B&B announces price increase for label- and flexible packaging papers up to 8% with validity from 1.4.2010

Considerable cost increases for raw material and strong order income for label – and flexible packaging papers, make it necessary to adapt the paper prices immediately.

B&B is a leading supplier for label- and flexible packaging papers with sites in Austria, Brigl & Bergmeister and in Slovenia, Papirnica Vevce.

Despite of a comprehensive cost saving program to improve the competitiveness sustainably, a price increase will be necessary as early as possible.

This will also ensure that the quality and service standards of B&B will remain on the highest level.

For all deliveries from 1.4.201 onward, 8% price increase will be applied.

For further information contact:

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Following the rebuild of the wet section of paper machine PM4 at Cartiere Modesto Cardella S.p.A., Italy, by international technology Group ANDRITZ, the PrimeFlow TW two-layer headbox with PrimeProfiler F dilution water control, and the first PrimeForm TW gap former to be supplied by ANDRITZ PULP & PAPER have gone into operation successfully.

The concept ANDRITZ has supplied provides high dewatering performance and production of corrugated base paper grades with a minimum of two-sidedness. Initial results after production start showed a significant improvement in paper formation and strength properties. The paper machine has a design speed of 1,200 m/min and a wire width of 3,180 mm; the corrugated base paper, with a basis weight range of 90 to 170 gsm, is produced from 100% waste paper.

Thanks to the presence of the ANDRITZ experts on site, the rebuild went very smoothly. All systems have been started up successfully and we are very pleased with the components ANDRITZ has supplied', says Modesto Cardella, Managing Director of Cartiere Modesto Cardella.

For further information please contact:
Oliver Pokorny
Group Treasury, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
Phone: +43 (316) 6902 1332

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The ANDRITZ GROUP is a globally leading supplier of plants and services for the hydropower, pulp and paper, metals, and other specialized industries (solid/liquid separation, feed and biofuel). The Group is headquartered in Graz, Austria, and has a staff of approximately 13,000 employees worldwide. ANDRITZ operates over 120 production sites, service and sales companies all around the world.

ANDRITZ PULP & PAPER is a leading global supplier of turnkey systems and services for the production of all types of pulp, paper, tissue paper, board, fiber-board (MDF), nonwovens, as well as of biomass boilers and gasifiers for energy production. The technologies available are employed for the processing of logs and annual fibers, the production of chemical and mechanical pulps as well as recycled paper fibers, recovery and reuse of chemicals, generation of energy from biomass, preparation of paper machine furnish from virgin or recycled fibers, production of paper, tissue paper and board, calendering and coating of paper, and the handling of reject materials and sludges. Services include complete mill maintenance, equipment upgrades and rebuilds, engineered wear products, and spare parts.

Dr. Rogowski Steps Down and Dr. Manfred Bischoff Takes Over as Chairman of the Shareholders' Committee and Supervisory Board of Voith AG

Heidenheim. Dr. Michael Rogowski is today relinquishing his offices as Chairman of the Shareholders' Committee and the Supervisory Board of Voith AG. He will be succeeded by Dr. Manfred Bischoff. Bischoff is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Daimler AG and has been a member of the two Voith boards since 1999. The changeover takes place within the scope of the long-term corporate planning of the family-owned company Voith and was officially announced a year ago.

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SCA Group headquarters will be relocated to the Waterfront Building, Stockholm's new landmark, by Central Station. The move was carried out at the beginning of March and represents a cost-efficient solution that reflects the SCA of today and tomorrow. The Waterfront Building conforms to a range of requirements governing environmentally friendly workplaces of the future.

SCA is vacating it premises at Stureplan, where the office has been spread out over a number of addresses. In efforts to identify new premises, needs-adapted and efficiently utilized premises combined with a distinct environmental profile have been the guiding principles.

"Our goal has been to create a cohesive and thus enhanced working environment, with simpler communication between various departments at head office. We have also assigned great importance to identifying an efficient environmental solution," says Gordana Landén.

