PIMA's North American Papermaker articles from March 2001

PIMA's North American Papermaker archives from March 2001

Students run, don't walk, to management jobs.
March 1, 2001... I have seen the future of the paper and pulp industry! Oddly enough I had this vision in Town Creek, Alabama. That future is comprised of 40% women and 60% men. That was the makeup of the 132 students who attended the Paper Industry...

PIMA goes to China.
March 1, 2001... Early last year, PIMA was invited by the Chinese Center for International Workers Exchange (CCWIE) to bring a delegation to China to visit with leaders and members of the Chinese Paper Industry Association. The trip was open to PIMA members...

HELIOS 202 BREAKS WORLD RECORD.
March 1, 2001... Winkler+Dunnebier (W+D) is expanding the integration of servo technology in its line of envelope equipment. In addition to the current 627 and 341 series machines, W+D now has equipped the world's fastest web machine--the Helios 202--with...

PUMPS SAFELY HANDLE FLUIDS.
March 1, 2001... Goulds Pumps has developed a new ISO magnetic drive series of pumps. Called the ICM, the new pump series has been designed to handle difficult fluids such as corrosives, pollutants, ultra-pure liquids and toxins. The ICM helps to eliminate...

EXCLUSIVE FELT MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY.
March 1, 2001... Weavexx North America has introduced new Huyperpunch-D technology. It uses diagonal needling on a curved needle board that enables the needles to penetrate the fabric diagonally at a certain angle. Changing the direction of transportation of...

PEOPLE.
March 1, 2001... PAPER COMPANIES Badger Paper Mills Inc., Peshtigo, Wis., has elected Harold J. Bergman, James L. Kemerling and William A. Raths to its executive committee of the board of directors. Boise Cascade Corp., Boise, Idaho has elected...

SENSOR PREVENTS DOWNTIME.
March 1, 2001... Spencer Johnston Co., Neenah, Wis. has introduced a new sensor designed to increase productivity by reducing unscheduled downtime with improved failure predictability. The sensors are equipped to measure vibration, gauge the temperature and...

REDUCE BUILD-UP WITH SCALEWATCHER.
March 1, 2001... Scalewatcher, North America Inc. has introduced a special range of electronic scale control systems. The new technology will help the paper industry resolve the problems of lime scale build-up in green and red-liquor lines, water pipelines,...

VERSATILE POLYMER FEED SYSTEM.
March 1, 2001... USFilter's Stranco products has developed the PolyBlend[R] M-LO series, a highly flexible line of liquid polymer feed systems specially designed and built for low-volume applications. The Poly-Blend M-LO series offers all the benefits of the...

GET HIGH FLOW WITH MULTIBLOCK.
March 1, 2001... USFilter, Warrendale, Pa., has introduced the MULTIBLOCK water and wastewater filter bed underdrain system. It has been designed for efficient retrofits and plant expansions. It also supports single-, dual-, or mixed media without an...

DIENES MONITORS BLADE LIFE.
March 1, 2001... Dienes Corp., Spencer, Mass., has introduced a new line of knife holder that monitors the blade life of a paper slitter. The new Smart Holder monitors the length of time a top knife has been in service and shows the operator how much useful...

ENGELHARD BUILDS GLOSS.
March 1, 2001... Engelhard Corp., Iselin, N.J., has introduced Digitex[TM] TG kaolin-based pigment, a new coating material that adds sheet gloss on top of dull or matte receptor coatings. Digitex TG pigment costs less than synthetic resins and eliminates the...

NELES FIELDBROWSER MONITORS ANY DEVICE.
March 1, 2001... Helsinki-based Neles Automation has developed the new FieldBrowser[TM], which can monitor any field device on a HART network, capture data for computer-automated diagnostics and send alarms via e-mail, Internet, or mobile phone. This new...

GEAR PUMP OFFERS VERSATILITY.
March 1, 2001... Haight Pumps, Evansville, Wis., has introduced UniverSeal, a shaft seal design that has become a standard feature on their line of rotary gear displacement pumps. UniverSeal improves the versatility, adaptability and maintenance of pump...

