Alfa Laval – a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling – will buy just over 50 percent of the outstanding minority shares in its subsidiary Alfa Laval India Ltd, and plans to apply for a delisting of the shares from the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India.

The reverse book-building process was closed on February 23rd and the result is that Alfa Laval will acquire 1.03 million shares for INR 4,000 apiece to reach an ownership of 94.5 percent. Reaching that stake, Alfa Laval can submit an application to delist the shares. All remaining public shareholders in Alfa Laval India Ltd will have the option to sell their shares for INR 4,000 per share in the coming 12-month period.

The price of INR 4,000 per share means that Alfa Laval initially will pay approximately SEK 550 million. If all shareholders accept the offer, the total price will reach SEK 1.06 billion.

Global AC drives manufacturer Vacon expands its factory operations in India. A new factory has recently been taken into use in Bangalore. The factory occupies a total area of 2,500 square meters.

Vacon's subsidiary in India was established in 2006, and is headquartered in Chennai with local sales offices around the country. The new factory focuses on designing and manufacturing Vacon's AC drive solutions for customers. The plant also has an after-sales service center.

"Vacon has been growing fast in India. This new factory will improve our competitive edge in the local markets as the AC drive solutions provided by our factory are in demand among our customers. In India, there is a considerable level of awareness of the benefits the AC drives can bring," says Shailendra Salvi, the Managing Director for Vacon's subsidiary in India.

"The new factory will considerably improve our possibilities to meet our customers' needs. The Indian AC drives market is huge, but at the same time, the competition is fierce. Vacon's personnel in India have done a great job, and the new factory opens new opportunities," concludes Mr Salvi.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group has been awarded a large Electrification and Instrumentation (E&I) and Distributed Control System (DCS) order by Sappi Southern Africa.

ABB will engineer, procure and supply equipment for Sappi’s Ngodwana mill in Nelspruit, South Africa. This scope forms part of Sappi’s Project Go Cell, which entails the expansion of the current mill for the production of chemical cellulose.  This order follows ABB’s successful implementation of Sappi Saiccor’s Amakhulu project in 2007.

Among the products to be supplied are Medium Voltage switchgear, Low Voltage MCCs incorporating intelligent motor controls, Profibus intelligent instrumentation, Variable Speed Drives and ABB’s state of the art 800xA control system.  These products will support the mill’s goals of increased efficiency and lower energy consumption.

Due to the size and complexity of the project and to meet Sappi’s project deadline, ABB will have an international team of Pulp and Paper composite plant experts from South Africa, Finland and Singapore work on this project. The project team will ensure the seamless installation and completion of the electrification and automation equipment in Sappi’s required timeframes (plant production is expected to begin in 2013).

Sappi Southern Africa is a global leader in the production of chemical cellulose, which is used in the production of a wide range of consumer products such as clothing, plastics, food and pharmaceutical products. 

“ABB South Africa’s contribution to the expansion and modernization of Sappi Ngodwana is a proud achievement for ABB and a further testament of our capabilities in the Pulp and Paper for this giant player in the industry”, said Carlos Pone, CEO of ABB South Africa.  “The project teams from the two companies will develop synergies and capabilities to benefit processes in the production of chemical cellulose at Sappi.”

The Metso-supplied containerboard production line, PM 3, for Ji’An Group Co., Ltd. successfully came on stream at the end of November 2011 and the line’s curtain coating process was started up on January 4, 2012. The new PM 3 was installed at the company’s mill located in Haiyan County, Jiaxing City in Zhejian Province, China. The 7.25 m-wide PM 3 is the world’s fastest coated board machine at the design speed of 1,200 m/min.

Metso’s delivery comprised a complete containerboard line from headboxes to reel including a 3-ply multi-Fourdrinier forming section with a ValFormer top forming unit. The delivery also included a ValPress press section equipped with two straight nips, a dryer section with single- and double-fabric dryer groups, an OptiHard precalender, a ValSizer film size press, coating sections with two ValCoat Jet blade coating stations and an OptiLayer curtain coating station, a ValSoft soft calender as well as a new type of a ValReel reel. The comprehensive Metso automation system comprises process, machine and quality controls with headbox and moisturizer profilers and retention analyzers.

“The new PM 3 features an OptiLayer multilayer curtain coating unit that applies two coating layers on the web at the same time in a non-contact operation with no speed restrictions. Curtain coating is a coating method, which gives a full coverage for brown base sheet. The uniform-coverage coating layer makes it possible to run the machine without expensive bleached fiber in furnish. This is a totally new tool for optimizing raw material costs,” says Henri Vaittinen, Metso’s Paper Technology Manager.

The daily production capacity of the PM 3 is approximately 1,900 tonnes of coated and uncoated white top testliner in the basis weight range of 130-280 g/m², mainly without virgin fiber.

