Metso has today issued its Corporate Governance Statement 2010. The statement is prepared in accordance with the recommendation of the Finnish Corporate Governance Code.

Metso Corporate Governance Statement 2010 as a PDF is attached in this release.

The corporate governance statement is available below via direct download

Six months after questioning whether it would benefit from "Son of Black Liquor", International Paper announced Thursday it got $40 million of the bogus eco-fuel tax credits.

The giant papermaker received the Cellulosic Biofuel Producer Credits in the 4th Quarter of 2010 for burning black liquor, a pulp byproduct, to power its pulp mills in 2009. As with the original black liquor credits -- the Alternative Fuel Mixture Credits program that gave more than $2 billion in taxpayers' money to IP during 2009 -- CBPC (Son of Black Liquor) was intended to spur development of new bio-fuels but mostly rewarded pulp mills for doing what they would have done anyway.

The Son of Black Liquor credits IP claimed were "just the benefit on black liquor gallons that we ran in 2009 but did not mix" with diesel fuel, Timothy Nicholls, the company's CFO, said Thursday during a conference call with stock analysts. Black liquor had to be mixed with diesel to qualify for the original black liquor credits but not for Son of Black Liquor.

"IP cannot quantify the value of additional CBPC because it depends on future taxable earnings, but it could be significant," a company presentation said.

Less than a year ago, IP was apparently not bothering to seek CBPC money because it believed -- as did Dead Tree Edition -- that black liquor would not qualify. And even after an odd IRS ruling that opened the door, Nicholls told analysts this past summer "We don't see a huge benefit for the company."

Even now, Nicholls is unsure about the future benefits from Son of Black Liquor. IP would have to return some of the AFMC money to receive the more lucrative CBPC credits. Though it's been more than a year since pulp mills could earn credits under either program, the tax status of the AFM money is still unclear.

"There's some reason to believe that the proper conclusion maybe non-taxable," Nichols said. "If we come to that conclusion, then economically it just doesn't make sense to refund or payback the credit that we've already received and apply for the CB credit."

Rock-Tenn sees things differently. The packaging manufacturer's most recent annual report says AFMC "is not taxable for federal or state income tax purposes." But it estimates it will eventually net $112 million by paying back the original black liquor credits to get the more lucrative Son of Black Liquor money.

Packaging Corporation of America, which has about one-eighth of IP's pulp capacity, recorded $135.5 million in Son of Black Liquor credits last year.

That's news to Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation, which in December estimated that the government's cost for all "credits for alcohol fuels", including CBPC, for fiscal years 2010-2014 would only be $100 million.

Tieto is modernizing the mill systems in M-real's board mills in Finland, which will be completed by the end of 2012. According to the agreement signed by the parties, the mills are implementing the latest versions of the Tieto Integrated Paper Solution (TIPS). Tieto is also responsible for the maintenance service of the systems.

The TIPS manufacturing execution solution will allow further standardization of production management business processes as well as the seamless integration of production with M-real's SAP Enterprise Resource Planning. The benefits include improved visibility of information that is critical to the business.

"Tieto's solution meets our expectations very well, and the special features required by our mill operations are easy to integrate with it. The strength of the solution is its user-friendliness. We have used TIPS for ten years, and during this time Tieto has developed the solution in such a way that we have now at our disposal new features that are beneficial to our operational environment," says Jukka Kettunen, responsible for production at M-real.

"I believe that our strengthened co-operation will further improve both the maximization of the availability of M-real's mills and the standardization of their business processes. The standardized toolset of the new TIPS solution supports more efficiently the optimization of the production capacity of the mills," says Ari Järvelä, responsible for Finnish and Baltic businesses.

Hundreds of paper, pulp and board mills all over the world use Tieto's systems on a daily basis to manage their processes.

M-real's Consumer Packaging business area is the world's leading producer of innovative premium folding boxboard, coated white top liners and wallpaper base. The products are excellent for the packaging of cosmetics, food products and confectionaries, for example.

A Metso-supplied Advantage DCT 200 TS tissue production line successfully came on stream on December 18, 2010 at the Hayat Kimya A.S mill in Yeniköy, which is located near the city of Izmit in Turkey. The Hayat Kimya TM 2 started up smoothly on schedule and produced a good-quality saleable product from the very beginning.

“We reached a successful start-up thanks to good cooperation and the efforts by the Metso personnel in a record short time of 13 months from the contract signing. In the light of such a short time, the start-up was a big success for all of us. This cooperation will continue and I am convinced we will continue production with a very good paper quality,” says Lütfi Aydin, Paper Mill Director at the Hayat Kimya mill.

Metso’s delivery comprised a complete tissue production line including a stock preparation system and an Advantage DCT 200 TS tissue machine. The tissue machine is equipped with an OptiFlo headbox, a Metso Yankee cylinder, an Advantage AirCap hood adapted for co-generation, an Advantage WetDust dust system, an Advantage Run sheet transfer system and an Advantage SoftReel L reel. The stock preparation line consists of OptiSlush pulpers, OptiFiner conical refiners and OptiScreen machine screens.