Gordana Landén also points out the significance of effective communications, which, for a company like SCA, is highly significant for contacts with customers, suppliers and other parts of the company. Consequently, the proximity to the Central Station is positive from an environmental and communications perspective.

The Waterfront Building, a part of Stockholm Waterfront, is one of Sweden's greenest buildings. Energy consumption is reduced by, for example, using water from Klara sjö (Klara Lake) to cool the property. In addition, water/ice is used to store energy. The complex' double-glazed façade works as a solar collector and the Waterfront Building comfortably meets the requirements of the EU Green Building standard.

Stockholm, 8 March 2010

For further information, please contact
Pär Altan, Vice President Media Relations, SCA, +46 8-788 52 37

PULP & PAPER:
Statement of the management

"2009 posed many challenges, for our customers and for ourselves. Nevertheless, the measures implemented and the intact long-term growth drivers of the pulp and paper markets give us every reason to look towards the future with confidence.

The biggest challenge to our business area in 2009 was adapting to the changed general environment in which our customers are operating. We reacted by implementing restructuring and capacity adjustment measures very quickly – before the end of 2008. And we are optimistic that we will emerge from this crisis stronger than before. After all, we have continued to invest in research and development in spite of the difficult environment – in biomass boiler technology, for example, which pulp mills can use to produce green electricity, or in technologies for second-generation bioethanol plants using cellulosic raw materials.

It is our firm conviction that the investment potential of the pulp and paper industry in the long run is very high. The shift of pulp production capacities from the northern to the southern hemisphere and the investments made in environmental technologies that contribute towards climate protection and enhanced efficiency in customers’ plants are the principal driving forces."

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VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed new pretreatment and curing methods that can be used with the sol-gel coating process. With the new pretreatment method, the adhesion of sol-gel coatings can be improved significantly. The method is based on the use of modified CO2 dry ice with particles. It is environmentally friendly and does not cause as much waste as traditional cleaning methods. Another new method is connected with curing sol-gel coatings. It makes use of the thermal energy stored in pieces, instead of separate curing process. VTT has submitted a patent application for both methods.

The advantage of pretreatment with modified dry ice is that after treatment, the surface does not become oxidized as easily as when other methods such as chemical pretreatment are used. Another advantage for any substrate is that the treatment does not give rise to the large amounts of waste produced using traditional cleaning wet methods, such as chemical baths and generated wastewater.

In the new coating curing method, the thermal energy stored in the piece to be coated is used in the thermal curing of the sol-gel coating. This method has already been applied successfully to hot-dip galvanized and thermally sprayed products. This was demonstrated several times by applying the coating to hot-dip galvanized trailers, bicycle frames, timber sills, and pieces with thermally sprayed coating.

The project family also developed the mouldability properties and manufacturability of the coatings for use at an industrial scale. The project demonstrated the suitability of the sol-gel coating and the preceding pretreatment phases for a manufacturing process involving the roll-to-roll coating of sheet metal strips.

For the pretreatment of the sol-gel coating in production, it was found that electropolishing (the PET method, electropolishing with electric discharge) can also be used in continuous processes in where environmentally friendly bath are used as electrolytes. The use of carbon dioxide dry ice blowing in the roll-to-roll process was also found to give the coating sufficient adhesion and lend itself to the process in other respects, too. In terms of the environmental friendliness of the sol-gel coatings, all the coatings used in the projects were found to be below the current limit values of the VOC Directive (Volatile Organic Compounds).

With the sol-gel coatings, it was even possible to essentially improve the functional properties of different material surfaces, such as dirt repellence, easy to clean, corrosion and oxidization resistance, anti-scratch properties and wear resistance. However, thin film coatings of the type investigated here do not always provide sufficient corrosion resistance in demanding outdoor conditions. The best results in field corrosion tests were obtained for sol-gel coatings almost as thick as a coat of paint/varnish (even as much as 50 μm). The best combination of thin coating and base material in outdoor conditions was sol-gel coating applied to hot-dip galvanized steel.

