In 1997, Pasaban designed and manufactured a KDD 2200 paper and board sheeting machine for Domtar Paper Company (USA).

UPM Raflatac has expanded its PP Lite range of labeling solutions for the European market with the introduction of a new clear film, PP Silver Lite.

Highcon announced today the launch of the latest in the Highcon Euclid series, the Highcon Euclid IIIC.

Partnership joins two solution Providers for the hygiene industry

Metsä Tissue is investing in a new production line for hand towels in its Raubach mill in Germany.

Corenso is pleased to announce the acquisition of the business and operations of Mandriladora Leiza S.L. ( "Leiza") a highly esteemed core manufacturer located in Areso in North of Spain.

Strong demand for coreboard and cores has created positive pricing momentum in most major European markets in recent months.

Moody’s Investors Service, ("Moody’s") has today upgraded the Corporate Family Rating (CFR) of Stora Enso Oyj (Stora Enso) to Ba1 from Ba2

Organisers of the first-ever Global Recycling Day are delighted to announce that the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) is their first Federation Partner.

ISRI is a Washington DC-based private, non-profit trade association, with members in nearly 4,000 locations throughout the USA and 41 countries around the world. It represents approximately 1,300 companies.

Global Recycling Day, which is the brainchild of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), will unite people across the world, highlighting the need to conserve our six primary resources (water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals) and celebrating the power the “Seventh Resource”- the goods we recycle every day. Its mission is set out in its recently launched “The Seventh Resource Manifesto”.

With a motto of the “Voice of the Recycling Industry,” ISRI promotes public awareness of the value and importance of recycling to the production of the world’s goods and services, along with the positive environmental benefits derived from scrap recycling.

“We are delighted to announce ISRI as our first Federation Partner,” comments Ranjit Baxi, BIR President. “This is Global Recycling Day’s first year, and we know ISRI’s support will be invaluable in us spreading the word across the USA and throughout their global membership and we are proud to champion them as a visionary organisation, one that is crucial to the success of the recycling industry.”

“As the voice of the recycling industry, ISRI is delighted to play an important part in the success of the inaugural Global Recycling Day,” said ISRI President Robin Wiener. “With membership in 41 countries around the globe, we fully understand the importance of the world coming together with a single voice to address how we can better improve the lives of all and create a sustainable environment through recycling.”

Global Recycling Day will be a day focused on action, aimed at a global approach towards recycling and calling on world leaders, international businesses, communities and individuals to make seven clear commitments in their approach to recycling. People can commit to making one change in their recycling habits on the day, as well as joining in on social media channels.

An exercise in transparency in which Lecta shares its progress and identifies upcoming challenges.

In keeping with our commitment to respect for the environment and our focus on sustainability, Lecta carries out its business activity with the aim of minimizing environmental impact in the communities and areas where we operate, thereby contributing to their wellbeing.

In spite of challenging economic circumstances, this entails allocating a significant portion of our budget to this goal. Over the past ten years, nearly 135 million euros have been invested in projects to minimize environmental impact. These investments have been allocated to many ambitious projects at our manufacturing sites. The primary goals have been to increase energy efficiency, decrease air emissions and optimize the use of natural resources in the manufacture of our distinct multiproduct portfolio, based on paper as a natural, renewable raw material.

Our environmental parameters, verified by an independent third party and presented in this report, demonstrate the significant, progressive reduction of Lecta’s environmental impact as an environmentally responsible company. The document also reviews our performance with regard to the objectives and commitments set out in our last report, as well as establishing new goals that will be analyzed in our next edition.

To further strengthen the competitiveness of the Professional Hygiene business in Europe, Essity has decided to invest in creating a center for napkin production in the existing production facility in Altopascio, Italy. This will strengthen Essity’s product offering, with the leading global brand Tork, and increase efficiency in the supply chain. The investment in Altopascio will lead to restructuring measures at multiple production facilities across Europe in the coming years. 

The activities are aligned with the company’s strategy to optimize the geographic production footprint to increase cost and capital efficiency and further increase value creation in the Professional Hygiene business area.

The restructuring measures include the closure of a converting production facility in Hlohovec, Slovakia, in 2020.

The total investments will amount to approximately SEK 590m, of which the majority is related to investments in Altopascio, Italy. The restructuring costs will amount to approximately SEK 580m, of which SEK 350m are expected to impact the first quarter of 2018 and the remaining costs are expected to impact the second quarter of 2018. The costs will be recognized as an item affecting comparability. Approximately
SEK 410m of these costs are expected to impact cash flow.

