Metsä Tissue has selected Metso to supply machine and drive controls for the rebuild of PM10 in Mänttä, Finland. The order includes a modifications to the existing machine controls, controls for new machine equipment, and replacement of the PLC based drive controls with a metsoDNA automation system. The delivery will also include field cabling and upgrading of the control room operator stations. The PM10 rebuild is scheduled to take place during the first half of 2010.

Lamix, Poland, has ordered a new Intelli- Jet V™ hydraulic headbox and press part rebuild from PMPoland for PM1, a 2.6 m fourdrinier machine. The work, which is designed to improve basis weight profile and formation, will be completed in November 2009. The scope of supply covers a new hydraulic headbox, stock approach, modification of press part and new suction roll. Lamix is a producer of paper as well as finished paper products: Z-Z towels, jumbo toilet paper, towels in roll, hygienic tissues, industrial rolls and medical paper. Many of the products offered by Lamix have achieved the market leading positions in Poland.

Brazil's Mili has postponed the startup of a new 35,000 ton/yr tissue PM, which will be supplied by Voith Paper, from the first half of 2009 to 2010, RISI reports. The company is investing Real 80 million ($40 million) in the project at its Três Barras mill, in Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil. The new PM will increase Mili's Três Barras mill tissue capacity to 120,000 tons/yr.

Leading Italian-based tissue manufacturer Industrie Cartarie Tronchetti (ICT) has ordered three state-of-the-art MütekTM PCT-20 Charge Analyzers from BTG to optimize tissue machine performance at its Italian facilities. The new analyzers will deliver fast, accurate online charge measurement based on the industry benchmark Mütek concept, through direct sampling at the most critical locations in the tissue process. Online cationic demand measurement will allow ICT engineers to precisely adjust chemical additive levels, eliminating costly and unnecessary dosing, as well as helping them improve their understanding of the complex interrelation between the pulp suspension, tissue machine performance and final product quality. ICT has sites in Italy, Poland and Spain and a production capacity of 320,000 tons/year.

Metsä Tissue has awarded Voith Paper the order for the yankee head insulations at various company locations. The contract comprises the delivery, installation and commissioning of yankee head insulations at the Kreuzau mill and at the Raubach mill in 2009. Furthermore there is an option for additional head insulations in 2010. Metsä Tissue is actively working to mitigate climate change, primarily through the development of its own operations.

SCA said that most of the equipment for its new 60,000 ton/yr Metso tissue paper machine in Sahagún city, Hidalgo state, central Mexico, will be delivered end-2009 to early 2010. Start-up of the $240 million mill will likely be delayed one month to October 2010. The PM will have a width of 5.4 m and a speed of 2000 m/min and will make 100% toilet paper with a basis weight of 14.5-18 g/m2 based on mixed office waste paper. Contrary to the announcement by the company last year, SCA does not plan to close its Ecatepec unit when the plant starts up.

Vishay Intertechnology has delivered and installed a reel optimizing system on the 7 m wide PM4 at SCA's Ortmann Mill, located in Pernitz, Austria, which was recently rebuilt. The machine, which dates from 1992, is one of the world’s biggest with capacity of 88,000 tons/yr and operating speed of 1830 m/min. The mill produces toilet paper, facial tissue, and napkins for European markets. Vishay’s reel optimizing system, delivered in April to the Ortmann Mill, uses strain gauge-based load cells to improve roll density by controlling the nip force throughout the entire reel spool change-over process. The system replaces the existing pneumatic cylinder pressure control system with an hydraulic cylinder force and position control system.

Tonic Emballage Company was declared insolvent in June by the regional court of BLIDA. The court hearing followed a suit from Banque Algérienne de Développement Rural (BADR), which was claiming back debt assessed at about 60 billion Algerian dinars (around $850 million), including 20 billion dinars in interest and 40 billion dinars in principal. The final court ruling was preceded by intermediate measures under which a receiver was appointed for more than two years to replace the owner. Tonic runs the biggest tissue machine in Algeria, a 28,000 ton/yr Metso unit that started in 2006.

