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Bank Austria seeks better bids for Lenzing shares
Bank Austria has reopened the bidding for the sale of its 50.1% share in Lenzing. The financial institution has also revised the timetable for the sale of its majority stake. Bank Austria had expected to have the sell-off wrapped up by the end of last year, but the bank has successfully applied to its supervisory board to extend the offer period until March 31.
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Stora Enso unveils new PM
Stora Enso has pulled back the curtain on plans to build a 400,000 tonne/yr newsprint and supercalendered (SC) swing machine at its Langerbrugge mill in Belgium. The company aims to start construction as soon as possible and the new PM is due to come on stream at the end of 2002.
The majority of the new machine's output will be newsprint. Stora Enso estimates that the PM will be running at 70% of capacity by 2003. This would bring an additional 280,000 tonnes/yr of capacity to the market. But the Euro 430 million ($409 million) scheme will result in a net increase of just 170,000 tonnes/yr. The Nordic giant plans to pull the plug on two machines with a combined capacity of 230,000 tonnes/yr once the PM starts up. Stora Enso will shut the 120,000 tonne/yr SC PM 2 at the Belgian mill. PM 1 at the Summa plant in Finland will also get the chop, taking 110,000 tonnes/yr of newsprint out of the market.
The producer announced the new PM as part of an overall project to restructure its production capacity. Under the scheme, Stora Enso also aims to shut down a 140,000 tonne/yr off-line coater at the Nymölla mill in February 2002. All of the site's 400,000 tonne/yr capacity will then be dedicated to uncoated woodfree production.
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SCA strikes tissue deals
The European Commission (EC) has rejected SCA's proposal to take over Metsä Tissue on competition grounds. The decision has forced the Swedish company to abort plans to snap up Metsä-Serla's 65.58% stake in Metsä Tissue.
The SCA proposal has the unfortunate honor of being just the 14th merger to be vetoed by the antitrust body since 1990. The EC's due diligence procedures concluded that the merger "would have created or strengthened dominant market positions in a total of 26 hygienic tissue markets in the Nordic region".
SCA had offered to make substantial concessions at the end of the first phase of the commission's investigation period. But SCA's executive vice president, Michael Bertorp, said that the deal was no longer attractive once the EC had proposed to rip out the juiciest parts of the package where synergies were available.
But SCA has not been letting the grass grow under its feet while the EC pondered the Metsä Tissue deal. The Swedish company recently agreed to acquire some of Georgia-Pacific's (G-P) away-from-home tissue assets.
SCA will pay $850 million on a debt-free basis for a 17% share of the US away-from-home tissue market. In total, the deal gives the company 370,000 tons/yr of tissue production at four different US mills.
SCA has also offered $230 million, or $21.50/share, for the US packaging company, Tuscarora. The company specializes in supplying protective packaging systems for the electronic and industrial products sector.
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UPM-Kymmene boosts pulp
UPM-Kymmene has completed a debottlenecking project at its Pietarsaari mill. The scheme boosted the integrated mill's softwood kraft pulp capacity from 290,000 tonnes/yr to 340,000 tonnes/yr. The work involved an upgrade of the oxygen bleaching line, an increase in washing capacity and the installation of two additional digesters in the batch line. Kvaerner, Ahlstrom and a local company, Protek, supplied the equipment for the Euro 12 million ($11 million) project, which kicked off in 1997.
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Palm builds world's largest PM
Papierfabrik Palm is to build a huge new greenfield containerboard mill in Wörth, near Karlsruhe, in southwestern Germany. At the heart of the project is a new line that will include the world's largest paper machine.
Palm has signed up Metso Paper to provide the equipment for the line in an order valued at Euro 110 million ($103 million). The Metso order will include recycled fiber lines and stock preparation systems with a total capacity of 2,000 tonnes/day, the paper machine, two winders and roll handling systems. Fellow Finnish company, CTS Engineering, has been awarded the engineering contract for the scheme.
