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Specialty Cellulose blog is a source of news and information related to dissolving pulp, rayon, green energy, Thurso Mill, and the pulp industry
Domtar Continues Product Diversification With New Acquisition
Domtar Corp. continued its plan to diversify its product line this week by acquiring US-based EAM Corp., a company that mainly produces high quality absorbent composite materials.
The US$61 million acquisition will allow Domtar to have easy access to the core materials used in feminine hygiene, adult incontinence, baby diapers and other medical, health-care and performance packaging products.
The deal will not only provide Domtar with long-term research facilities, it will also “further differentiate our full line of adult incontinence products while integrating the best available technology to grow our existing businesses,” said president and CEO John Williams.
Branching out from traditional pulp and paper into a more diverse pulp sector that produces products such as fluff pulp, which is used for the products mentioned above, or dissolving pulp, which can be used to create textiles such as rayon, has been a vision espoused by many forestry sector professionals over the last few years.
For example, in a recent interview with The Sault Star, Glenn Clifford, a pulp and paper professional for over thirty years, credited companies with a forward-looking plan for helping a struggling industry survive.
“Are there ways of retooling mills and rethinking what we can do with those mills? Absolutely,” he said. “They’ve taken the initiative and invested in new ways of manufacturing product for different industries, and that’s important.”
In addition to adult incontinence products, Domtar designs, manufactures and markets a wide variety of fibre-based products, including communication papers, specialty and packaging papers and is the largest integrated marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America, reported Canadian Business.
SOURCES:
Canadian Business: “Domtar Diversifies Adult
Incontinence Business With US$61 Million EAM Acquisition”
The Sault Star: “Canadian Mills Need To Retool,
Says Paperworker”
FPAC Unveils Vision for Canadian Forest Industry
The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) unveiled what it’s calling an “industry-led vision” that outlines a strategy to stimulate and foster innovation in the Canadian forestry sector.
“Canada’s forest products industry has already made significant progress in becoming more competitive, in tackling new markets, in developing innovative new bio-products from wood fibre and in greening our operations,” said the president and CEO of FPAC, Catherine Cobden. “However we do not intend to rest on our laurels. This vision will inspire us to go even further to ensure a vibrant path for the industry in the years ahead.”
Under the name “Canada’s Natural Advantage” the FPAC plan foresees forest products as being a dominant element in Canada’s new economy by 2020.
In particular, the strategy outlines three major goals for the sector:
- Generate an additional $20 billion in economic activity from
new innovations and growing markets
- Deliver a further 35% improvement in the sector’s environmental
footprint
- Renew the workforce with at least 60,000 new recruits including
women, Aboriginals and immigrants
“Vision 2020 outlines three key areas for future success — People, Products and Environmental Performance — and is consistent with where the industry is going to ensure profitability and sustainability.” Said Richard Garneau, the President and CEO of Resolute Forest Products. “Vision 2020 demonstrates the dynamic direction of the forest sector and its future contribution to the economy and job creation in Canada and its rural communities.”
For now, Vision 2020 remains a plan. Throughout the course of the next year, FPAC intends to examine the ways it can implement the process and report concrete suggestions later this year.
SOURCES:
Canadian Newswire: “Vision 2020 – Charting A Bold
And Innovative Future For Canada’s Forest Products
Industry”
Pulp and Paper Canada: “Forest Industry Aims To
Grow The Business, And The Workforce”
Partnership Investigates The Viability of Using Wood Fibre In Auto Parts
Magna Exteriors, a Canadian auto parts maker, has partnered with the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE) to investigate the viability of integrating wood fibre in plastic auto parts.
“Currently, Magna moulds a number of components and sub-systems using long glass filled polypropylene (LGFPP) for global automotive manufacturers,” reported Pulp and Paper Canada. “In certain applications glass fibre can be substituted with wood fibre while providing the required mechanical and physical properties and offering a lower cost and lighter weight option.”
According to William Harney, executive director of research and development for Magna Exteriors, the goal of the project is to develop a product that “can reduce the cost and weight of auto parts can be addressed in part with high performance wood-fibre reinforced plastics.”
Integrating wood fibres into plastic products isn’t a new phenomenon. Dissolving pulp (or specialty cellulose), for example, is often used to create acetate textile fibers, cellophane, photographic film, medical surgery products, and tire cords.
CRIBE intends to invest $1.3 million on this research, but they’re not the only partner in the deal. The government of Alberta, through Alberta Innovates-Bio Solutions, has already jumped on the project and collaborations with the Alberta Bio-materials Development Centre (ABDC), Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures and the National Research Council (NRC) are in the works to develop the research.
