below please find a selection of the latest news from the world of pulp and paper.

ipw news

Valmet Oyj (“Valmet”) and Neles Corporation (“Neles”) announced on July 2, 2021 that Valmet and Neles will merge creating a company with unique offering for process industries globally. The completion of the merger was expected to occur on January 1, 2022, subject to all conditions for completion being fulfilled. Due to the regulatory review processes taking longer than previously estimated, the completion of the merger is now targeted to occur on or before April 1, 2022.

Four time zones, 24 hours, 100 locations and 40 sessions: On November 18, 2021, Körber will host a virtual 24-hour Career Day for the first time. Körber teams at various locations worldwide will provide information about career opportunities in the technology group, answer questions and offer insight to career starters and experienced professionals on its Business Area’s Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain, Tissue and Tobacco. The main topics are innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership as well as digitization and venture building.

Toscotec will complete the dryer section rebuild of PM2 at Cartiere Saci’s paper mill in Verona, Italy. With this new order, Toscotec will carry through the modification of PM2 it started performing in 2015 through different steps supplying a new calender and rebuilding part of the dryer section followed by the rebuild of the entire press section.

Waste heat from production at the BillerudKorsnäs mill in Frövi will be harnessed and used to run a 20-hectare industrial estate, including Sweden’s largest tomato greenhouse. This became clear when BillerudKorsnäs signed an agreement with the company WA3RM, which develops circular solutions by making use of factory waste streams such as surplus heat.

Stora Enso’s ambition is to offer 100% regenerative products and solutions by 2050. By adopting a regenerative stance, Stora Enso is shifting its sustainability goals from minimising negative environmental impact to becoming a net positive¹ contributor within the defined focus areas of climate, circularity and biodiversity by 2050.

International technology group Andritz has successfully started up the tissue production line delivered to Xuong Giang Paper Mill, Vietnam, a subsidiary company of Bac Giang Import Export JSC. The PrimeLineCompact S 1300 tissue machine has a design speed of 1,300 m/min and a paper width of 2.85 m, processing virgin pulp as raw material to produce high-quality facial and toilet tissue as well as napkins.

Toscotec will participate in the Latin American Papermakers Conference 2021 scheduled from 10th to 12th November 2021 in Mexico City to present the latest innovations of its top-of-the-line technology designed for superior energy efficiency.

SCA increases the prices on white and brown kraftliner in Europe by € 50.- per tonne. The new price is valid from December 1, 2021. “The kraftliner market remains strong,” comments Mikael Frölander, VP Sales and Marketing Containerboard. “We have a firm confidence in transport packaging, while we see a limited product supply.”

Materia Viva, like the nature that inspires it, is one of the new products being launched over the next few days by Fedrigoni Group. Materia Viva is a vast collection of high-quality, high recycled content papers - between 20% and 100% - made with natural cellulose-alternative fibres such as cotton and hemp (exclusively from FSC® certified forests), some of which are new but some of which have been available in the company’s portfolio since 1996 and have been revisited and improved.

International technology group Andritz has successfully started up the main equipment forming part of an innovative mechanical pulping line supplied to hygiene and health company Essity in Mannheim, Germany.

Essel Kâgit started up an Ahead 2.2L tissue line supplied by Toscotec on a turnkey basis at its Osmaniye mill in Turkey. This is the fourth tissue machine that Toscotec fired up in a period of only three weeks in four different countries in Europe and Asia. The new PM3 is manufacturing high quality tissue paper for the local market.

The European pulp and paper industry fully supports the European Commission’s initiative to plant three billion additional trees in the EU by 2030. Cepi is ready to contribute to the long-term sustainable growth of forests. We believe this is the right strategy: forests need to be grown more, rather than their use limited.

Stora Enso has introduced the newest addition to its NaturaFluff pulp product portfolio, NaturaFluff Eco by Stora Enso. NaturaFluff Eco is a new fluff pulp grade with a lower carbon footprint, enabling producers of hygiene products – such as baby diapers, incontinence pads and feminine care – to offer consumers a new generation of environmentally friendly, absorbent hygiene products.

bio-fibre news

The Swedish textile recycling company Renewcell has chosen AFRY as partner in order to digitalize production operations in their plants in Kristinehamn and Sundsvall, Sweden. AFRY will deliver an Industrial IT solution, containing AFRY MES and AFRY ProTak, to manage production information and secure both high quality, as well as high overall efficiency in the production. The delivered solution will serve as a hub for all production process information.

From 2022 onwards, Metsä Group will review the herb-rich forests in forests owned by owner-members and intensify its guidance for the management of herb-rich forests. These measures will supplement the Metsä Group ecological sustainability programme, which was started in 2020 and is implemented in commercial forests.

Renewcell and Kelheim Fibres Gmbh have signed a Letter of Intent for a long term commercial collaboration to add the crucial missing link for a circular economy for textiles in Europe. Together, the two companies will collaborate on developing commercial scale production of superior quality viscose fibers from up to 10 000 tonnes of Renewcell’s 100% textile recycled material Circulose^® annually.

Valmet’s new Pretreatment BioTrac pilot facility was started up at Valmet’s Fiber Technology Center in Sundsvall, Sweden. The purpose of the pilot facility investment is to strengthen Valmet’s research and development capabilities within the field of biomass pretreatment and to respond to new market demands for bioenergy, biofuels, and biochemicals.

On 23.11. and 24.11.2021, the international industry meeting for pulp and fibre research will take place - the PTS Pulp Symposium 2021. The program of the upcoming event is aimed at experts who are interested in and want to learn about new fibre-based material developments and fibre products. The insightful topics from and discussions with experts and internationally recognized speakers from science and industry will be divided into four sessions: “Bioeconomy,” “New Fibre Products,” “Process Innovations” and “Fibre Forming”.