Fortress Paper Ltd.

A soon-to-be re-opened pulp mill in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan has begun generating power through its on-site cogeneration facility. The power will be used to run the mill once it’s up and running, and is already contributing to the SaskPower provincial grid. “According to Prince Albert mayor Jim Scarrow, the plant is producing power from the mill's bio-mass boiler and power turbine and the company is now selling back that power,” CT...

A new multi-year contract signed this month solidified a continuing relationship between Lenzing AG and Sappi Ltd. in the dissolving pulp sector. The deal outlines a plan whereby Lenzing – a company that specializes in manufacturing man-made cellulose fibres – will procure dissolving pulp from Sappi in order to manufacture its products. According to a press release issued by Lenzing, the deal “intensifies a long-time cooperation between ...

A pulp mill in Terrace Bay has found a new lease on life thanks to its new owner who intends to transform the facility into a dissolving pulp plant. Indian-owned Aditya Birla Group purchased the northwestern Ontario mill earlier this month through its Canadian subsidiary AV Group. The reported price of purchase for the idled mill was $110 million, according to Pulp and Paper Canada, though the company will invest nearly $250 million more to co...

A soon-to-be re-opened pulp mill in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan is on track to start generating power from their cogeneration facility by the end of May. “May 15 we’ll fire up and do a lot of check outs and by May 27th we’ll synchronize with the Saskatchewan power grid,” said Dave Patterson, the mill’s general manager. The plant is expected to be producing and selling 10 megawatts of power to the province’s grid once everything ...

A new report issued by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says more than one out of every 10 cotton acres in the country will be lost to other crops this year. The USDA’s “Prospective Planning” Report released March 30 forecasts cotton acreage to drop to 13.155 million acres, down 11 percent from last year’s total. The report also says products such as corn, soybeans, peanuts, and wheat will take hold of the acreage left behind by...

A mill in Cloquet, Minnesota that has been producing paper-grade pulp for the last 113 years will begin converting its facility so it can make the switch to producing dissolving pulp. The conversion process won’t begin until next month, but Rick Dwyer, the managing director of the Cloquet mill, says the mill should be fully converted by May 2013. “It’s an extremely fast track. It’s kind of scary how fast, actually,’’ he told the...

Only two months after the closure of a large pulp and paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, another prominent paper mill is facing a similar threat. AbitibiBowater announced this week it would close its mill just outside of Liverpool, NS if they cannot come up with a strategy that could help it survive. "We talked about weeks for plans to be in place and developed to address the various challenges. So there is a great sense of urgency...

by CHAD WASILENKOFF Push aside dated notions of our global forestry sector as dominated by lumberjacks focused solely on logging trees and processing the wood. Today’s forests are increasingly high-tech with employees skilled in biochemistry, genetics, computer modeling, satellite imagery, and digital processing. Today’s bio-economy is a dynamic global market that mirrors a paradigm shift to products that originate from natural renew...

In the midst of one of the most turbulent and uncertain periods for the pulp and paper industry worldwide, a resumed interest in one product is helping the industry turn around: dissolving pulp. Also known as specialty cellulose, dissolving pulp is no ordinary wood pulp. It is a highly refined pulp used in products such as cellophane, film and computer chips. It’s primary use, however, is in the creation of rayon, a human-made, silk-like p...

Over the past decade, the pulp and paper industry has experienced first hand the ramifications of a growing cultural shift that sees consumers using technology in lieu of paper. Whether it’s reading an e-book on your iPad, checking out the latest edition of your favorite magazine on the Internet, or sending a message via social media outlets or e-mail instead of an old fashioned letter, the tech sector has single handedly caused a once lucra...