Fortress Paper Ltd. has ramped up production of dissolving pulp at its Fortress Specialty Cellulose mill in Thurso, Que., to an average of approximately 92%. In recent weeks, the mill had averaged approximately 83%.

The mill commenced production of dissolving pulp at the end of 2011 and has been steadily improving its production efficiency and technical capabilities. Following initial delays, the mill recently took scheduled periods of downtime to eliminate process constraints.

Fortress reports that the dissolving pulp being produced is meeting customer specifications and shipments to viscose customers located in China are increasing in volume.

Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Fortress Paper, commented that the mill is well on its way to achieving the top quartile cost structure forecast by management, once its cogeneration facility is fully operational.

The co-gen plant is under construction, and expected to start up in 2013.

source: pulp&paper Canda

Stora Enso has successfully issued two five-year bonds with total nominal value SEK 1 700 million under its EMTN (Euro Medium Term Note) programme. Both bonds are due on 26 June 2017. One SEK 1 350 million bond pays a floating coupon of three months Stibor + 390 basis points and has an issue/reoffer price of 100.000. The other SEK 350 million bond pays a fixed coupon of 5.75% and has an issue/reoffer price of 99.010 to give a spread of 390 basis points over five-year mid swap which equals the yield of 5.985%. The bonds have no financial or change of control covenants. The arrangers and bookrunners for the transaction were SEB and Nordea.

“With these new bonds Stora Enso continues proactive actions to maintain its liquidity at a strong level. Our funding sources are well diversified and the maturity profile is well balanced. We last issued Swedish krona bonds in 2010, and we have now decided to benefit from the current strong demand from Swedish investors,” says Jyrki Tammivuori, SVP, Group Treasurer.

International Paper Company has announced the election of Ilene S. Gordon to its Board of Directors effective October 1, 2012.

Ms. Gordon, age 58, is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ingredion Incorporated (formerly Corn Products International), a publicly traded global ingredient solutions company, a position she has held since May 2009. Ms. Gordon has also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Rio Tinto's Alcan Packaging, a multinational company engaged in the production of flexible and specialty packaging, and has served in various senior executive roles atAlcan Packaging and Tenneco Inc.

"Ilene brings to our board of directors a deep understanding of our industry combined with broad international experience. We are extremely pleased to have her join the company," said John Faraci, Chairman and CEO.  

Ms. Gordon holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("MIT") and a master's degree in management from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

With the election of Ms. Gordon, the size of the Board is now 10 members. To learn more about other members of International Paper's Board of Directors, visit www.internationalpaper.com under the Company and Corporate Governance tab.

SOURCE International Paper

Resolute Forest Products Inc. and Fibrek Inc. have announced that Fibrek has entered into an agreement with RFP Acquisition Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Resolute, for a proposed arrangement (the "Arrangement") to amalgamate and form a new corporation, wholly-owned by Resolute. The Arrangement constitutes the second step transaction for Resolute to acquire all the Fibrek shares not deposited in the take-over bid it launched on December 15, 2011, which expired on May 17.  Resolute holds approximately 74.56% of the outstanding Fibrek shares.

Under the terms of the Arrangement, holders of Fibrek common shares, other than RFP Acquisition Inc., will be given the same choices of per share consideration previously offered in the take-over bid, namely:

• C$0.55 in cash and 0.0284 of a Resolute share; or
• C$1.00 in cash (subject to proration, as described in the circular); or
• 0.0632 of a Resolute share (subject to proration, as described in the circular).

The maximum amount of cash consideration available under the Arrangement is approximately C$18.2 million and the maximum number of shares of Resolute common stock available to be issued is approximately 940,000.

Under the terms of the Arrangement, Fibrek and RFP Acquisition have agreed to apply for an interim order of the Superior Court of Quebec to convene a special meeting of Fibrek's shareholders to vote on the proposed Arrangement. The independent members of Fibrek's board have received an opinion from their financial advisor, Sanabe & Associates, LLC, that the consideration payable to Fibrek shareholders in the Arrangement is fair, from a financial point of view, to the shareholders of Fibrek (other than RFP Acquisition). Based on their own analysis and various other factors, including the fairness opinion, the independent members of Fibrek's board unanimously approved the transaction and have recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the Arrangement. The special meeting is expected to be scheduled for July 23, 2012, with a June 20 record date. Fibrek's motion for the interim order is expected to be heard on June 20.  Resolute, through RFP Acquisition, is committed in the arrangement agreement to vote all of its Fibrek shares, representing approximately 74.56% of the outstanding shares, in favor of the Arrangement.

