FRANCE
ICT Group to build new greenfield mill

In mid-June, Italian group ICT (Industrie Cartarie Tronchetti) announced a €100 million plan to move forward with another step in its long-term growth strategy through the creation of a new state-of-the-art tissue plant in the Loiret Region of France south of Paris.

ICT Group representatives have completed a pre-feasibility study which has identified the industrial park Arboria 2, just outside the town of Montargis, as the most suitable location for the new greenfield plant, which will have capacity of 70,000 tons/yr in its first phase and will employ 130-150 people. In a second stage this will be doubled to a total capacity of 140,000 tons/yr of tissue products.

An agreement (protocol d'accord) has been signed between company officials and the local authorities in order to allow all major aspects of the project to move forward swiftly and to allow the final site validation behalf of ICT to take place in the shortest time possible, which is expected by the end of July.

ICT is headquartered in Lucca, Italy, and operates mills in Italy, Spain and Poland with a combined capacity of 400,000 tons/yr. The group has been present in France since 1999 through its sales organization based in Paris and has been supplying the leading French retail chains with their own branded products for many years. The new mill is expected to make and sell private label as well as ICT’s own leading brand, Foxy.

 

 

ITALY
SCA brings Pratovecchio mill back online

SCA has restarted its Pratovecchio mill and converting plant near Florence, Italy, following the end of a two-month strike. This was provoked by the company’s announcement in the spring that it was planning to close the facility as part of its restructuring program for Italy and France. It is carrying out intensive discussions with the unions over future plans for the workforce.

The plant is to be shut down by the end of the year, with the expected loss of 128 jobs. The converting equipment will be moved to other production units in the Lucca area, where SCA has extensive facilities and plans to concentrate all its Italian operations in future. A decision on what to do with the 22,000 ton/yr tissue machine is still to be taken.

Meanwhile, SCA is also looking to restructure its mill in Orléans, sout of Paris, in a bid to improve its competitiveness. Some 44 jobs will be cut as a result. The company plans to diversify the site's output by introducing through-air-dried products and adjusting the factory's cost structure. The plant houses one 35,000 ton/yr TAD machine and employs 148 people.

 

Sofidel joins WWF Climate Savers Luigi Lazzareschi, CEO of Italian group Sofidel, No 4 in Europe following a major programme of acquisition, announcing the company has become Italy’s first member of the WWF’s Climate Savers group. The group, that includes Coca Cola and Hewlett Packard among its 21 members, has as its objective the reduction of CO2 from its operations. Sofidel has undertaken to reduce its own emissions by 11% in 2007- 11 and by 26% in 2007-20 .

 

Pro-Gest starts up tissue mill

Italy's Pro-Gest has started production at a tissue mill in Cagliari, Sardinia, that it acquired last year. A spokesman for the company confirmed that the facility had restarted production in April after being idle for some time, but declined to reveal the projected capacity of the mill. According to local sources, it can produce tissue for household applications at 1700 m/min

The spokesman further confirmed that the company's San Giuliano mill close to Pisa is still offline, but that the company has not changed its mind about restarting it if the recycled containerboard market picks up enough to compensate for the site's high operating costs.

The San Giuliano facility, which has been offline since July, can produce 60,000 tons/yr of recycled containerboard on one machine. News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

 

SCA Tissue gets footballers to plant trees SCA Tissue teamed up with the Philadelphia Eagles football team recently for a VIP tree planting event in Eagles Forest, a 2.5 ha space in the Neshaminy State Park in Pennsylvania. Executives and employees from both organizations planted 15 trees to add to the 1500-plus already there. SCA used the occasion to underline its long record of supporting sustainable forestry management.

 

 

ROMANIA
Pehart Tec starts up new tissue machine

SC Pehart Tec SA has brought on stream a new tissue production line at its plant in Petresti, Alba county, Romania. TM7 is an Ahead 2.0S line from Toscotec with an overall capacity of 110 tons/day.

The Petresti mill has a long tradition in paper production and was included in MG-Tec Group, headquartered in Dej-Cluj county, in 2005. Since then, the mill has restarted production with the installation of a 60 ton/day tissue machine and, in order to satisfy the growing demand for domestic and export markets, has finalized contracts for this new step of expansion with a €25 million investment plan.

The expansion took place in two phases and included the supply of a converting line started up on early this year and of a complete tissue plant from Toscotec SpA. Pehart Tec plans to sell 70% of the output to the domestic market. The rest will be traded in Eastern and Western Europe. The Petresti plant already houses two machines, which produce a total of 23,000 tons/yr of tissue. With the new machine, production will be increased by 33,000 tons/yr of high quality tissue

Toscotec’s turnkey project includes Ahead 2.0S tissue machine with double-layer headbox (TT Headbox ML-T) , 15’ steel yankee dryer (TT SYD 15FT), machine auxiliaries, stock preparation plant for virgin pulp, a three-ply tissue rewinder (TT WIND-H) complete with roll-handling system, electrification and control system. Machine speed is 2000 m/min with a net trim width of 2750 mm and a daily production of 110 tons.