Jumping in: The do's and don'ts of maintenance reliability.
March 1, 2001... Can pulp and paper mills coordinate their efforts in order to run a reliable and profitable operation? Read the following ten tips to find out how a company can achieve maintenance and reliability success. Budget season is always a...

Paper companies target high literacy levels.
March 1, 2001... Low levels of literacy can be detrimental to any workplace. To promote literacy, the Sales Association of the Paper Industry (SAPI) Literacy Achievement Award Program recognizes companies that have taken innovative action to improve mill...

Surveying the professional services landscape: Their value proposition to the forest products industry.
March 1, 2001... Professional services and consulting firms have a lot to offer the forest products industry. Their wealth of expertise over a wide range of business functions and technologies, combined with knowledge gained from other industries, positions...

Designed-to-order paper?
March 1, 2001... Automated testing helps Grays Harbor Paper customize quality to client needs. Can the producer of a paper grade widely regarded as a commodity make "custom-made" products and find a market for them? Grays Harbor, with an assist from new...

PIMAweb expands editorial offerings.
March 1, 2001... PIMAweb, the online joint venture between the Paper Industry Management Association and Forestweb, is expanding its editorial offerings. The site (www.pimaweb.com) includes the current issues and archives of PIMA 's International Papermaker,...

It's all about reliability.
March 1, 2001... Reliability. That's what it's all about. No matter what our jobs are, we all focus on reliability in the pulp and paper industry. We must be reliable suppliers to our customers, providing more than what's expected, on time, and at a...

New game, new rules.
March 1, 2001... As pulp and paper companies pursue customer focus and manufacturing excellence, they are finding that IT and process control must change to support the "new rules of the game. " The paper industry is moving to ward customer focus and...

Remote diagnostics: Service on the wire.
March 1, 2001... With paper machine and machine systems aging, service is becoming a more important element of process control in the paper industry. One of the trends in process control service is the use of remote diagnostic and maintenance services as well...

Metso Paper.
March 1, 2001... Metso Paper (previously called Valmet) received a $102 million order (EUR 110 million) from Papierfabrik Palm for a 600,000 mtpy pulp and paper line for its greenfield containerboard mill in Germany that will be the largest paper machine ever...

Penford Corp. and Cargill.
March 1, 2001... Penford Corp. and Cargill are combining their industrial starch businesses in North America in a joint venture with specialty-starch ingredient manufacturing and distribution sales put at $200 million for the paper and textile industries. The...

Honeywell Industrial.
March 1, 2001... Honeywell Industrial Control's Hi-Spec Solutions business received a $560,000 order from Weyerhaeuser Co. for @sset.MAX[TM] software and services to reduce operating costs at its mills in Grande Prairie, Alta.; Flint River, Ga.; and Columbus,...

Rader Companies Inc.
March 1, 2001... Rader Companies Inc., Atlanta, has repurchased the shares owned by Coinpasa Equipment and Systems, Bilbao, Spain. The transaction also includes the assets of Rader International AB, Stockholm, Sweden. The senior management of Rader, along...

Voith Paper.
March 1, 2001... Voith Paper is supplying new deinking plant equipment and modifying two paper machines for SP Newsprint's Newberg, Ore., mill. Equipment included in the order area Voith Drum Pulper; two EcoCell[TM] Flotation machines--one with deaeration...

Hercules Inc. and Eastman Chemical.
March 1, 2001... Hercules Inc. and Eastman Chemical reached agreement on the price Eastman will pay for Hercules' hydrocarbon resins business and select portions of its resins business. More than two months after the two had discontinued discussions on a...

Engelhard Corporation.
March 1, 2001... Engelhard Corporation, Iselin, N.J., has opened its new Paper Applications Laboratory at Gordon Technical Center in Gordon, Ga. The lab will evaluate kaolin pigments for paper coating and filling formulations to help customers select the...

Avery Dennison Corp.
March 1, 2001... Avery Dennison Corp., Pasadena, Calif., has acquired Dunsirn Industries Inc., a privately held company in Neenah, Wis., a leading provider of non-pressure-sensitive materials to the narrow web printing industry. Dunsirn also provides high...

In memory of Gordon J. Chalmers.
March 1, 2001... Our industry has lost a leader and a prince of a man. Gordon Chalmers of Knoxville, Tennessee died at his home January 8, 2001. Gordon was born in Bathhurst, a papermill town in Quebec and received his mechanical engineering degree from...

