North America

Soundview Paper to build power plant at former Marcal tissue mill

Soundview’s Bella dinner napkin running on a napkin converting line at the Elmwood Park, NJ site

North American tissue producer Soundview Paper has said it hopes to begin construction of a power plant at the former Marcal tissue mill by early summer 2013.

The business, which is the new owner of the former Marcal Paper plant in Elmwood Park, will soon request proposals for construction of its own power plant.

Alex Sommer, a spokesman for Soundview, told TW the decision was based on the back of the market price for energy in the state of New Jersey, which he said is “one of the highest in the country”.

He said: “If we can produce our own power we can improve the economics of our business. The power plant will be used to generate electricity for the mill we use and to sell to the grid as well.

“We intend that the bids will be returned to us by the end of the year and our hope is to begin construction by early summer 2013.”

In April 2012, Soundview Paper acquired Elmwood Park, New Jersey-based Marcal Paper Mills, a tissue and paper products manufacturer and distributor.

The company now manufactures and distributes finished paper products for the At-Home and Away-from-Home market, including tissue, towel and napkin products. It produces some 140,000 tonnes of tissue paper per year.

Brazil

Brazil surpasses Mexico as the largest tissue paper market in Latin America

Brazil surpassed Mexico as the biggest Latin American tissue paper consumer in 2011 with a 29% share, 1% more than the Mexican market. Latin America’s market reached 3.4m of tissue paper in 2011, around 11% of the global consumption, and RISI forecasts an average growth rate of 5.2% until 2014 in the region.

In the next three years, Brazil will account for around 50% of the increasing capacity growth expected in Latin America, RISI’s principal tissue economist Esko Uutela said on the second day of RISI’s Latin America Pulp and Paper Outlook Conference.

In 2013, a dozen tissue paper machines (PMs) are scheduled to come on stream which will mean an increased volume of 337,000 tonnes.

“But due to some delays on several projects for different reasons I believe Latin America will start up a lower volume of 200,000 tonnes next year,” Uutela said.

The first half of this year was quite challenging for Latin American countries.

“Brazil and Mexico didn’t increase demand too much but still kept higher volumes compared to 2011. We forecast a stronger second half with Brazilian market increasing 5-5.5% and Mexico’s 4% this year,” Uutela added.

Other countries such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia are also in a very good shape.

The region’s exception is Venezuela as it is dealing with problems importing raw material among other institutional issues.

The country’s tissue paper market grew less than 1% in 2011 and represents 4% of the Latin American overall market.

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Damapel works on new tissue PM assembly in Brazil

Brazilian tissue paper producer Damapel is currently working on its new 25,000-30,000tpy paper machine (PM) assembly, but doesn’t yet have a defined date for its startup.

According to the company, there are several issues still pending, such as energy supply and delays for some imported items.

The 2.7m trim PM is being supplied by Italy’s Comer and will mainly consume virgin fibre to produce mostly double sheet paper. It is being assembled in Damapel’s sole mill located in Guarulhos, São Paulo state.

Damapel currently has two tissue PMs at the Guarulhos plant with a total capacity of 40,000tpy. The company also converts paper into toilet paper rolls, kitchen towel and napkins, and also makes diapers.

According to the Brazilian Pulp and Paper Assn (Bracelpa), the country’s first half 2012 tissue paper consumption increased by 4.6% to 500,000 tonnes over the same period of last year.

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Cia. Canoinhas de Papel starts up PM1 rebuild

Cia. Canoinhas de Papel successfully starts up the Hergen HCF-800 Smart Plus

Brazilian tissue producer Cia. Canoinhas de Papel has successfully started up its PM1 rebuild.

The machine was previously equipped with a conventional Fourdrinier and was replaced by a new Crescent Former supplied by Hergen Paper Machinery.

The machine was designed for a gross production of 13,000tpy at 19g/m², running at 1,100m/min with a paper deckle of 2,000mm.

The HCF-800 Smart Plus is Hergen’s latest development and it targets companies that have a low budget and space limitations but “want to improve paper quality and reduce energy costs”.

One of the main features is its compactness, which Hergen said resulted in low building requirements and low transportation costs.

Cia. Canoinhas de Papel said that following the rebuild “the paper quality was impressive”, and it added that it has plans to install a HCF- 800 on its PM2 in the near future.

The company is situated in the city of Canoinhas, Santa Catarina, South Brazil.

Canada

Cascades to permanently shut Toronto AfH napkin plant

Cascades has continued to consolidate its operations after it announced the permanent closure of the Cascades Tissue Group plant located in Scarborough (McNicoll Street) in Toronto.

The site produces paper napkins for the Away-from-Home (AfH) market, and they will now be redirected to the Laval, Quebec and Waterford, New York plants. The closure was effective as of 13 August 2012 and affected 30 staff.

Suzanne Blanchet, president and chief executive of Cascades Tissue Group, said: “In line with our restructuring actions to increase our operations’ efficiency, this decision was taken to secure our position as leader in the AfH tissue paper sector.

“This initiative will enable us to maximise the production at Laval and Waterford plants, while continuing to offer a first-class product and service to our customers.”

Activities at the company’s Milliken Street plant, also located in Scarborough, are not affected.

Cascades Tissue Group, a division of Cascades Canada, is the fourth largest tissue and towel producer in North America.

USA

With eyes on Shelby and Lewiston mills, Clearwater shoots down proposal to split-up the company

Clearwater Paper has said it opposes separating the company’s tissue and pulp/paperboard units – which was recommended by Wall Street hedge fund SAC Capital – and expects in its present form to drive revenue and margin growth from expanding in consumer tissue products.

At the RBC Capital Markets Global Industrials Conference, Clearwater in a presentation said that after a three-month review, the company’s board of directors “concluded that execution of the current Clearwater Paper strategic plan will deliver significant shareholder value in excess of other potential alternatives.”

The company’s strategic plans focuses on the startup of a new tissue paper machine in Shelby, NC, as well as the addition of three converting lines at the complex, as well as integration of the firm’s efforts from the $500m acquisition of Cellu Tissue at the end of 2010, along with continued efforts to cut costs. Further, the company said that a separation of the tissue from the pulp/paperboard unit wouldn’t work well for the firm’s Lewiston, ID, mill, which produces all three products.

“Clearwater Paper’s board and management team remain focused on identifying, analysing, and exploring all paths to deliver value to our shareholders and will continue to do so,” the company said at the investment conference.

From the review, the company noted four “important” factors for its decision against the SAC recommendation: the “benefits of key growth initiatives such as the Shelby ramp-up, Cellu Tissue integration, and costsavings plan; disruption and real economic cost of launching a public M&A process in an uncertain market; economic leakage such as taxes and debt breakage costs for separating business divisions; and feasibility of separating our integrated Lewiston facilities into two distinct entities.”

Owned by Steven Cohen, SAC, which owns 7.1% of Clearwater, called for Clearwater to sell one or both businesses. Clearwater is a private label tissue paper producer, and also produces market pulp and bleached paperboard. The hedge fund also wanted Clearwater to add two members to its board of directors and to hire an investment bank to explore options. The $14bn hedge fund first warned Clearwater in May that it was “deeply undervalued.”

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