The companies announced that “thanks to the strong cooperation between the Pehart and Toscotec teams the target of the project was matched in terms of quality and timing and the start-up of the new plant was reached in less than 1 year from the order date.”

 

 

UKRAINE
Ukrpapirinvest delays tissue PM start-up

Ukrpapirinvest (UPI) has pushed back plans to start tissue production at its facility in the Kharkov region of the Ukraine until the fourth quarter.

In 2007, Toscotec was signed up to supply a 2.75 m wide, 1200 m/min Modulo Plus crescent former machine with an annual capacity of 19,000 tons/yr of tissue. The order also included a virgin pulp stock preparation line, a slitter/rewinder and a control system with a quality scanner. Tissue production was due to start at the beginning of this year. However, the equipment has not been delivered to the site yet, following financial problems at the Ukrainian firm. "The project has not moved a bit since 2007 due to internal problems at the company. We are hoping to restart it in the autumn," a spokesperson commented. News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

 

 

UNITED KINGDOM
SCA to restructure tissue mill

SCA has opted to restructure operations at its tissue mill in Manchester, in a bid to bring its manufacturing costs in line with its objectives. Some 50 positions will be axed as a result. A total of 209 people work at the plant. The company did not comment on whether the plant's 50,000 ton/yr capacity would be affected by the cuts.

The move follows an audit of the facility's operations, after SCA acquired it from Procter & Gamble last year.

News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

 

 

GERMANY
Voith Paper announces streamlined structure

Voith Paper has announced a new structure, which reduces to four the number of divisions, in a plan to improve the customer interface. The four new divisions are: Paper Machines, headed by Kurt Brandauer; Fiber and Environmental Solutions (Stephan Bocken); Automation (Dr Antti Kaunonen); and Fabric and Roll Systems (Bertram Staudenmeier).

The enlarged paper machine division combines the former paper machine and finishing divisions and also brings together graphic paper/tissue with packaging grades. Fabrics and rolls, formerly in separate divisions, are also combined in one.

According to Voith, the benefits include:

• Faster, more flexible and more efficient mastering of complex projects
• Cost and time savings through minimized number of interfaces: clear responsibilities and few contact persons
• Processes and products with optimal fit
• Outstanding adaptation to local customer needs – Voith Paper is a globally operating supplier with a strong local presence and tailor-made solutions for local needs.

There is also a new geographic organization that breaks the world down into four regions: Europe, headed by Voith Paper president Dr Hans-Peter Sollinger; Asia, excluding Japan and India, which have their own companies (Ming Ming Liu); North America (Bob Gallo); and South America (Nestor de Castro).

To intensify the cooperation with the paper mills, Voith Paper has also nominated a new team of technical consultants for all paper mills in Central Europe. Each paper mill has a contact partner advising and assisting its maintenance, technical and production teams. During regular visits to the customers, the production processes will be observed and custom-made concepts for process optimization will be developed jointly with the customer.

To maintain competitiveness, many paper mills are increasingly focusing on optimizing their production processes step by step. Based on the long-term strategic orientation of the paper mills, production processes are constantly being evaluated and improved, thanks to services and minor rebuilds. The new Voith team is a response to this evolution. “Currently paper mills are especially interested in safety audits to examine whether the safety equipment of the mill complies with the new EC safety rules. Audits on topics of energy saving and efficient use of chemicals are other focal points of Voith Paper consulting services,” explains Peter Haider, vice president sales products & services Europe

In addition, Voith Paper offers a wide range of more than 200 services and optimizing products to improve paper quality and the efficiency and safety of production processes.

The technical sales team for products & services comprises seven consultants to assist the paper mills in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Their tasks and responsibilities include the product groups of services, spare parts, components and rebuilds.

Swedish clothing factory to close

Voith Paper Fabrics has decided to close its factory in Gusum, near Norrköping in Sweden, producing forming fabrics. The Gusum factory has suffered from weak profitability for some time, and at the company’s latest board meeting, it was decided to close down the unit. The production will be taken over by Voith’s production units in UK and Austria.

There will be 65 job losses. Half of them will leave the company in January, and the other half during the summer 2010. Voith has reserved approximately SEK3.5 million for education, training and support to the employees.

Gusum is the smaller of Voith Paper Fabrics’ two production units in Sweden. The other unit, in Högsjö, near Örebro, is not affected by the closure in Gusum.

 

 

FINLAND
Metsä Tissue to renew Mänttä PM10

Metsä Tissue is to rebuild PM10 at its Mänttä mill. The €6 million investment will take place during the first half of 2010 and “will further improve the quality of Metsä Tissue’s branded products Lambi, Serla and Katrin,” said Hannu Kottonen, CEO of Metsä Tissue.