BTG Pulp & Paper Technology.
March 1, 2001... BTG Pulp & Paper Technology acquired a majority of the shares of Muetek Analytic GmbH, a market leader in the area of laboratory and on-line charge measurement. With complementary product portfolios, they now offer laboratory devices, on-line...

Cognex Corp.
March 1, 2001... Cognex Corp., Natick, Mass., a leading supplier of machine vision systems, has announced that Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., Ltd., has integrated the Cognex SmartView[TM] ICN web inspection systems at its paper mill in Quebec City, Quebec....

Metso Corp.
March 1, 2001... Metso Corp. has aligned its divisions into four business areas. Besides Metso Paper and Metso Automation, which were previously under Valmet, the two new business areas are Metso Minerals and Metso Ventures. Tor Bergman, president and CEO, is...

Arauco pulp mill gets green light.
March 1, 2001... Celulosa Arauco y Constitucion has finally gained approval for its plans to invest $1.4 billion in a sawmilling, timber and pulp complex in Nuble province. The scheme was previously blocked, and was opposed by agricultural interests based in...

VCP expansion moves ahead.
March 1, 2001... Votorantim Celulose e Papel (VCP) is pushing ahead with the 400,000-mtpy expansion at its Jacarei mill (shown here) to raise capacity from 800,000 mtpy to 1.2 million mtpy of eucalyptus pulp. The latest piece in the $550-million jigsaw is a...

Bye-bye, Bio Bio.
March 1, 2001... Directory papermaker Papeles Bio Bio is restructuring and changing its name. The company, currently owned by Fletcher Challenge and Biloxi NV, will be converted into a joint-stock company with the name Papeles San Pedro.

K-C gets new tissue PM.
March 1, 2001... Kimberly Clark de Mexico (KCM) plans to invest $165 million in a new 90,000-mtpy tissue paper machine, which will be installed between March 2001 and early October 2002. KCM has also ordered a rebuild of the 350-mtpd PM 1 at its Bajio mill in...

Venepal seeks savior.
March 1, 2001... Cash-strapped Venepal is looking for a new partner to inject capital before September, when creditor banks have said the company must settle its debts. Venepal has been looking for a partner since Mexico's Copamex passed up its right to buy...

Krafty IPB.
March 1, 2001... Industria de Papeis da Bahia (IPB), part of the Quimica Fina group, is moving into the site formerly operated by Industria de Papeis Santo Amaro. The group plans to invest about US$44 million to set up a 58,000-mtpy-kraft paper mill, due to...

ABB Automation.
March 1, 2001... ABB Automation and IFS have formed an alliance to integrate and market solutions blending IFS software components for Enterprise Asset Management with process control solutions from ABB Automation, a combination that Mark Rabjohns, president...

Malaysian Newsprint Industries restructures debt.
March 1, 2001... Malaysian Newsprint Industries (MNI), of which Norway's Norske Skog owns 33.65%, has restructured its debt. At the same time, the company has also acquired the assets of associated company, Laras Perkasa, which produces energy for MNI's paper...

New pulp mill project.
March 1, 2001... A Canadian-led international consortium is financing a 250,000-mtpy-eucalyptus pulp mill project called Parana River Mills in the Paraguayan province of Itapua, on the border with Argentina. The $300-million scheme is being financed by U.S.,...

CVRD for Aracruz?
March 1, 2001... Aracruz Celulose is more than doubling its investments to US$571.6 million this year, which includes a reserve for the possible acquisition of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) assets. CVRD is looking for buyout or partnership offers for its...

Carter Holt considers Tasman mill.
March 1, 2001... Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) has applied to New Zealand's competition watchdog, the Commerce Commission, for clearance to buy the Tasman Mills pulp mill at Kawerau on New Zealand's North Island. CHH wants to be able to bid on the Norske...

Korea's Hansol, Shinmoorim forge strategic alliance.
March 1, 2001... Hansol Paper Mfg. Co. and Shinmoorim Paper Mfg. Co. have announced a comprehensive strategic alliance to enhance their competitiveness. The alliance pertains to cooperation in purchasing of raw materials, delivery and distribution,...