Ji'An Group Co., Ltd. currently produces containerboard on four machines of which three are Metso-supplied machines, in addition to the PM 3, on the PM 1 started up in 2008 and on the PM 2 started up in 2006. The company’s annual production capacity is around 1,650,000 tonnes.

Kemira’s Paper segment increases prices for polymers, dispersants as well as wet & dry strength products in all regions by 5-15%. The increase will be effective immediately or as specific contract terms allow. 

While Kemira continues to take actions to minimize the impact of escalating raw material costs, it is necessary to adjust pricing in order to compensate for the increased costs of raw materials, energy costs as well as freight costs. 

source: Kemira

Rayonier has announced that it has priced an underwritten public offering of $325 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2022. The notes will have a coupon of 3.75% per year and mature on April 1, 2022. The Company will pay interest on the notes semi-annually on April 1 and October 1 of each year, beginning on October 1, 2012.

Rayonier intends to use the net proceeds from the offering primarily to repay borrowings outstanding under its revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes. The senior notes offering is expected to close on March 5, 2012.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are the joint book-running managers of the offering.

This offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement. This offering may be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, copies of which may be obtained by sending a request to Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, 4 World Financial Center, New York, NY, 10080, Attention: Prospectus Department or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, 383 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10179, Attention: High Grade Syndicate Desk, 3rd Floor or by calling collect at 212-834-4533, or Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10010, Attention: Prospectus Department or by calling toll-free at 1-800-221-1037. An electronic copy of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus is available from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the “SEC”) website at http://www.sec.gov.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.

Source: Rayonier

Pöyry has agreed to sell parts of its water and environment operations to Lahmeyer Holding GmbH. The agreement involves the sale of the entire share capital of Pöyry Environment GmbH (Germany) and Pöyry Tanzania Ltd (Tanzania). Both businesses carry out water and environment engineering services primarily financed by Official Development Assistance (ODA) throughout the developing world.

The combined annual net sales of these two units were approximately EUR 12 million in 2011 and they employ approximately 70 people. Pöyry will recognise a loss of about EUR 5 million in the first quarter of 2012 on the transaction. The transaction is cash flow positive.

Closing of the German transaction took place on 1.3.2012. Closing of the Tanzanian transaction is subject to local competition authority approval and is expected to take place during the second quarter of 2012. Both units will be excluded from Pöyry's financial reporting as of 1 January 2012.

Pöyry Capital, the investment banking arm of Pöyry PLC, acted as financial advisor to Pöyry on this transaction.

A Metso-supplied Advantage DCT 200 TS tissue production line successfully came on stream on January 24, 2012 at Lila Kagit’s mill in Corlu, about 100 km west of Istanbul in Turkey. This is the second production line supplied by Metso for this company.

The Lila Kagit TM 2 started up smoothly and produced a good-quality saleable product from the very beginning.

Metso’s delivery covered a complete tissue making line. Besides the Advantage DCT 200 TS tissue machine, it included, among other things, stock preparation equipment, process ventilation, controls, electrical equipment, basic engineering services, erection, start-up and training services.

Metso’s modularized Advantage DCT standard concepts for tissue machines repeatedly prove their success through record-breaking fast start-up processes and immediate highest-quality production.

The new line using virgin fiber adds another 195 tonnes per day of tissue paper for facial, toilet, napkin and towel products to Lila Kagit’s production capacity. This makes Lila Kagit one of the largest tissue manufacturers in Turkey.

Lila Kagit belongs to the Marmara Pamuklu Mensucat San.ve TiC. A.S. Group. The company was established in 1980 and is now one of the leading producers of yarn and dyed yarn. Its production facilities are in Corlu, Tekirdag. Marmara Elektrik Uretim A.S. also belongs to the Group and produces electricity at the same location.

Metso will supply a new evaporation plant and an upgrade of an existing recovery boiler for Billerud Skärblacka AB’s Skärblacka mill outside Norrköping in Sweden. The goal is to strengthen the mill for the future by improving environmental performance and energy efficiency as well as to enable future company expansion. Metso’s delivery will contribute to this environmentally-oriented investment. The value of the order will not be disclosed.

Metso’s delivery will allow for a substantial increase in production capacity in the future. In addition, the mill’s energy efficiency will be improved leading to a significant reduction in consumption of fossil oil and external biofuels.

“This investment is very important for Billerud as the mill’s overall energy efficiency and environmental performance will improve significantly,” says Johanna Lindén, Director, Scandinavia from Metso.

The project will go through two project phases. The first is to install the new evaporation plant and the second to upgrade the recovery boiler. The entire project is scheduled for completion at the end of 2013.The order is included in Pulp, Paper and Power’s first quarter 2012 orders received.