More Pressure on Congress; USPS Can't Make 8/1 Payments Due

USPS Default on August 1 Appears Likely: Under a schedule laid out in the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, the Postal Service is also supposed to make a $5.6 billion payment into the retiree health fund at the end of September. “Without congressional action, we will default on both payments,” USPS spokesman Dave Partenheimer said in an email Thursday.

Stora Enso Reports Q2 Results

Stora Enso's Non-Recurring Items in Second Quarter 2012:
Stora Enso will record non-recurring items with a positive net impact of approximately EUR 45 million on operating profit and a positive impact of approximately EUR 10 million on financial items in its second quarter 2012 results.

Twin Rivers Gets Madawaska Tax Break

http://www.sjvalley-times.com/view/full_story/19286531/article-Madawaska-offers-valuation-reduction-to-Twin-Rivers?instance=latest_articles

Madawaska town selectmen voted unanimously on Monday evening, July 9, to offer a reduction in property valuation to Twin Rivers Paper Company totaling $25 million, according to Donald Chasse, chair of the town's board of selectmen.
Since August of last year, the company, which owns the paper manufacturing facilities in Madawaska and Edmundston, New Brunswick, has been trying to lower its property taxes by having its property valuation adjusted downwards.

UPM Selling Timberlands

UPM has signed a contract with funds advised by Latifundium to sell them about 7,200 hectares of forest land in Finland. The estates are located in Ilomantsi, Pihtipudas and Tervo. The contract covers a long term wood purchase and forest management agreement.

White Birch to Reopen Stadacona

White Birch Paper Company today announced that it plans to reopen the Stadacona newsprint mill in Quebec City on August 2nd, which has been closed since December 9th, 2011. The announcement comes after several months of joint efforts with the Government of Quebec and the Syndicat canadien des communications, de l'énergie et du papier (SCEP) Unionized employees, to obtain a sustainable operating plan.

Appleton & Hicks Call Off Deal

Appleton Papers Inc. ("Appleton") and Hicks Acquisition Company II, Inc. (HACII) (HKAC), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Thomas O. Hicks, announced they have agreed to discontinue their proposed business combination.

Separately, it was reported that Appleton Papers Inc. announced has terminated its previously announced consent solicitation with respect its 10.50% Senior Secured Notes due 2015 (the "Senior Notes") and its 11.25% Second Lien Notes due 2015 (the "Second Lien Notes" and, together with the Senior Notes, the "Notes") and will not accept any consents provided by any of holders of the Notes.

CEP Locals Reach Agreement with Domtar

CEP Locals in Dryden reach tentative agreements with Domtar:
Three new tentative agreements were reached Wednesday covering over 500 members from CEP Locals 105-1, 105-3 and 324 at Domtar‘s Pulp Mill and Woodlands Operations in Dryden, Ontario.
Stephen Boon, CEP national representative stated, “after almost 40 days of fairly challenging negotiations over the last 9 months, we are pleased to have finally reached new tentative agreements with Domtar that we are able to bring back and recommend to our Mill and Woodlands Members in Dryden and Ear Falls.”

2016 Print Market Forecast at $845 Billion

http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20120712006006/en/digital-print/packaging/print

The global market for print, and printed packaging, was valued at $791 billion in 2011 and is forecasted to be worth $845 billion by 2016 according to Smithers Pira...As print buyers become ever more creative with integrated promotional campaigns, providers of printed media must broaden their horizons to retain market share.
Printed media still plays a vital role in communication with customers in B2B and B2C markets, but today’s print buyers are looking for far more than this from their solution providers.

Global Ad Spend Improving

Global Ad Spend Improving; Online Sees Greatest Rise: Nielsen finds global spending on advertising is on the rise thanks to a lift in consumer confidence and brands "looking to reconnect." Global Internet ad spend outpaces other media with double-digit growth.
Magazines saw a minor decline compared to last year, but newspapers grew 3.1% globally. In Latin America and Asia Pacific, both media grew—7.6% and 10.3%, respectively in Latin America, and 3.6% and 5.4%, respectively in Asia Pacific. North America saw nominal declines in print ad spend (-2.1% and -5.0% respectively).

Printing Industries Urges Vote on Postal Reform

Printing Industries Urges U.S. House of Representatives to Vote on Postal Reform: Responding to media reports that the U.S. House is unlikely to vote on postal reform legislation this summer, Printing Industries of America today warned of the disastrous consequences this delay would pose to the printing and graphic communications industry.