The 11m wide PM will have a design speed of 1,800 m/min and a capacity of 600,000 tonnes/yr of case materials. Output will include testliner, wellenstoff and schrenz in a basis weight range of 60-150 g/m². The machine is scheduled to come on stream in early October 2002.
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Pirna plans new pulp mill
Germany's Faserwerk Pirna plans to build a new market pulp mill in Pirna, Saxony. The plant will initially have a capacity of 425,000 tonnes/yr of bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp (BCTMP). The pulp mill will use pine, spruce, poplar and birch as furnish from Germany and around Europe.
Civil works are due to begin in September this year, with construction of the pulp line penciled in to start at the beginning of 2002. The mill is scheduled to come on stream in the first quarter of 2003.
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Munksjö wraps up project
Munksjö of Sweden has completed a rebuild of the decor paper PM 3 at its mill in Aalen, Germany. The upgrade was aimed at improving product quality and the machine's efficiency, as well as raising capacity.
The modernization involved a rebuild of the machine's press section. Bellmer was the main supplier. PM 3's capacity will rise from 28,000 tonnes/yr to 33,000 tonnes/yr of decor paper as a result.
Munksjö is also looking at raising its paper capacity elsewhere. The increase would come through a new paper mill, although a firm decision has not yet been made. The company is carrying out a feasibility study for the scheme.
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Bauernfeind invests in new PM
Austria's Roman Bauernfeind has started up a new containerboard machine, PM 7, at its mill in Raubling, Germany. The 300 tonne/day Valmet unit's output will cover the full case materials band, ranging from schrenz to kraftliner in a basis weight range of 90-140 g/m².
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AssiDomän mulls offers for board mill assets
AssiDomän has two offers on the table for its containerboard and corrugated operations, according to reports. The word on the grapevine is that Kappa Packaging and a consortium including SCA and South Africa's Mondi have submitted bids for the units.
The company whose offer is favored by AssiDomän stands to walk off with all or part of a package which includes the Štúrovo mill in Slovakia and the Frövi plant in Sweden.
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Korsnäs invests in Gävle
Korsnäs plans to raise capacity on PM 4 at the Gävle mill. The machine currently produces 180,000 tonnes/yr of white top liner and sack kraft. Korsnäs aims to raise PM 4's productivity by 15% following the rebuild.
Vaahto is the main supplier for the scheme. Work will focus on improvements to the drying section as well as on the drainage system of the top and bottom wires. The upgraded PM 4 is scheduled to come back on stream in October 2001.
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Scots weigh up pulp project
Scottish Enterprise has launched a pre-feasibility study into the construction of a new 250,000 tonne/yr pulp mill in Scotland, UK. International consultants including Jaakko Pöyry will carry out most of the research and the economic development agency expects to review the consultants' findings at the end of March.
Research by the Scottish forestry industry shows that UK papermakers import 90% of their pulp, while Scotland's forests could support a 250,000 tonne/yr fiber line.
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East Lancs hits trouble
The East Lancashire Paper Mill has gone into administration. Three partners from Arthur Andersen have been appointed as administrators for the company. Strong foreign competitors, the strength of the UK currency and escalating raw material costs have made life difficult for East Lancashire Paper Mill, according to Arthur Andersen. The administrators plan to work with the mill's management team to continue trading with a view to obtaining refinancing or selling the company off as a going concern.
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Donside in takeover talks
Donside Paper Company is in talks with seven or eight parties interested in taking over its sole mill in Woodside near Aberdeen. The Scottish firm produces 60,000 tonnes/yr of art paper, label paper, as well as uncoated and coated woodfree grades on two machines at the Woodside plant.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is representing Donside in receivership proceedings. Donside is jointly owned by Morgan Grenfell Development and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
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Heinzel meets Czech mate
The Heinzel Group of Austria has agreed to buy Biocel for CZK 1.92 billion ($51 million) or CZK 620/share. The Czech company produces 260,000 tonnes/yr of bleached sulfite pulp. The group signed a contract to purchase the 94% stake with Biocel's securities dealer, QUORUM Pro through its subsidiary, Zellstoff Pöls. The group's chairman, Alfred Heinzel, said that the acquisition will take Heinzel's market pulp capacity up to the one million tonne/yr mark.