Subject to the interim order, full details of the transaction will be included in a management information circular, which is expected to be filed by Fibrek with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and mailed to Fibrek shareholders in the week of June 25. The circular will also contain full details on the terms of the proposed plan of arrangement, the factors considered by Fibrek's independent directors as well as a summary and complete copy of Sanabe & Associates' fairness opinion.

Important Notice

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval.

Jerome A. Peribere is an executive vice president of the Dow Chemical Company and president and chief executive officer of Dow Advanced Materials. He assumed this position in October, 2009, and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a Corporate Officer of The Dow Chemical Company, and serves on the Executive Leadership Council.

Peribere joined Dow in France in 1977 as a sales representative in Specialty Chemicals. He began working in the agricultural business in 1982 when he was named regional marketing manager of Eastern Europe. He moved to Geneva in 1985 as regional manager for the Middle East and Africa, and became European agricultural business director for Dow in 1988.

In 1989, he was appointed commercial director of Europe for Dow’s agricultural business. Peribere moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1993 to assume the position of global commercial director. He became the Corporate Strategy leader for Dow AgroSciences in 1997, and in 1998 was named vice president, Weed Management Global Business Unit and European Trade Area. In September 2002, he became vice president, Agricultural Chemicals, and later president and chief executive officer of Dow AgroSciences.

In May 2007, he was elected to the Board of Directors of BMO Financial Corporation, Chicago, Illinois. He is also a member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Board of Directors for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. He is also a Board Member of the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Peribere received a master’s degree in business economics and finance from the Institut D’Etudes Politiques in Paris, France.

The Board of Directors of Pöyry PLC has appointed Alexis Fries (57) new President and CEO of Pöyry. Alexis Fries will take up the position during the autumn 2012 and will be primarily based in Zurich, Switzerland, with an office also at Pöyry House, Vantaa, Finland.

Alexis Fries holds a Diploma in Physics from The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich. He is currently CEO of EOS Holding SA in Switzerland, a company active in the energy sector. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Pöyry PLC since 2008 and continues in this role. The CV of Alexis Fries is available on Pöyry's website at www.poyry.com.

Heikki Malinen has left his position as President and CEO on 13 June 2012. The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Henrik Ehrnrooth will act as interim President and CEO starting today until Alexis Fries takes over the position. Heikki Malinen will support Henrik Ehrnrooth and Alexis Fries to ensure a smooth handover until end of November 2012.

"I want to take this opportunity to thank Heikki Malinen for his dedication and commitment to Pöyry during the past four years," says Henrik Ehrnrooth, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pöyry PLC. "Despite the challenging business environment, Heikki Malinen has been driving the development of the company forward in many critical areas. I wish him all the best for his future career."

Metso has signed several contracts for supplying automation technology for greenfield waste-to-energy plants in Italy, Estonia and the UK. Modern automation solutions will play a major role in managing these new plants successfully. Plant operators will able to maximize incineration capacity, keep combustion and steam production stable, as well as maintain high process availability. Extensive, employee-empowering automation will ensure that waste burns safely and emissions stay low.

Metso has extensive experience in supplying automation and information management applications to waste-to-energy plants that run on industrial, municipal and wood waste or sludge. The company has a long track record of deliveries to roughly a hundred waste-to-energy and biomass combustion plants around the world.

CNIM chooses Metso's automation for greenfield waste-to-energy plants in Italy, Estonia and the UK

Metso has recently received three orders for Metso DNA automation systems for greenfield waste-to-energy plants from the CNIM Group. The latest order is for the North Hykeham plant in Lincolnshire, UK. It was preceded earlier this year by similar orders for waste-to-energy plants in Turin, Italy, and Maardu, Estonia. CNIM, the European leader in construction of waste-to-energy plants, acts as a contractor in all these projects.