APP: In the nick of time?
March 1, 2001... Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) has confirmed that its subsidiary, Tjiwi Kimia, made the interest payment on the 1997 bonds that was due February 1, 2001, on the last day of the fiveday payment grace period ending February 6. Tjiwi Kimia had failed...

Some consolation as SCA gets tissue from G-P.
March 1, 2001... While SCA is probably disappointed at not getting hold of Metsa Tissue, it may at least find consolation in buying al most as much tissue capacity from Georgia-Pacific (G-P), as well as taking over U.S. packaging company, Tuscarora. ...

Palm gets hands on world's biggest PM.
March 1, 2001... Papierfabrik Palm is installing a massive testliner and fluting machine that will dwarf anything else ever built, at a greenfield mill to be built at Worth, close to Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany. The line will be 11 m wide, and designed...

Myllykoski announces new news.
March 1, 2001... Finnish papermaker, Myllykoski, has decided to build a new 250,000-mtpy-newsprint machine at its Mochenwangen mill in Baden-Wurttemberg, southern Germany. The new line will replace two existing paper machines at the mill, which are slated to...

Weyerhaeuser's.
March 1, 2001... Weyerhaeuser's Georgia timberlands and wood supply groups have been certified under the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard. In addition, the groups have been certified to the American Forest and Paper Association's...

Port Townsend Paper Corp.
March 1, 2001... Port Townsend Paper Corp., Port Townsend, Wash., has made a $100,000 contribution to the Marine Science Center located in Worden State Park in the Puget Sound, Washington area. The $1.1 million Marine Science Center renovation and expansion...

Forestweb Inc.
March 1, 2001... Forestweb Inc. has announced the addition two new members of the Forestweb Advisory Board: Benjamin Thorp, director, pulp & paper engineering for Georgia-Pacific Corp., Atlanta, and Brian Cote of Accenture. Thorp is an experienced paper...

Great Northern Paper.
March 1, 2001... Great Northern Paper (GNP) has become the first pulp and paper manufacturer in North America to certify five paper product lines as totally chlorine free. In August, GNP contacted the Chlorine Free Products Association (CFPA) to provide third...

Green Bay Packaging Inc.
March 1, 2001... The folding carton division of Green Bay Packaging Inc., Green Bay, Wis., has achieved over seven years of operation without a lost time injury. The carton facility employs more than 90 employees who design, print and manufacture folding...

SCA takeover of Metsa Tissue falls at final hurdle.
March 1, 2001... The long, drawn-out battle by SCA to take over Metsa Tissue has been shot down at the 11th hour by the European Commission. One of the main obstacles was that the Commission demanded that SCA divest operations in the consumer and...

Crane and Company,.
March 1, 2001... Crane and Company, Dalton, Mass., producers of fine cotton papers, is sponsoring a major exhibition entitled: Pushing the Envelope: The Art of the Postage Stamp. It is displayed at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. Crane and...

Canadian industry looks ahead, new association formed.
March 1, 2001... Canada's pulp and paper companies turned in a "respectable performance" last year, its leading association says, with strong overall demand for paper, new applications for paper products, record shipments and estimated net earnings of C$2.6...

CAN Packaging.
March 1, 2001... CAN Packaging and Stora Enso, Helsinki, Finland have collaborated to develop a new butter container. European supermarket chain Carrefour has adopted the use of the new board-based butter container. The container has been designed to maintain...

Domtar,.
March 1, 2001... Domtar, Quebec, Canada, has renewed its social contract in the area of literacy through its involvement in a literacy program called The Gift of Reading. In collaboration with the Quebec Literacy Foundation, Domtar is inviting Quebec...

Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp.
March 1, 2001... Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp., Amherst, Mass., gained new wage and benefit agreements with employees at its mills in Brewer and Lincoln, Maine, that Joseph Torras, Sr., chairman and CEO, says are among important cost-cutting measures that are...

The Alliance for Environmental Technology (AET),.
March 1, 2001... The Alliance for Environmental Technology (AET), an international association of forest product companies and chemical manufacturers, reports that for the tenth year in a row elemental chlorine-free (ECF) pulp increased its share of the world...

