Displaying items by tag: Nippon Paper Group

Australian Paper has announced that its parent company Nippon Paper has approved the construction of a $90 million paper recycling plant at its Maryvale Mill in Victoria, Australia. The plant will consume around 80,000 metric tons of recovered fiber per year to produce 50,000 metric tons of deinked pulp per year.

“Australian Paper is delighted to confirm this important investment in sustainable manufacturing following an extensive feasibility study. The Maryvale recycling plant will secure Australian Paper’s position as the market leader in premium recycled paper and is a positive initiative for our local environment, jobs and the community,” says Jim Henneberry, CEO of Australian Paper.

According to a release, the new plant will triple Australian Paper’s use of recycled fiber and will enable the development of a range of new Australian-made recycled office, printing, envelope and stationery papers. The $90 million recycling plant will begin construction shortly, with production to commence in early 2014.

“We are proud of this investment in sustainable Victorian manufacturing and would like to acknowledge the strong support we have received from a broad range of stakeholders including our customers, unions, the Latrobe City Council, environmental groups and a range of business and community stakeholders. In particular, we thank the State and Commonwealth Governments and Low Carbon Australia for their support and for sharing our vision to make this investment possible,” Henneberry adds.

Australian Paper notes that an economic impact report, prepared by Western Research Institute, calculates that the company’s total operations supported around 6,000 jobs and contributed more than $750 million to the Australian economy in 2011.

Strengthening Competence of Household Paper Products Business

Nippon Paper Group, Inc. (President: Yoshio Haga) has decided to shut down the production facilities at the Iwakuni Mill (Iwakuni-shi, Yamaguchi Prefecture; Manager: Takashi Yamaguchi) of Nippon Paper Crecia Co., Ltd. (President: Kazuhiro Sakai), as a measure to cope with the severe conditions in the household paper products business. These facilities account for about 15% of Nippon Paper Crecia's entire production capacity.

Transferring products produced at the Iwakuni Mill to Kyoto and other mills will raise the operation ratio of production facilities to 90% or above. Through this measure, Nippon Paper Crecia intends to reduce fixed costs and enhance production efficiency, thereby strengthening the competence of its household paper products business. After shutting down the production facilities, the Iwakuni Mill is slated for use as a logistics center, aimed at strengthening functions and covering the Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions.

Nippon Paper Crecia will continue strengthening its production and sales bases, while developing differentiated products to expand profits.
 
1. Outline of production facilities at Iwakuni Mill
            One papermaking machine (production capacity: 43,000 tons/year)
               One tissue paper processing machine
               Two toilet roll processing machines
 
2. Timing of facility shutdown
            End of September 2012 (scheduled)

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshio Haga) fires the heavy fuel oil Boiler 6 at its Ishinomaki Mill (Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture), which was badly damaged in the Great East Japan Earthquake.

At Ishinomaki Mill, with the commencement of the operation of Boiler 6, it will be confirmed that all the steam piping in each of the processes has returned to an appropriately maintained state. In addition, the continuous operation of biomass Boiler 1 is scheduled to commence in late August, and the turbine generator installed in parallel will be operated and power will be supplied to the premises.

Once the privately owned power generation has resumed as scheduled above, Paper Machine 8 will commence operations by mid-September, and the production of printing paper will resume.

Our major subsidiary, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (President: YoshioHaga), has been deeply committed to the restoration of the Ishinomaki Mill (Ishinomaki, Miyagi), which was damaged in the Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake, and we are pleased to announce that its reopening is imminent.

 

After restoring the privately owned electrical power facility, which is the source of the power in the mill, by August, Nippon Paper Industries will restart the production of printing and publication paper by the end of September. The company is planning to fully restore the major paper machines this year.

 

Moreover, while determining the supply and demand balance going forward, we will be studying the production system to maximize profits. The associated plan will be announced as soon as it takes concrete form.

We again express our deepest sympathies to victims of the earthquake that struck off the coast of the Tohoku district in the Pacific Ocean on March 11, 2011.

The following summarizes the current status of the Group:

1. Confirmation of the safety of Group employees
Ishinomaki Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (Ishinomaki, Miyagi) The highest priority continues to be placed upon confirming the safety of the employees at the Ishinomaki Mill and of employees at other related companies near the Ishinomaki Mill.

Iwanuma Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (Iwanuma, Miyagi) The highest priority continues to be placed upon confirming the safety of the employees at the Iwanuma Mill and of employees at other related companies near the Iwanuma Mill.

The safety of all employees at the Nakoso Mill of Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (Iwaki, Fukushima), Akita Mill of Nippon Daishowa Paperboard Co., Ltd. (Akita, Akita), Kitakami Paper Co., Ltd. (Ichinoseki, Iwate) and Daishowa Uniboard Co., Ltd. (Iwanuma, Miyagi) has already been confirmed.