At these plants, Metso DNA will provide one system for all process controls and plant information management. The integrated process automation system covers all plant processes from boilers to turbines. High-level reliability is ensured through an integrated TUV certified safety solution.

The North Hykeham waste-to-energy plant is owned by the Lincolnshire County Council and will be operated by the Waste Recycling Group. It will have an electric output of 13.1 MWe and a thermal output option up to 10 MWth. With an annual capacity of 150,000 tons of household and similar waste, and it will provide electricity to around 15,000 houses and the national grid. The plant is scheduled to go on line in spring 2013.

The Turin waste-to-energy plant owned by Trattamento Rifiuti Metropolitani will have a thermal output of 206 MW and an electric output of 56 MWe. It will be able to handle 421,000 tons of household and similar waste annually, with three incineration lines and provide electricity to around 150,000 houses and district heating to about 17,000 houses. The plant will go on line 2013.

The waste-to-energy plant in Maardu, owned by Eesti Energia, will have a thermal output of 50 MW and an electric output 17 MW. Using up to 220,000 tons of municipal, industrial and construction waste annually it will supply district heating to 500,000 inhabitants. The plant will go on stream in 2013.

Established in 15 countries, the CNIM Group designs and produces turnkey industrial solutions and offers expert research, expertise and operations services in the fields of environment, energy, defense and industry. The group has 3,000 employees, and its turnover was 633 million euros in 2010.

Hitachi Zosen Inova AG goes for Metso DNA to fulfill customer requirements in the UK

Metso has also signed an agreement with Hitachi Zosen Inova AG to supply automation for two lines at a greenfield waste-to-energy plant being built by SITA South Tyne and Wear Ltd. in Tees Valley, Billingham, UK.

The waste-to-energy lines under construction at the North East Energy Recovery Centre will each have the capacity to incinerate 152,000 tons of waste per year. They will feature grate-fired boilers with a thermal performance of 2 x 45.85 MW and rated turbine capacity of 24.2 MW with a live steam temperature of 410°C. The plant will start commercial operation in the autumn of 2013.

Metso's delivery scope consists of a Metso DNA distributed control system, a Metso DNA information management system, on-site commissioning, trial run support, training and spare parts. To boost system availability, there will be a remote service connection between the plant and Metso. Metso's delivery will take place in September 2012.

With advanced solutions, the operators will be able to manage operations and information efficiently at the plant. The system includes, DNA Report, an umbrella application for all Metso DNA reporting and analyzing tools, and solutions that use historical data stored in the DNA Historian database. It includes tools for report development, calculations, trending, alarms & events analysis, manual data entry and an operator log book. One example of the tools is Tracer, a process history analyzing tool combining traditional trends with alarms and events in the same graphic with a common timeline.

Metso was chosen as the supplier for the plant based on its good track record from five earlier projects with Hitachi Zosen Inova at A.S.A. Zistersdorf in Austria, BIR Bergen in Norway; Riverside and Newhaven in the UK and Vaasa in Finland.

"Compared with other systems in use in our previous projects, we immediately understood that Metso DNA is a flexible, state-of-the-art and easy-to-operate system. It fulfills our customers' requirements," says Jean Bilger, Head of Electrical and Control, Hitachi Zosen Inova. "Our engineers especially like the easy expandability and flexibility of Metso DNA."

Bilger appreciates Metso's way of working. From the first offer to the final startup, Metso's people have proven to be professional and proactive partners. "We have a high level of trust in all the departments of Metso we have dealt with, from the sales team to the project engineers and startup team."

SITA UK is a leading recycling and resource management company with specialist knowledge and experience in all areas of recycling, waste and resource management. www.sita.co.uk.

Zurich-based Hitachi Zosen Inova is one of the world's leading international specialists in energy-from-waste installations. Created from the former Von Roll Inova, the company offers customers all over the world reliable, customized thermal waste processing solutions. With more than 75 years of experience and over 470 reference installations, Hitachi Zosen Inova provides the entire range of services from developing, designing, planning and constructing installations right through to maintenance and modernization. Since 2010, Hitachi Zosen Inova has been part of the global industrial group Hitachi Zosen Corporation. www.hz-inova.com.