Irving buys P&G's Toronto tissue plant.
March 1, 2001... Irving Tissue, St. John, N.B., is buying Procter & Gamble's tissue production and converting plant in Toronto. Following an extended transition period, Irving Tissue will also acquire P&G's "Royale" trademark and brand name for tissue and...

Bowater kills Sepoong purchase plan.
March 1, 2001... Bowater Inc., Greenville, S.C., ended talks towards a potential $201 million acquisition of the Sepoong recycled newsprint mill in Kunsan, South Korea, because of "unacceptable delays" in agreeing on some parts of the deal. Bowater had signed...

Enron buying Daishowa newsprint mill in Quesbec.
March 1, 2001... Enron Industrial Markets has an agreement with Daishowa North America Corp. to buy Daishowa Forest Products Ltd., a holding company for its Quebec City, Que., newsprint mill and related assets, for an undisclosed amount. "This...

Potlatch cutting Lewiston workforce.
March 1, 2001... Potlatch Corp., Spokane, Wash., is cutting 124 production and maintenance jobs at its pulp, paperboard and consumer tissue operations in Lewiston, Idaho, but has gained union backing for a plan to reduce costs and increase efficiency. ...

Two choose Baltimore.
March 1, 2001... Two of the largest international paper producers have signed an agreement to ship products through the port of Baltimore. This helps cement Baltimore's position as one of the nation's leading ports for forest products. A five-year deal was...

Grace awarded Nicholson Gold Medal.
March 1, 2001... Thomas M. Grace has been awarded the TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal. Grace is a leading expert in chemical recovery. While he is semi-retired, Grace is president of T.M. Grace Co., Appleton, Wis., and an adjunct professor at the Institute...

Investor firm buying IP's Hamilton mill.
March 1, 2001... Smart Papers LLC, an affiliate of investment group Sun Capital Partners, Boca Raton, Fla., has agreed with International Paper to buy the Hamilton, Ohio, premium coated mill known as the B Street Mill. Sun had been discussing a deal a year...

Madison converting Alsip mill to LWC.
March 1, 2001... Madison Paper Co. is investing $100 million at the former deinked newsprint mill in Alsip, Ill., it bought last summer and will transform it into a 120,000-tpy supplier of recycled-content LWC. The project--due to start in the fourth...

Small mill closings continue.
March 1, 2001... Lyons Falls Pulp & Paper in upstate New York and Fox River Paper's Vicksburg, Mich., mill are the latest high-cost, small mill casualties this winter. The shutdown of the Lyons Falls uncoated freesheet/sulfite operation 90 miles...

"We hope that Willamette will listen to what its shareholders are saying--this transaction is too compelling to ignore.".
March 1, 2001... Weyerhaeuser further extended its bid of $5.3 billion in cash, plus $1.7 billion in debt, until midnight March 30 to gain strength in an effort to force Willamette to eventually negotiate a merger. In anticipation of a possible proxy fight,...

Abitibi selling Port-Alfred mill.
March 1, 2001... Abitibi-Consolidated, Montreal, will sell its Port-Alfred newsprint mill in Quebec as part of a final settlement reached with the Canadian Competition Bureau related to its acquisition of Donohue Inc., last year. Following extensive...

Weyerhaeuser holds majority of Willamette.
March 1, 2001... Weyerhaeuser Company's extended hostile offer to buy Willamette Industries has gained more backing among shareholders, as its holdings now total 51% of the Portland, Ore.-based producer after an extension of its $48 per share cash tender...

Fraser Papers closing Ohio mill.
March 1, 2001... Fraser Papers is closing its West Carrollton, Ohio, mill and is consolidating its Midwest operations at the Park Falls, Wis., mill as part of an effort to improve the financial performance of its paper business. Fraser's parent,...

IP divestitures continue.
March 1, 2001... International Paper, Purchase, N.Y., continues to shed non-core businesses that are expected to generate $5 billion worth of asset sales, including timberlands, by year-end. The company has paid down $900 million in debt since the Champion...

Help! I'm technopressed!
March 1, 2001... We recently added a second phone line in our house. It seemed like a good idea at the time and probably still is. Now we can be online and still get calls--a nice feature in this wired world. However, I hadn't counted on the techno overload...