Valmet will supply three winders for Shanying International Holdings Co., Ltd., in the city of Jingzhou in Hubei province, China. The order is following the delivery of the Valmet OptiConcept M board machine (PM 21) announced in December 2017 and earlier winder deliveries to company’s Ma’anshan site. The capacity of the three winders will cover the production of two board machines. The start-ups of the winders are scheduled for the end of the year 2018.

The order is included in Valmet’s first quarter of 2018 orders received. The value of the order will not be disclosed. The value of an order of this type is typically EUR 10-20 million.

"We have a long and good relationship with Shanying. Valmet is supplying or has delivered already six paper or board machines for this customer - the latest ones being the orders of the testliner machine PM 21 and two earlier started-up container board lines in Ma’anshan. Valmet has also just recently announced a waste-fired boiler delivery for Shanying International Holdings. These earlier projects and strong track record with winders convinced the customer to choose Valmet," says Mikko Osara, Vice President of Board and Paper Mills Business Unit at Valmet.

Technical details about the delivery

Valmet’s delivery includes three high-capacity OptiWin Drum two-drum compact winders. They are repeat orders of three similar OptiWin Drum winders delivered at the Ma’anshan site in 2014. Valmet’s winding concept brings flexibility for the mill’s two production lines with high capacity potential as well as smart drive controls and optimization.

The winders are designed for basis weight range of 80-170 g/m2 and design speed of 3,000 m/min.

A.Celli SlittomaticTM Upgrade : the ideal solution to every cutting demand !

Choose A.Celli for a guarantee of the best technology when it comes to longitudinal cutting, for an extremely high quality production.

Today more than ever, the concept of production flexibility in the nonwovens market is embodied in the ability to automatically manage a number of different cuts.

Changing recipes in record times ; adapting to different production cycles ; being able to count on an operational programming flexibility. These are the standards that every company must guarantee. 

These features have given rise to A.Celli SlittomaticTM Upgrade : the evolution in the longitudinal cutting system.

In turning to A.Celli technology, you will be able to benefit from a dedicated development and quotation for the replacement of any cutting system (on A.Celli machines as well as on machinery built by other manufacturers) in favour of SlittomaticTM technology.

Fully automatic, highly flexible and completely modular, A.Celli SlittomaticTM is a cutting management system that allows :

 Increasing productivity, making knife positioning and precision faster based on the recipe ;
 Enhancing operator safety and eliminating the “human error” variable ;
 Augmenting knife performance (electrostatic bar) + dust removal ;
 Knife life management system ;
 Reducing machine downtime thanks to intelligent maintenance monitoring.

The service offered includes :

 Engineering ;
 Supervision for electrical and mechanical installation ;
 Commissioning & start-up ;
 Project Management ;
 Training ;
 Software modification and issuing of licenses and SW Keys ;
 Updating of electrical and pneumatic diagrams ;
 Review of manuals and layout ;
 24/7 Technical Support Hotline ;
 12-month guarantee from the date of completion of the modifications.

Håkan Larsson, Director of Strategy, has decided to start his own consulting business and will therefore be leaving Södra on 1 March. Håkan Larsson’s involvement in Södra’s work with strategic issues will continue, but in his new role as a consultant.

“I have been employed in the Södra Group for 24 years and have now decided to start my own business, with a focus on leadership and strategy-related issues,” said Håkan Larsson.

“I would like to thank Håkan for all of his contributions over the years as an employee of Södra,” said Lars Idermark, President and CEO.

Håkan Larsson has been employed at Södra since 1994, and a member of Södra’s Group Senior Management since 2013. During his employment, his positions have included Director of Forestry, Regional Manager, Head of Production and IT Project Director.

A Thai company is taking a lead role in eco-friendly paper manufacturing, producing 600,000 tons of pulp and one million tons of paper annually that not only protects natural resources, but provides additional income for more than one million Thai farmers in the process.

Thailand’s Double A believes that sustainability and paper go hand in hand, and has based its business model on producing a special strain of paper tree on the thousands of otherwise unused hectares of ‘KHAN-NA’ lands that border the South East Asian country’s numerous rice paddies.

Since its inception in 1991, Double A knew that to be successful, it must co-exist with the environment, but according to Senior Executive Vice President Thirawit Leetavorn, the key was sourcing the right raw material, while also preserving Thailand’s rich natural biodiversity and supporting surrounding local communities.