Police Report Details on Verso, Sartell Fire

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20120711/NEWS01/307110010/Reports-Verso-Paper-mill-fire-happened-after-repairs

In the hours before an explosion and fire at the Verso Paper plant that killed one employee and injured four others, the plant had been shut down to repair a leaking water pipe. It was just being brought back online when the explosion happened.

The shutdown caused the plant to switch its source of cooling water for compressors that were later cited by employees as the spot where they saw smoke and flames just before the explosion.

Russia's Entry into WTO Means Lower Tariffs

The Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament, has ratified the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). As a result, Russia can become a full WTO member in August.
The entry to the WTO will oblige Russia to lower its import tariffs, among other conditions.

On the paper and board side, Russia is set to reduce import duties for all containerboard grades by 5% to 10% by 2015-2016. Import tariffs for other packaging grades, including cartonboard and sack kraft paper, will drop from the current rate of 15% to 10% by 2015/2016.

China Reveals More Details on Closings

The Chinese government has released details of this year's campaign to wipe out outdated pulp and paper machinery, planning to retire a total capacity of 8.80 million tonnes/yr.

As of July 9, there are 588 pulp and paper firms from 23 provinces on the list detailing all the machines to be shut down.

Shandong Tianhe Starts 100M mt P&W PM

Shandong Tianhe Paper has commissioned a 100,000 tonne/yr uncoated printing and writing (P&W) paper machine at its mill in Ningyang county, Shandong province, China.

The firm sells the products on the domestic market through its 26 sales branches across the country.

The facility already houses four uncoated P&W paper machines that have a combined capacity of 100,000 tonnes/yr.

APRIL to Start 450M mt Uncoated Woodfree PM

Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL) looks set to commission a 450,000 tonne/yr uncoated fine paper machine by the end of July at a new site in Jiangmen city, Guangdong province.

The unit, dubbed PM 11, is 8.65 m wide and has a design speed of 1,800 m/min. Metso Paper supplied it.

The contact said that the PM's output will be marketed mainly in China. Half of the output will be converted into cut-size copy paper on site, and the other half will be sold on the market.

H1 12; Magazine Starts Slow, But Closures Down

Magazine launches, closures slower in first half: MediaFinder.com reported that 133 new magazines launched in the first half of the year compared with 138 in the year-earlier period. Forty-eight magazines closed, down from 74. Twenty-one new b-to-b titles debuted in the first half of the year, down from the 34 that debuted in the year-earlier period, according to data released by MediaFinder.com, an online database of U.S. and Canadian publications.
Eight b-to-b publications, including The Grower, closed in the first half of the year compared with 13 closures in the year-earlier period, MediaFinder.com said.

Consumers Still Trust Traditional Media

Traditional Media Still Most Trusted Sources of Info and News: A recent study finds consumer trust in traditional media is much higher than digital media, while online research holds the most sway with influencing brand-buying buying decisions.
The study, examining the attitudes of over 24,000 consumers, finds that the most-trusted medium for news and information is television (45%), followed by newspapers (20%) and then radio (18%). Only one in eight (12.5%) respondents selected online news sources as most trusted.

NAPL’s State of the Industry Report Previewed

NAPL’s State of the Industry Report Candidly Reports on Tough Issues:
In the most recent NAPL NewsTalk Live presentation, Andy Paparozzi, NAPL’s Chief Economist, previewed some of the key findings of the upcoming NAPL State of the Industry report. Andy reported good news and bad news. The good news is that sales are not declining overall—they are stable. The bad news is that manufacturing costs are rising, pressure remains on pricing increases resulting in a classic profit crunch. Also discussed was what the leaders in the industry are doing to counter this problem.

Survey; Only 20% of Executives Confident in Campaigns

The Demand Generation Disconnect:
Only 20 percent of sales and marketing executives are confident that their current demand generation campaigns are effective, according to recently released research from Corporate Visions, Inc., a leading sales and marketing messaging company. The report, Q2 2012 Sales and Marketing Messaging Report, is based on a survey of more than 440 b-to-b sales and marketing professionals around the globe.

InfoTrends; Document Outsourcing Forecasts, 2011-2016

InfoTrends' U.S. / European Document Outsourcing Forecasts for 2011-2016: InfoTrends has just released its latest document outsourcing forecasts for the United States and Western Europe. Both forecasts, U.S. Document Outsourcing Market Forecast: 2011-2016 and European Document Outsourcing Market Forecast: 2011-2016, provide detailed snapshots of the document outsourcing market, forecast growth over the next five years, and include an analysis of trends driving the industry at present and expected to drive change in the future.