2. Status of key mills
Ishinomaki Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (Ishinomaki, Miyagi) The mill remains under complete closedown. Heavy equipment was brought in to clear a passage through the dirt and rubble that was deposited on the mill grounds by the tsunami. At present the dirt, rubble and scattered materials are being cleaned up. In order to restore operations, damage done to the equipment is being confirmed.

Iwanuma Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (Iwanuma, Miyagi) The mill remains under complete closedown. While working to ship the products in the
warehouse that were not damaged, confirmation of the status of equipment and materials continues in preparation to resume operations.

Nakoso Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (Iwaki, Fukushima) The mill remains in a state of complete closedown. While working to ship the products in the warehouse that were not damaged, measures continue to be taken to restore the boilers which were damaged in the earthquake.

Kitakami Paper Co., Ltd. (Ichinoseki, Iwate) Thanks to the operation of the boilers, operation of the paper machines was sequentially resumed starting on March 24.

 

Akita Mill, Nippon Daishowa Paperboard Co., Ltd. (Akita, Akita) Operation of the equipment that had been under closedown was resumed on March 18.

Heatset web paper may be in short supply in Australia with the Japanese earthquake and tsunami causing serious damage to paper mills and infrastructure. Nippon Paper (NPI) who supplies around 100,000 tonnes a year to the Australian market was one of the hardest hit.

 

Nippon has ceased production at four of its seven mills due to a collapsed ceiling, an influx of sand and sediment as well as damage to stock and equipment.

 

A statement from the paper maker outlines that almost all the stock at its Ishinomaki mill seems to be damaged as well as half the stock at its Iwanuma facility.

 

Nippon says, “There is a concern that some problems regarding material procurement and product transportation will happen in some mills. From now on we do will do our best to confirm all our employee’s safety and damage of equipment.”

 

Wayne Stanistreet, general manager of sales and marketing at Australian Paper – which is owned by Nippon – said it was still early days to realise the affect on the local market, however with NPI exporting around 100,000 tonnes per year to the Australia market, the impact is likely to be significant.

 

He says, “NPI has published a list of all mills that have been affected, including those where production has stopped for the time being.

 

“With the damage to infrastructure the logistics will also be difficult so I think we can say we are not going to see volumes recover in the very near future, but it’s still early days and it would not be wise to make any predictions in relation to timelines at this stage.

 

“We have been in constant contact with all of our customers, who I must say have been extremely supportive.”

 

Also commenting, Bernard Cassell, managing director of CPI says while the full impact on Australian customers remains unknown, sheeted paper supply seems to have been spared the brunt of the damage.

 

He says, “A lot of mills have been shut down but from a CPI perspective only one mill has been seriously affected. I suspect it’s the light weighted coated grades, which will be ones affected and the gap left by Japan will have to be filled by Europe.

 

“I don’t think it will lead to an increase in sheetfed coated paper however the supply of light weight coated has the potential to be a significant problem, we will just have to wait and see how this disaster will influence prices.”

Nippon Paper Group, Inc. has set up the emergency committee regarding the earthquake of March 11, 2011. Following is the Group's situation the Company pieces out so far.

# Kushiro Mill, Nippon Paper I ndustr ies Co., Ltd.
No damage.
Operation is as normal.

 

# Hokkaido Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.
No damage.
Operation is as normal.

# Ishinomaki Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.
Operation is stopped.
There is a lot of soil, sand and so on inside the Mill caused by Tsunami.

We are investigating equipment damage of the Mill.
There is information that an employee was injur ed, however we have not confirmed it yet. Almost all stock in the Mill seems to be damaged.

# Iwanuma Mill, Nippon Paper I ndustr ies Co., Ltd.
Operation is stopped.
Presumably any employee is not injured.
There is information that ceiling was collapsed, however the detail is not confirmed.
We are investigating equipment damage of the Mill.
Half of stock in the Mill seems to be damaged.

# Nakoso Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.
Operation is stopped.
Presumably any employee is not injured.
We are investigating equipment damage of the Mill.
Half of stock in the Mill seems to be damaged.

# Fuji Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.
A few machines were stopped. But soon we will restart the oper ation.

# Akita Mill, Nippon Daishowa Paperboard Co., Ltd.
Operation is stopped.
We have no expectation to restart.

# Others
Bothe in Sendai-Port and Tokyo-Ariake-Port there seems to be some damages. Regarding Iwakuni Mill, Yatsushiro Mill and other mills, ther e is no damage and operation is as normal. But there is a concern that some problems regarding material procurement and product transportation will happen in some mills. From now on we do our best to confirm all employee's safety and damage of equipment of mills.