“For more than 25 years, we tested some 2,500 trees to find the right tree most suited to Thailand’s climate and that also produces the highest quality wood pulp,” said Mr. Leetavorn.

Valmet and Hengan joined forces on January 15, 2018, to successfully start a Valmet Advantage DCT 200 tissue line at Hengan’s mill in Weifang, China.

PM21 is the third of four Advantage DCT 200 lines recently ordered by Hengan. When the startup of PM22 takes place at the same mill in Weifang later this year, Hengan will have a total of eight Valmet supplied tissue production lines in operation. The other two Advantage DCT 200 machines were started in Wuhu, China, with excellent results in 2016. All three startups have been well coordinated and performed in record time, which creates a great outlook for the upcoming PM22 premiere.

The investments support Hengan’s aim of strengthening their leading market position in China, while the well proven Advantage DCT Technology ensures a stable production of high-quality tissue, in this case mainly used for facial, toilet and towel grades.

Hengan is China’s leading tissue producer, with a current tissue production exceeding one million tons per year. The high-performance Advantage DCT 200 trio counts for an annual capacity of least 180,000 tons of tissue products, soon to be 240,000 tons once all four production lines are started and optimized.

MACDUE is ready to pit and is warming up the engines that will bring the Company to inaugurate soon its sales and service branch in the USA. It is dedicated to the sale of automated packaging lines and machines for tissue (towel paper rolls and folded products) and plastic products (insulating panels, food thermic boxes, trays, plates and cups) and to the after-sales service.
MACDUE aims to position itself in the US market by establishing there a branch, which is able to serve the customers closely and providing them with flexible, robust and efficient packaging solutions together with an ad hoc after-sales service.
MACDUE has a strong presence all over the world and a huge experience built up since 1981 on strong partnerships with customers and their feedback. All this allows the company, 100% Italian, to manufacture packaging machines beyond market expectations to enable customer companies to produce with maximum efficiency.
"Customers all over the world have already trusted MACDUE for its flexible, robust and efficient packaging machines. Now we are ready to introduce our Company and its range of products in the US market with the opening of a branch office in Wisconsin whose staff will manage both the sales activities and the after-sales services "- states Fiorenzo Donetti, MACDUE CEO.
It is not true then that the US market is only for big companies, it is also the seat of MACDUE ; an Italian medium company, whose dimension is not indicative of the value that the company has been producing and disseminating in the world.
MACDUE will exhibit to Tissue World Miami 2018 booth G240, 21-23 March. This could be an opportunity for the US prospect customers to meet the MACDUE team, share, and gather information on their packaging machines.

  The joint venture between OMET and OT Lucca aims at amplifying the product range with new converting lines branded OMET.

In the last few weeks, OMET and OT Lucca reached an agreement to form a joint venture. OMET will benefit from the experience and technology of the company located in Montecarlo di Lucca in the design and production of new units and complete lines for tissue converting.
Thanks to this new opportunity, OMET will widen the machine range for folded products. OMET will take advantage of the presence of OT Lucca in the “tissue region” of Lucca to offer a quicker and more efficient service to the several clients in this area.
OMET will produce internally at OT Lucca’s site the new lines dedicated to interfolded products and will develop new high-performing personalized solutions aimed at meeting customers’ needs, counting on the new synergy and the deep expertise of both companies in the sector of tissue converting
Marco Calcagni, OMET sales and marketing manager shows enthusiasm : “This new joint venture will allow OMET to increase its market share. A new converting line for interfolded products will be presented at the end of June during the iT’s Tissue, the big event organized by the 12 companies of the Tissue Italy network to promote the excellence of the Italian technology in the sector”.

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals, today announced the introduction of Leucophor® MT liq, a new tetrasulfonated optical brightening agent (OBA) modified to give high whiteness performance in surface applications.

The application of optical brighteners to the surface of paper is usually done by using either hexasulfonated OBAs, when high whiteness levels are required, or tetrasulfonated OBAs, when standard levels of whiteness are sufficient.

With the increasing costs of some of the key raw materials needed to manufacture hexasulfonated OBAs, Archroma asked its R&D experts to develop a tetrasulfonated agent for surface applications that would give comparable levels of whiteness to hexasulfonated grades.

