Leading Stories

The "major spill" started on Dec. 27 and is still continuing.

The Waukee Fire Department confirmed the fire originated in the bailing room of the building.

Maine Governor Janet Mills announced an award of $1,000,000 from the final round of the Forest Recovery Initiative of her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan to ND Paper (NDP) for an upcoming project at NDP's Rumford Division to enhance the efficiency of its R15 packaging paper machine.

Domtar's Kingsport Mill recently produced its first 100% recycled containerboard. The milestone marks the culmination of a two-year, $350 million investment project to convert the former uncoated freesheet paper mill into Domtar's first 100% recycled packaging facility.

WorkSafe investigators called to scene, plant closed six days ahead of planned curtailment.

Fibre-based consumer packaging leader Graphic Packaging International ('Graphic Packaging') has announced it is moving its Bristol, UK beverage packaging manufacturing operations to a new, state-of-the-art facility nearby, creating up to 30 new jobs in the process.

Complementary capabilities, product offering, and customer base solidifies leadership position in priority high growth medical device packaging segment.

Mercer International Inc. reports that, due to a lack of appropriate fiber availability, its Celgar mill in British Columbia, Canada, is planning to take approximately three weeks of downtime. This curtailment is expected to commence in March 2023.

Around 1,300 employees may be affected by the plans.

The pulp line is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2023 and is anticipated to impact approximately 300 positions across the organization by the end of the year.

Central National Gottesman Inc. (CNG), a $9B global sales, marketing, and distribution leader in the pulp, paper, tissue, packaging, wood products, and metals industries, announced that it has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire S.P. Richards (SPR), an independent business products wholesaler based in Atlanta, Georgia. The closing is expected to take place on January 31, 2023.

This temporary reduction in output is expected to be mostly concentrated outside of Interfor's US South operating region.

Cosmo Specialty Fibers Inc. has gained new ownership following more than 12 years since the mill was bought by The Gores Group, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, in 2010. The United Kingdom-based firm, Charlestown Investments, is the new owner.

Mondi plans to invest around €200 million in converting the existing lightweight coated mechanical paper machine at the mill into a high-quality, cost-competitive recycled containerboard machine with an annual capacity of around 420,000 tonnes.

Progroup has invested around Euro 72 million in the project at the site, which covers around 28,000 square metres, and created 50 new jobs.

International Paper intends to build a new 20,000-square-foot building at the Cedar Rapids mill that would be home to a boiler and water treatment plant. Together, they would provide steam power to the Cedar Rapids facility. Previously, the plant used the coal-powered Prairie Creek Station. However, that facility is being closed.

The indefinite curtailment of Perry Sawmill will impact approximately 126 employees and will reduce West Fraser's US lumber production by 100 million board feet.

Memphis, Tennessee-based International Paper is planning a $102 million expansion of its Cedar River Mill in southwest Cedar Rapids.

More than 480 paper mill workers from the Mahrts Mill in Cottonton, AL have been off the job after a dispute over contract agreements since October 2022.

The company said that the closing of the plants is due to the continuing decline in demand for long-run catalog and magazine printing.

Paper Excellence Group, a private company controlled by an Indonesian billionaire, is poised to expand in Canada's forestry industry by diversifying into the lumber sector with its contentious takeover of Resolute Forest Products Inc.

The Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) paper mill in Jackson has called employees back to work and is expected to resume production Monday, Jan. 9.

This will remove approximately 21 million board feet in addition to the 150 million board feet previously announced on December 5, 2022.

Sylvamo acquires Stora Enso's uncoated freesheet paper mill in Sweden, for €150M.

Despite efforts to rescue him, a worker died in a hopper accident at a Newark gypsum plant and distribution center Tuesday, Dec. 27 according to the Alameda County Fire Department.