In addition to those partnerships, a Canadian pulping company will be selected as a technical advisor to support the development of processed wood fibres and as a future candidate supplier, said Pulp and Paper Canada.
SOURCE:
Pulp And Paper Canada: “Magna Investigates Wood
Fibre As Reinforcement For Plastic Auto Parts”
New York Coal Plant Converts To Biomass Facility
An army facility in New York will undergo a conversion from coal-fired power to biomass power as part of a project conceived to help the US Department of Defense meet renewable energy initiatives.
Last month ReEnergy Holdings LLC purchased the idled 60MW coal-fired facility at Fort Drum announcing an investment of $34 million to upgrade the plant. The facility has since been renamed ReEnergy Black River and is set to begin its operations in 2013.
“The biomass used at the Fort Drum location will come from local wood fuel managed lands that are subject to third-party certifications from organizations that include the Forest Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the American Tree Farm System,” an article published by Biomass Magazine reported.
When it’s up and running, the plant is expected to generate close to 400,000 megawatt hours per year, enough energy to power 50,000 homes. Fort Drum itself will get 100 per cent of its electricity needs for the biomass plant.
ReEnergy also hopes to staff the facility with citizens from the community, as well as veterans and spouses from the Fort Drum army installation, Biomass Magazine said.
This facility is the tenth biomass facility owned or operated by ReEnergy in the US.
In August 2011, the US Department of Energy established an initiative to address rising energy challenges and federal mandates.
“The Energy Initiatives Office Task Force will help the Army build resilience through renewable energy while streamlining our business practices so developers can invest in and build an economically viable, large-scale renewable energy infrastructure,” said John McHugh, secretary of the army. “To meet a goal of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025, the Army must use every opportunity to be energy efficient and draw power from alternative and/or renewable energy sources.”
SOURCES:
Biomass Magazine: “Upstate N.Y. Army Facility Set
For Biomass Renovation”
US Department of Defense: “Amy To Establish Energy
Initiatives Office Task Force For Large-Scale Renewable Energy
Projects.”
Fortress Paper Provides Update on Acquisition of Pulp Mill at Lebel-sur-Quevillon
Fortress Paper Ltd. (“Fortress Paper” or the “Corporation”) (TSX:FTP) announces that the parties to the purchase agreement for the previously announced acquisition of the non-operating pulp mill located at Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Quebec from Domtar Inc. have agreed to an extension to the closing date. Fortress Paper continues to work diligently with the other parties to satisfy all the conditions precedent to closing, and the transaction is expected to be completed in the normal course as soon as practicable.
Source: Marketwire
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A report issued by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts that India’s cotton output is likely to drop by over two million bales this year.
“Cotton production is forecast to decrease by two million bales to 32.3 million bales as area is expected to drop by 10 per cent,” the USDA report said.
India, the world’s second biggest cotton grower, had produced a record 34.25 million bales in the 2011-12 marketing year. One bales contains 170 kg of cotton.
The decline in production, however, does not mean a decline in demand. Domestic cotton consumption is expected to increase to 26 million bales this year, up from 25.3 million bales in 2011-12, reported the Economic Times.
According to the USDA report, however, Indian farmers may not choose to plant more cotton to offset the demand. Instead, they “may decide to try crops that are subject to fewer policy-driven market disruptions as it is not clear whether the government will allow fresh cotton exports before the start of the 2012-13 marketing year or if the government will develop a new procedure for regulating exports.”
That attitude reflects another report released by the USDA that forecasted products such as corn, soybeans, peanuts, and wheat will take hold of the acreage left behind by diminishing cotton stocks in the United States.
The volatile cotton markets over the last few years has lead textile producers to seek out alternative fibres, such as rayon, to produce clothing.
SOURCES:
Economic Times: “India’s 2012-13 Cotton Output May
Fall To 32.3 Million Bales: Report”
AG Web: “Cotton Gives Way To Other Crops”
Prince Albert Pulp Mill Will Generate Power By May
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 is up and running.
The Prince Albert pulp mill closed in 2006 in the wake of volatile market conditions for pulp and paper. Last month, Paper Excellence announced its intentions to purchase the shuttered property and spend $200 million to convert the mill to a dissolving pulp facility.
Dissolving pulp is a specialty pulp product predominately used in the textile industry to create fibers such as rayon.
Re-opening the mill with a new vision will help “with the creation of hundreds of full-time manufacturing jobs and thousands of hours of construction jobs,” said Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Western regional vice-president Jim Britton.
At its height, the mill complex employed 700 people directly, with hundreds more working in forestry spin-off jobs, the CBC reported.
