Industry News

Sonoco announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Graffo Paranaense de Embalagens S/A, a closely held flexible packaging business located in Pinhais, Curitiba, Brazil.

3M Co. says it will take new steps to ensure that its suppliers of paper, pulp and packaging provide materials that come from sustainably logged timber.

SCA today, 4 March 2015, inaugurated its first manufacturing facility for personal care and tissue products in India. SCA has been active in the Indian market since late 2013.

Greif, Inc. announced this week that it plans to reduce fixed manufacturing costs and better align assets with marketplace trends and customer requirements.

Interfor Corporation has completed the acquisition of four sawmills from Simpson Lumber Company, LLC, increasing its annual lumber production capacity by 30% to 3.1 billion board feet.

A new state bill would eliminate California's tax on diapers, placing the product in an exempt category like some food and medicine.

Anglo Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier plans to rename itself RELX and simplify its structure into one unit to make it more transparent for investors in the latest stage of its transformation.

The Shoalhaven Paper Mill on the New South Wales South Coast is set to close this year with the loss of 75 jobs. Australian Paper informed workers of their decision to close the Bomaderry plant on Tuesday afternoon.

The delivery is part of Domtar's USD 160 million project to re-purpose the A64 paper machine. The rebuilt machine is scheduled to begin operation in the third quarter of 2016.

Södra and Statkraft announced that they have signed a cooperation agreement to start a jointly-owned company for the future production of biofuel at the former Tofte pulp mill in Norway.

VPK Packaging Group announced that it has entered into an agreement for the acquisition of 100% of the shares in ICS Europaks, a corrugated board box manufacturer based on Galvone Industrial Estate in Limerick, Ireland.

Vermont Gas had proposed building a pipeline from Middlebury, Vermont to the International Paper facility in Ticonderoga, New York. The mill was to pay a significant portion of the pipeline cost, but recent construction estimates proved unacceptable to International Paper.

Port Townsend Paper Corporation has been sold to a newly created holding company, Crown Paper Group, that has also purchased PTPC's sister mill, Crown Packaging, which has mills in Canada, for an undisclosed amount.

UPM announced this week that it has significantly reduced work-related accidents with a three year program called "Step Change in Safety 2012-2014".

Courier Corp. has agreed to be acquired by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. for $261 million, vacating a merger deal struck with Quad/Graphics Inc. several weeks earlier.

Cascades Inc. announced on 4 February 2015 that is has completed the transaction announced on 11 December 2014: the sale of its North American boxboard manufacturing and converting assets to Graphic Packaging Holding Company.

Production is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2016. The estimated yearly capacity of the production line will be around 100,000 cubic meters.

With this new machine, the plant is tripling its recycled paper production, hiking capacity from 50,000 tons per year to 160,00 tons per year.

The Palatka mill operates two kraft paper machines, three paper machines manufacturing paper for bath tissue and paper towels, and a number of converting operations producing finished paper products ready for customers. The Palatka mill began operation in 1947.

A worker has died following a fall Friday morning while working at an International Paper mill.

Less than two weeks after announcing it had agreed to be acquired by Quad/Graphics Inc. in a $260 million transaction, Courier Corp. said it has received a competing bid that is "reasonably likely to result in a 'superior proposal'" and has entered discussions with the company.

Early on Monday morning, January 26, two packaging giants announced that they will meld into one and create the second-largest packaging company in the world. Rock-Tenn Co. will acquire MeadWestvaco Corp. in a cash and stock deal valued at US $9.2 billion. When the dust has settled, MeadWestvaco shareholders will hold 50.1% of the new company and Rock-Tenn shareholders will own the remaining 49.9%. This transaction will be the largest in the paper industry since Koch Industries bought Georgia-Pacific in 2005 for about $12.6 billion. The new company, which will be named later, with be second in size only to International Paper, world packaging leader.

A worker was trapped in the cab of a logging machine and seriously injured when the piece of equipment fell over Monday.

Weyerhaeuser will reportedly pay a $37,500 civil fine after its pulp mill in Columbus, Mississippi exceeded emissions limits during a 2013 test.

Metso announced on Thursday it has agreed to sell its process automation business to Valmet in a deal valuing the division at 340 million euros