Metso and Norampac have reached an agreement in principle for Metso to supply the mill maintenance services for Greenpac Mill in Niagara Falls, NY, in the United States. With this mill maintenance agreement Metso will establish and manage all maintenance systems and procedures at the mill. The value of the agreement will not be disclosed.

The new linerboard machine at the Greenpac Mill will be supplied by Metso; the order was announced in 2011. The machine is scheduled to start up in the third quarter of 2013. The agreement includes recruitment of all maintenance personnel prior to start-up. Upon start-up, Metso will assume full responsibility of the mill maintenance operations for the entire production facilities at the Greenpac Mill.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Metso in creating a unique world-class operation at our Greenpac site. The outsourcing of maintenance is a first of its kind for Norampac and its partners in North America – after visiting a similar world-class site in Europe we were convinced of the benefits, performance and customer satisfaction of Metso maintenance operations, which will further contribute to the project’s success,” commented Marc-André Dépin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Norampac.

The Metso mill maintenance model optimizes the use of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Metso's streamlined reliability centered maintenance (Applied RCM) and condition-based maintenance. The model ensures the highest possible equipment efficiency and cost optimization.

Greenpac Mill LLC is a partnership controlled by Cascades and managed by Norampac. Created in 1997, Norampac, a Division of Cascades Canada ULC, is the largest containerboard producer in Canada and the 6th largest in North America, with 4,239 employees. Today, Norampac operates several containerboard and boxboard mills, corrugated product plants, folding carton plants and a graphic center in Canada and the United States.