At this year's IPEX trade show in the U.K. city of Birmingham from May 18 to 25, 2010, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) will be showcasing the latest developments in its product and service portfolio. The company's stand in Hall 8 will focus on current market trends such as lean, environmentally friendly production for print shops. "Our aim is to ensure that our customers are well positioned to face future challenges, and we will work with them to develop and successfully implement new business options in a changing environment," stated Heidelberg CEO Bernhard Schreier.

* New products and services put print shops in an excellent position for when the economy picks up again
* Focus on solutions for new business options
* Heidelberg views IPEX as a trend barometer for the printing industry in 2010
* Initial signs of macroeconomic recovery in parts of the world

Heidelberg still offers the best price-performance ratio in the industry thanks to numerous prepress, press, and postpress innovations combined with the integration of all process steps. The successful entry of Heidelberg into the large-format sector in 2008 underlines the fact that innovations and, above all, greater customer benefits are the driving forces behind investments in the industry. "For Heidelberg, IPEX is a trend barometer and also an opportunity for the printing industry in 2010," said Schreier.

Despite initial positive signs in some parts of the world, it is still too soon to anticipate a significant turnaround in the economy in the near future. "Companies who invest in new technologies and new areas of business now, though, will be well positioned for the future," stated Schreier. Heidelberg would be using the trade show to continue redefining parts of the market with further innovations, he said. "Our customers expect us to boost their competitiveness with the latest technologies and a comprehensive service portfolio. We will definitely meet their expectations at IPEX," he stressed.

Heidelberg provides local support for its customers with a wide range of services that pave the way for sustainable business success. "We will also optimize and expand our range of products and services," stated Schreier. The digital printing was a market segment with excellent prospects that customers would increasingly add to their portfolios and for which Heidelberg was looking for a suitable partner, he explained. "We have the ideal service and logistics network for this, which gives us a clear competitive edge," Heidelberg's CEO stated. He added that the two technologies were predicted to successfully continue side by side on the future market.

Schreier also underlined that it was vital not to ignore the structural changes in the industry, but to adapt to them. He added that the global print volume of just under EUR 400 billion was an encouraging sign for the development of the market and that, when the economy picked up again, commercial printing would recover too and lead to new investments in this offset market segment. Packaging printing has enjoyed greater stability during the crisis and offers growth potential for Heidelberg. "We have systematically geared our range of products and solutions to the requirements of our customers in both market segments and ensured that they represent the state of the art. This makes us confident that both our customers and our companies are extremely well positioned for the recovery to come," concluded Schreier.

For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Public Relations
Thomas Fichtl
Phone: +49 (6221) 92 5900
Fax: +49 (6221) 92 5069

E-Mail:

ABB has produced a range of technical guides that offer concise explanations of the major technologies and technical issues in motor and variable-speed-drive operation.

The technical guides cover subjects such as the basics of variable-speed drives, dimensioning a drive system, electrical braking, harmonics and AC drives, and bearing currents.

Fully indexed and illustrated with explanatory diagrams, the guides are said to form a library of drive and motor information.

Other titles in the series are motion-control drives, EMC-compliant installation of variable-speed drives, EU Council directives on adjustable-speed and electrical-power-drive systems, and direct torque control.

There is also a guide on functional safety, with advice on how to meet the latest European directives.

Stakeholders from around the world are encouraged to comment on the revised Italian forest certification system. The global public consultation, which will last until 52010, is an important part of the assessment process of national systems seeking recognition by PEFC at international level. The current endorsement will expire on 18th October 2010.

"The revised Italian forest management standard is the product of the collaborative efforts of more the more than thirty specialists from all sectors of society that participated in the standard setting forum," said Antonio Brunori, Secretary General of PEFC Italy. "The year-long process, which also benefited from a public consultation at national level, resulted in an increase of prescriptive elements and additional normative indicators that forest managers are required to comply with in order to achieve PEFC certification."

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