Nalco has announced the release of the third edition of The Nalco Water Handbook, the comprehensive sourcebook on water supply and treatment. It offers practical advice on how to improve water quality and optimize water usage and treatment processes. The book has been restructured so that it flows much like a water treatment process. It contains 1280 pages of text with numerous graphics and tables, is published by McGraw-Hill and is available through the McGraw-Hill Professional Web site and a variety of booksellers. Wepa Professional Piechowice in Poland has rebuilt the headbox and press part of PM3, a 3.25 m fourdrinier machine that makes singleply paper from deinked recycled paper. PMPoland supplied a modernization of the singlelayer headbox as well as a rebuild of the press part in the area of YD’s doctors. The main goal of the project is quality improvements with both basis weight and formation. Metso is to rebuild PM1 at Kimberly-Clark’s Salamanca mill in Spain in November 2009, with a comprehensive rebuild of the dry end. A Metso sheet support system, an Advantage TailThreader TIS tail threading system, an Advantage NipDeflector ballooning eliminator, an Advantage TailGlue system for tail turn-up, and an Advantage VacBox vacuum box system will be added. Purpose of the rebuild is to increase the safety and runnability of the Salamanca mill PM1.

One of the colourful advertising displays from Renova at Lisbon airport.

SCA has further postponed the start-up of a new 30,000 ton/yr tissue machine at its plant in Sovetsk, the Tula region in Russia, until the fourth quarter, according to news from RISI. "The technical installation is nearly complete and we are now in the final stage of the [approval] process," a spokesperson commented. The unit was originally scheduled to come online in the first quarter. The start-up, however, was later postponed until August. The PMT supplied unit is 2.8 m wide and has a speed of 1800 m/min. Meanwhile, the installation of a tissue converting line at SCA's site in Kamennogorsk in the Leningrad region is advancing according to schedule and is set to be wrapped up by the end of the year, the company said.

Portuguese tissue producer Renova has decorated Lisbon airport with a colourful ad campaign featuring some of the company’s recent brand projects. Sinclair Group, an operations management consulting company, has announced the formation of a joint venture with European-based strategy consulting experts of Vision Hunters Ltd Oy. Founded by forest industry expert Rainer Häggblom, Vision Hunters helps companies in the forest products industry address the most complex and difficult strategic challenges as well as advising them on mergers and acquisitions. The union combines strategy and operations into one management consulting company, which will serve the forest products and related industries throughout Europe. Markku Tynkkynen has been appointed President of the joint venture.

Kimberly-Clark is introducing improved Cottonelle Aloe & E toilet paper and new Cottonelle SoothingClean flushable moist wipes. These extra gentle products offer a combined solution that help make it easy for consumers to care for sensitive skin in their most sensitive spots. More information: www.cottonelleinstitute.com.

Metso is to buy the coater and doctor blade business of Pacific International, a division of Pacific/Hoe Saw&Knife Company, located in Portland, Oregon, USA. The transaction is expected to be finalized and the business transferred during the third quarter of 2009. Net sales of the purchased business is less than $10 million a year. The parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction value. The acquisition will allow Metso to enter a new services market that is currently not in its portfolio, namely coater and creping blades for pulp and paper. It will also complement Metso's technology offering with ceramic coated blades. As a result, Metso will become a single source blade consumables provider. The state-run company that manufactures Cuba’s toilet tissue has warned that the economic crisis and bad weather mean it may not be able to make or import enough to meet the island’s needs before the end of the year, according to press reports. Visitors should not be affected, however, as hotels are expected to import their own paper. More than 3000 Libresse tampon packs arrived from the sky, hanging on small pink parachutes and surprising thousands of sun worshippers on Dutch beaches in July. It was part of a campaign carried out by SCA to promote the message that women can enjoy the beach even when menstruating. The campaign carried out in IJmuiden, Bloemendaal, Zandvoort, Noordwijk, Scheveningen and Hoek van Holland was timed to coincide with the start of this year’s beach season in the Netherlands. Swedish company Södra has increased the prices of its long-fibre and short-fibre pulp by $40/ton, effective 1 September. The new prices are $730/ton for bleached softwood sulphate pulp and $600/ton for hardwood sulphate pulp. The price increase is a result of the ongoing improvement in market conditions, says Södra in a press statement. “We currently have a situation with low inventory levels and are having difficulties delivering at the rate customers require. At the same time demand in Asia remains very strong,” said Ulf Edman, president of Södra Cell International.

SCA dropped Libresse tampons on parachutes on Dutch beaches on 1 July as part of a promotional campaign.