideas.
I’m not sure why there is so much confusion and mystery around charting a strategy that transforms the Time Inc. magazine brands into an even bigger powerhouse digital publishing empire. Everything that is being said in analyst reports and the media is old news. For years, we have witnessed the ongoing shift in media consumption patterns from legacy print media to the digital venue. Only the ignorant, arrogant or asleep could have missed this freight train. Let’s not over-complicate the components of the solution to Time Inc.’s problems. I refuse to believe that my thinking is “missing something” in terms of the challenges that Time Inc. and many other publishers face inside their businesses. So here’s my plan on rebuilding Time Inc. as it spins off into its own company. If you disagree with it, let’s argue. I am sure that investors are getting tired of this asset posting operating losses and are already in a feverish discussion about how to change the course of the company.The new company must create a new pivot point from the start. It should not abandon its print legacy—which, according to PIB numbers, still retains market dominance. But it should signal to the market that Time Inc. believes in building the widest network of new digital platforms in the media industry.
With its upcoming spin-off, Time Inc. has a chance to initiate some big ideas.
I’m not sure why there is so much confusion and mystery around charting a strategy that transforms the Time Inc. magazine brands into an even bigger powerhouse digital publishing empire. Everything that is being said in analyst reports and the media is old news. For years, we have witnessed the ongoing shift in media consumption patterns from legacy print media to the digital venue. Only the ignorant, arrogant or asleep could have missed this freight train. Let’s not over-complicate the components of the solution to Time Inc.’s problems. I refuse to believe that my thinking is “missing something” in terms of the challenges that Time Inc. and many other publishers face inside their businesses. So here’s my plan on rebuilding Time Inc. as it spins off into its own company. If you disagree with it, let’s argue. I am sure that investors are getting tired of this asset posting operating losses and are already in a feverish discussion about how to change the course of the company.The new company must create a new pivot point from the start. It should not abandon its print legacy—which, according to PIB numbers, still retains market dominance. But it should signal to the market that Time Inc. believes in building the widest network of new digital platforms in the media industry.
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