Patterson told CKOM this week that the expected date of opening the mill for the production of dissolving is in the third quarter of 2013.
“We’re working the technical end to ensure that the right equipment will be installed,” he said.
SOURCES:
CKROM: “P.A. Pulp Mill On Track To Generate Power
In May”
CBC: “Mill Sparks Optimism About Forestry
Future”
Federal Budget Outlines Continued Support For Forestry Innovation
In the 2012 budget unveiled last week in Ottawa, Canada’s federal government detailed plans to continue support for forestry innovation projects across the country.
The budget earmarked $105 million over two years for market development and forestry innovation – an effort applauded by groups such as FPInnovations and the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC).
“The 2012 federal budget renews a partnership that has delivered value and is building the future of forestry in Canada,” Al Ward, chair of FPInnovations, and president and chief operating officer of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. told Pulp and Paper Canada. “The budget will help deliver on a strong, competitive and diversified forest sector in Canada. That is good news for high value jobs and good news for hard hit forestry communities across the country.”
Diversity is the key to sustaining the struggling sector said Pierre Lapointe, president and CEO of FPInnovations.
“[This] budget will allow us to continue to pioneer new products such as bio-materials and bio-composites and next generation building systems for multi-storey buildings,” he said.
Canadian forestry groups also commended the Conservative government for spending money to help transform the sector in a time where reducing the deficit is a primary focus.
“Maintaining this strategic support at a time of deficit reduction will certainly continue to promote jobs and growth in the forest sector,” said Avrim Lazar, President and CEO of FPAC.
Lazar also noted that other budget items – such as the support for early movers who adopt new technology; the extended provision of the domestic lending authority by Export Development Canada; and the expansion of the eligibility of the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for clean energy generation equipment to include a broader range of bioenergy equipment – will be helpful to the transformation of the forest products industry.
SOURCE:
Pulp And Paper Canada: “Budget 2012 Continues
Support For Forest Sector Innovation”
Cotton Gives Way to Other Crops
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 diminishing cotton stocks.
According to the report, cotton acreage across the US was down in every major cotton-producing state last year except two, Missouri and South Carolina.
South Carolina, in fact, is the only state that intends on planting more cotton this year than last.
“We knew with good weather coming early we were going to lose a lot of cotton acres in the Mid-South and Southeast,” says Peter Schlee, cottonseed merchandiser and owner of APEX in Hamburg, N.Y.
The state’s sandy, loamy soils have typically been favored for cotton over other crops, according to an article published by AG Web.
Despite the growth in South Carolina, the USDA says other cotton producing states can expect downturns. The uncertainty of harvested crops this year and severe to extreme drought persisting in West Texas and Georgia could also have a significant impact on the price of cotton throughout the summer.
The continued rising price of cotton over the last few years has lead textile producers to seek out alternative fibres, such as rayon, to produce clothing.
SOURCE:
AG Web: “Cotton Gives Way To Other Crops”
Tembec Upgrades Specialty Cellulose Plant
Pulp and paper producer Tembec Inc. announced this week they would invest $190 million to upgrade their specialty cellulose plant in Temiscaming, Quebec.
The upgrade will replace three old boilers with a new high-pressure boiler that is designed to burn the waste byproduct of the cellulose manufacturing plant.
The change will not only increase the mill’s overall capacity by 5,000 metric tonnes but will also create a new co-generation facility that will see nearly Tembec selling nearly 30-40 megawatts of power to the provincial government of Quebec.
Hydro-Quebec signed a 25-year contract with Tembec based on a rate of $106 per megawatt-hour, indexed with the consumer price index reported the Winnipeg Free Press.
This upgrade is what the company is calling phase one of an overall $310-million investment that will take place at the Temiscaming facility over the next several years. Phase two will see Tembec invest another $120 million in 2014-2015 which will raise the plant’s annual production capacity by another 30,000 metric tonnes to 345,000 metric tonnes.
Last October, Tembec president and CEO James Lopez spoke highly of the mill’s future plans.
“This is by far the most solid business that we have, with the brightest future and the best, most stable margins,” Lopez said.
This week, he reiterated his positive outlook calling the company’s plan a “game-changing project” that will make the facility one of the world’s most competitive pulp and paper mills.
SOURCES:
Winnipeg Free Press: “Tembec Confirms $190 Million
Upgrade Investment In Temiscaming, Que”
Montreal Gazette: “Tembec To Upgrade Quebec
Cellulose Plant Capacity”
Pulp and Paper Canada: “Tembec $190-Million Boiler
Upgrade Could Lead To Dissolving Pulp Expansion”
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