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Iranians push up pulp
Maragheh Pulp & Paper Industries is moving ahead with its project to build a pulp line at Maragheh. The company has signed a $30 million contract with Andritz to supply the equipment for the scheme.
The pulp line will produce 50,000 tonnes/yr of alkaline peroxide mechanical pulp (APMP) from poplar. Construction will start after the engineering work is completed at the end of the third quarter this year. Startup is planned for 2003.
Andritz will also supply a 50,000 tonne/yr APMP pulp line to Gharb Paper Industries. Startup is penciled in for early 2002.
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Neusiedler Hadera invests
Neusiedler Hadera Paper plans to increase capacity at its Hadera mill. The company will rebuild the site's sole PM, which will boost the machine's capacity from 115,000 tonnes/yr to 160,000 tonnes/yr of uncoated woodfree paper. The upgrade will be carried out in 2003.
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Bowater cancels Sepoong deal
The US newsprint producer, Bowater, has canceled its planned acquisition of the Sepoong newsprint mill in Kunsan due to delays in meeting preconditions of the deal.
The preconditions included a restructuring plan involving laying off 180 employees, as well as scrapping the site's PM. But labor protests prevented Sepoong from meeting them after mill workers resorted to strike action last November to oppose the deal. The PM that had been earmarked for retirement produces 60,000 tonnes/yr of mechanical and telephone directory paper. Bowater planned to retain the mill's two newer units, with a combined newsprint capacity of 260,000 tonnes/yr.
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Norske Skog sheds market pulp plants
Norske Skog is to auction off the pulp section of its Tasman mill at Kawerau, New Zealand. The Norwegian company held discussions with several parties on the sale and New Zealand's Carter Holt Harvey has applied for clearance from the country's antitrust authority to acquire the facility. The sale was expected to close during the first quarter of this year.
Norske Skog also plans to sell off the 230,000 tonne/yr Mackenzie market pulp mill in British Columbia. There are several potential buyers on the radar and the sale was also due to close in the first quarter.
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Amcel to build BCTMP mill
The Amcel group has unveiled plans to build a 170,000 tonne/yr bleached chemi-thermomechanical market pulp (BCTMP) mill near Boa Vista in Roraima state. The company aims to have the greenfield pulp mill up and running by 2003.
The Swiss group will enter into negotiations with equipment suppliers for the scheme shortly and the environmental permits to build the plant are still pending.
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Arauco gains approval
Arauco has got the green light for plans to build a 550,000 tonne/yr bleached kraft pulp plant on the banks of the Itata river from Chile's National Commission for the Environment, CONAMA.
The timeline for the construction of the plant is not yet clear, but an Arauco spokesperson insisted that the Itata project would not leapfrog the company's plans to build another 550,000 tonne/yr eucalyptus and radiata pulp plant in Valdivia.
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Paraná River forges ahead with pulp scheme
The Paraná River Company has finally pulled together all the pieces for its $320 million plan to build a 250,000 tonne/yr bleached eucalyptus pulp mill in Itapua state, close to Paraguay's border with Argentina.
According to a government minister, construction of the fiber line is due to kick off this year and the government expects a two-year lead time before the first Paraguayan pulp hits the market.
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Copamex leaves Venepal at the altar
Mexican papermaker, Copamex, has walked out on the ailing Venezuelan producer, Venepal. The Latin American companies formed a partnership last year. Copamex took over the administration of Venepal and signed an option to buy 60% of the company.
Copamex has decided not to exercise that option, but the Mexican half of the couple will continue to run the company until the end of the first quarter.
As a result, Venepal is on the lookout for a new strategic partner. The company struck a deal two years ago which converted half of the company's $76 million debt into bonds on the condition that Venepal find a partner within two years to take on the debt. If the company fails to find a white knight before the September 31 deadline, Venepal's creditors can take control of 64% of the company.
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