The investment includes new Crecent former, headbox and reel. Short circulation, press section and automation will be revamped as part of the project. Metsä Tissue has signed a delivery contract with Vaahto Group, a high technology company serving the process industry in the fields of pulp and paper machinery and process machinery.

Metso is to supply two yankee dryer head insulation systems to the company. The systems will be installed at the company’s tissue mills in Sweden and Finland with the aim of reducing the mills’ energy consumption. Installation of the systems will start in June 2009. The value of the order is not disclosed.

The yankee dryer head insulation systems, including installation and start-up services, will be installed on PM36 at the Mariestad mill in Sweden and on PM9 at the Mänttä mill in Finland. The contract also includes an option for six additional yankee dryer head insulation systems for the company’s mills in the Nordic countries and Europe.

 

 

BULGARIA
Kostenez starts up new tissue machine

On 16 May 2009 Kostenez HHI started up its new machine for high-quality tissue, centrepiece of an €11 million investment, under the supervision of machine supplier Over Meccanica. According to the mill, saleable paper was produced from the first jumbo roll. Kostenez paper mill, situated 60 km south-east of Sofia, Bulgaria, is already running another tissue machine as well as another for packaging in the mill. The new 2.75 m wide machine has a design speed of 1800 m/min running on 100% virgin pulp.

The Over Meccanica scope of supply covers the full line from approach flow system to wrapping line including Crescent former tissue machine, sectional drives, steam, vacuum, hood system and a three-ply combining winder."

The machine start-up was delayed by 18 months by gas supply issues and, more recently, by bad weather and a Russia-Ukraine dispute that disrupted gas supplies earlier this year. These problems appear to have been overcome through recent political discussions.

 

 

EUROPE
Kimberly-Clark to restructure operations

Kimberly-Clark has unveiled plans to restructure its consumer business operations across Europe. The firm blamed the move on the changing business dynamics which are affecting fast-moving consumer goods companies, combined with the ongoing impact of the global recession. The restructuring will lead to some jobs cuts across its sites, generally among white-collar workers. Tissue paper output will remain unchanged.

"We are in a tough business environment, with growing uncertainty due to the cost of raw materials, significant currency fluctuations and the global recession - we need to evolve our business in response," K-C's president of Consumer Europe Giles Turrell stated. "In doing so, we have examined every option and have taken the decision to reduce our cost base which will regrettably result in some job losses."

K-C is currently in talks with employee representatives. The company did not specify how many workers would be made redundant or which plants would be affected as the consultation process has only just begun. The firm aims to ensure business continuity for all its customers.

Media reports in the UK said that the company's 135,000 ton/yr tissue plant in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, will be affected by the restructuring. A K-C spokesperson confirmed that between 25 and 30 white-collar workers there are set to lose their jobs. The mill employs 426 people, including 121 whitecollar workers.

News from RISI(www.risiinfo.com)

 

 

POLAND
WEPA rebuilds PM1 with steel yankee

German tissue producer WEPA has restarted PM1 at its mill in Piechowice, Poland, following a rebuild carried out by Toscotec. Objective of the rebuild was to increase the quality level and the energy efficiency to meet the increased customer demands also for singleply hand towels.

Toscotec supplied a new 4-m-diameter steel yankee dryer, the steam system upgrade and a new yankee creping doctor. It will guarantee the new production requirements by an improved drying behaviour.

The new steel yankee, which can work at up to 10 bar, has been placed on the same machine frame as the old one, while the mechanical drive group has been revised. PM 1 in Piechowice is mainly used to make single-ply towel tissue paper with a basis weight range of 28-42 g/m2 using 100% mixed waste paper as furnish. Following the rebuild, its speed has been increased to 600 m/min with a paper net trim width of 3150 mm at the pope reel.

The installation works (including stock preparation upgrade, fourdrinier section revision, etc) took 15 days, as scheduled, and the machine restarted on 8 April, according to Toscotec.

 

 

RUSSIA
Syassky starts new converting line

Syassky Pulp & Paper has started up a new converting line for toilet paper and towels at its mill near St Petersburg. The new CMG line will make up to 530 rolls/min based on output from the new 30,000 ton/yr tissue machine it started up last year. Premium-class production will be produced in Russia for the first time, a company spokesman said in a promotional video. “This is the latest development of our Myagki znak brand, featuring colour, aroma, and 3-4 plies.

Aleksander Utevskiy, general director of JSC Syassky, said: "Our production has the same quality as the world's best standards, but our tissue products are 20-25% cheaper. Moreover our production is made without waste paper and it is ecologically pure; it is made of the pure cellulose. Syassky was always successful on the Russian market and it tries to hold the leading position.”