The outcome is Leucophor® MT liq, a REACH-registered, urea-free, modified tetrasulfonated OBA that offers papermakers a new, cost-effective option to achieve high whiteness levels in a surface application, especially at the size press.

Leucophor® MT liq is produced in Archroma’s OBA production facility near Barcelona, Spain, which was extended in 2017 to raise capacity to meet the demands of its European customers.

Andrew Jackson, Product Manager OBAs, Archroma Packaging & Paper Specialties, commented : “With Leucophor® MT liq, we are able to offer a new alternative to both standard tetrasulfonated and hexasulfonated optical brighteners for use in surface applications. This new portfolio option underlines once again Archroma’s continuous commitment to delivering innovation and cost efficiency to our customers, and confirms our position as the leading supplier of OBAs to the paper industry.”

To continue better serve the needs of its customers, especially facing the new challenges of a smart, connected and high performance industry, BA Systèmes is launching a new AGV dedicated to high production rates environments.
Called GF2, this latest AGV in BA Systèmes’ range addresses the particular needs for high production rates in the food industry and more specifically in the bottling market.
The GF2 is a state-of-the-art Automated Guided Vehicle which benefits from the reliability and long-term expertise of BA Systèmes in automated material handling and storage. BA Systèmes’ team has been developing over the last months this new AGV with a special care and focus on high performance, ergonomics, safety and easy integration of the device in its future work environment.

Kemira Oyj and the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) have signed on February 19, 2018, a EUR 90 million loan agreement for Kemira’s completed expansion of chlorate production in Joutseno, Finland as well as investments in research and development during 2016-2019.

The new chlorate production line in Joutseno, Finland, started up in autumn 2017, is based on Kemira’s proprietary in-house technology and has significantly increased the site’s current sodium chlorate capacity. Sodium chlorate is the raw material for chlorine dioxide (ClO2), which is produced on-site at the pulp mills and it is the primary bleaching agent for kraft pulp.

Kemira’s R&D programme during 2016-2019 focuses on developing more sustainable solutions for improving the water, energy and raw material efficiency of customers in various sectors, including pulp, paper as well as that of other industrial applications. In addition, Kemira has collaboration programmes with other companies and universities and research centres, including Aalto University, the Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Copenhagen.

The Navigator Company announced today that it will be increasing prices by 6 to 8 % in Europe. This measure will be effective with orders shipping March 26th, 2018.
The paper industry cost drivers continue to show a steady rise. This fact results on the need to defend our profitability and therefore, the Navigator Company will be applying a price increase in Europe in all products and markets, ranging from 6% to 8% and from 26th March dispatches.
The Navigator Company sells its products to 130 countries over five continents, under its own paper brands with a strong reputation for superior and consistent quality - Navigator, Pioneer, Inacopia, Discovery, Soporset and Inaset.

Progroup is on course for continued growth and can reflect on a successful anniversary year. Sales increased in 2017 by 9.69% to around 804 million euros. This success is based on the consistent implementation of its Two Twentyfive strategy. With Europe’s fastest organically growing corrugated board manufacturer having started the construction of a new mega-corrugated sheetboard plant in Ellesmere Port (United Kingdom) back in October of last year and this month having started production in its latest corrugated sheetboard plant in Drizzona (Italy), Progroup is now announcing further expansion plans. With the construction of up to four more corrugated sheetboard plants between 2019 and 2021 in Central Europe and the start of the active phase of preparation for the construction of another paper factory for containerboard in Germany, which is scheduled to start production in 2021, Progroup is embarking on the intensive phase of its Two Twentyfive expansion strategy.

On track to reaching its commitment of achieving a 74% paper recycling rate across Europe by 2020, the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC) today revealed its latest figure of 72.5%.

“We continue to make progress in elevating Europe’s recycling rate, but we must not remain complacent. A renewed focused on separate collection of paper for recycling is even more crucial to ensuring that Europe remains a global leader on paper recycling” says Ulrich Leberle, Secretary of the EPRC and Raw Materials Director at the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). “This is even truer as quality issues have become more apparent in other regions over the past year.” he adds.

“The monitoring report is an example of the value chain’s commitment to review and meet its promises. This year’s findings demonstrate that we are both serious about our product’s ecodesign and ensuring collected paper re-enters the paper recycling loop.” says Lisa Kretschmann, Chairperson of the EPRC

This year’s report also exhibits positive results from a regional perspective with the number of countries with rates below 60% dropping to nine, while seventeen countries now have recycling rates exceeding 70%.