A devastating fire broke out at the Khanna Paper Mills, one of the leading paper manufacturers of the country, on the Amritsar bypass on Tuesday.

The fire that started at about 2: 00 pm from the waste stock yard of the Mills picked up briskly, bringing the mills owners as well as the district administration on toes.

The fire was so intense that till the filing of this report 50 fire tenders were called in and even army personnel were rushed to the spot, but still the flames were rising dangerously.

There was about 60 to 70 thousand tonnes of waste paper lying in the mills that caught fire and the estimated loss could run in several crores. 

As the fire spread due to strong winds blowing, the district administration led by Amritsar DC Rajat Aggarwal was personally monitoring the operation.

Fire tenders from the Airport, Batala, Beas, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur were called in to battle the fire.

By the evening the fire had spread in the rare side where there were residential accommodations. And to avoid any human loss, the administration was planning to get the houses vacated.

Since the heaps of paper were burning and fire going deep inside, it was tough for the administration to fully extinguish.

Even though, the operation to bring things under control was on since five hours but it is learnt that it may take two days to fully make things normal.

Talking to HT, Director of the Khanna Paper Mills, Suneet Kochhar said, "We don't know the reasons but it was panic after the waste paper lying in the stock yard caught fire. It spread at such a pace that within minutes it was all over."

The main plant of the mill was safe but we are trying to keep the fire away from the residential area behind. The district administration was fully active and apart from army it also arranged 50 fire tenders to bring fire under control, said Kochhar.

On loss, the Director said, "We cannot tell in monetary aspect but there was about 70,000 tonnes of paper that got burnt."

The Khanna Paper supplies newsprint to some of the major newspapers of the region and recently newsprint from here was also exported to Pakistan.

When the fire broke out, the smoke was seen several kilometers away from the mill.

Resolute Forest Products and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are pleased to announce that Resolute has become the largest manager of Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certified forests in the world.

The Company recently certified 3.2 million hectares (7.9 million acres) of forestlands in the Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec to the FSC Boreal Standard. This certification raises the total area of Resolute-managed FSC-certified forests in North America to 10.3 million hectares (25.6 million acres), an area twice the size of Nova Scotia and larger than Portugal, Hungary or South Korea.

"Becoming the world's largest FSC holder is a major milestone in our efforts to become a positive force for sustainability within the forest products industry," stated Richard Garneau, Resolute's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Resolute's growing commitment to FSC complements other key sustainability initiatives, including the Company's membership in WWF's Climate Savers Program, which helps companies set and achieve ambitious emission reduction targets, as well as membership in the landmark Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement."

FSC is an international certification and labelling system dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world's forests. Co-founded in Canada by WWF in 1993, FSC works to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests. FSC is an important example of how environmental organizations and businesses can work together to conserve important regions and wildlife while ensuring long-term success for industry.

"WWF congratulates Resolute for their FSC-certification achievement," said Gerald Butts, President and Chief Executive Officer, WWF-Canada. "This success, coupled with their commitment to the Climate Savers program, shows the value and importance of making conservation a business priority, and the critical role that corporations can and must play in addressing the major environmental challenges we are facing today."

Under the WWF Climate Savers Program, Resolute has pledged to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent below 2000 levels by 2015. Resolute also made a series of other commitments as part of its Climate Savers membership, including increasing its FSC certification to 80 percent by 2015. With the latest certification, Resolute has passed the halfway point in delivering on its 80 percent commitment.

"Resolute Forest Products has long played an important role in the Ontario forest products industry. Certainly this is a tremendous milestone for Resolute and we are proud of their ongoing commitment to sustainable forest management practices," stated Michael Gravelle, Ontario Minister of Natural Resources. "I want to personally congratulate all the employees of Resolute on this accomplishment, and I look forward to continuing our close working relationship with the Company as we strengthen the sector together."

Resolute will continue working to protect the forests entrusted to its care and to improve its overall sustainability performance, enhancing its reputation as an environmental supplier of choice. Resolute is committed to the three pillars of sustainability - environmental, social and economic.
Resolute Forest Products previously operated as AbitibiBowater. Information about the certifications can be found at www.info.fsc.org under the name AbiBow. The most recent certification is under license code FSC® C108950.