Furthermore, the delivery included an extensive automation package with metsoDNA machine and process controls, a PaperIQ Plus scanner and quality controls. Complete engineering, installation supervision, training, start-up and commissioning were also included in the delivery.

With a width of 5.6 m and a design speed of 2,200 m/min, the new line has a design capacity of 70,000 tons a year of high-quality facial, toilet and towel grades. Raw material for the new line is virgin fiber. The production line is optimized to save energy and to enhance final product quality.

Hayat Kimya A.S. is part of the Hayat Group. The Hayat Group operates primarily in the chemicals, hygienic products, paper and wood-based industries. The Hayat tissue facilities have a paper production capacity of 135,000 tons and a converting capacity of 60,000 tons per year.

Holmen Paper will be shutting down production of printing paper at the smaller paper machine in Madrid. This equates to almost 10 per cent of the business area’s production capacity. Approximately 170 employees will be affected.

“We’ve been working to make PM 61 profitable for a long time now, both through cost savings and the development of new products. Our employees have made an excellent job, but we’ve been forced to concede that it’s not enough,” comments Magnus Hall, President and CEO of Holmen. “The machine is not sufficiently competitive to justify continued operation either in the short or long term. The decision is part of a strategy to focus our business on printing paper segments where Holmen Paper has high competitiveness.”

PM 61 has a capacity of 170 000 tonnes per year and produces coated magazine paper (LWC) as well as improved newsprint to a lesser extent. In recent years, the machine has seen low capacity utilisation.

Holmen acquired the mill in Madrid in 2000, by which time PM 61 had been operating for two years. In 2005 the mill expanded with the addition of PM 62, a new paper machine for large-scale production of newsprint. Paper manufacture in Madrid is based 100 per cent on recovered paper as the raw material and the plant has its own energy supply in the form of a gas-fired CHP. After the closure, PM 62 will give the mill a capacity of 330 000 tonnes.

The financial consequences of the closure are outlined in the year-end report for 2010.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has been awarded an order by Graphic Packaging International to supply a 350,000 lb/h (160 t/h) steam boiler using woody biomass and primary clarifier sludge as fuels for the company’s mill in Macon, Georgia, USA. Start-up of the boiler is scheduled for summer 2013.

ANDRITZ will supply a Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) steam boiler, fuel and bottom ash handling systems, and the boiler safety system. ANDRITZ’s well-proven BFB technology combines high fuel efficiency with excellent environmental performance. It is projected that the biomass boiler will effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 200,000 ton/a (180,000 metric ton/a). The new biomass boiler is expected to make the Macon mill energy self-sufficient (electrical power and steam generation), which will reduce Graphic Packaging’s energy costs and dependency on fossil-fuel based alternatives. The mill expects to become a net producer of electricity.

Biomass-based electricity generation is playing an increasingly important role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. With state-of-the-art ANDRITZ steam boilers, energy producers can produce “green energy” in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.

Sonoco, one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, has reached an agreement with the Composite Can and Tube Institute (CCTI) to make the Company's patented Radial Crush Tester for spiral-wound paperboard tubes and cores available to the industry.

According to David E. Rhodes, Sonoco's director of global industrial technology and engineering, "The radial crush tester measures the radial strength of a tube or core, which is a critical factor for a customer whose product applies a radial load such as plastic film and extensible textiles. The tester is able to simulate the loading condition that a customer's products apply to a core. The failure mode created by the tester is the same as the radial crush failure that occurs in a customer's winding operations."

Kristine Garland, Executive Vice President of the Composite Can and Tube Institute stated, "CCTI's Technical Committee will develop and publish a standardized industry-wide testing procedure for measuring radial crush with the Sonoco radial crush tester. The Radial Crush Tester will be demonstrated at CCTI's Spring Operations Meeting, March 16-17, 2011, in Myrtle Beach, S.C."

Sonoco developed the radial crush tester in response to customer requirements more than 15 years ago. The tester is manufactured exclusively by Sonoco and used throughout its global tube and core operations.

Sonoco is the world's largest producer of spiral-wound uncoated recycled paperboard tubes and cores that serve as carriers for numerous products serving the film, paper mill, textiles, tape and labels, metals, construction, shipping and storage markets. The Company operates approximately 90 converting facilities on five continents.

More than 3.4 million hectares of forests in China are expected to become certified under the Chinese national forest certification system, CFCC (China Forest Certification Council), in 2011,
following an agreement between the Beijing Zhonglin Tianhe Forest Certification Center and the Yichun Forest Authority announced recently.

According to the agreement, the Yichun Forest Authority is committed to certify all fifteen forest management units under its oversight, totalling an area of 2.67 million hectares in 2011. In 2010, already more than 700.000 hectares of forests underwent CFCC certification pre-assessments and audits in Northern and Southern China.

China currently has the highest afforestation rate of any country or region in the world, increasing its forest cover from 12% twenty years ago to more than 20% in 2010. With more than 200 million hectares of forest, China is one of the most forested countries globally, and is continuing to implement policy measures to increase the quality and quantity of its forests.

The agreement was presented at a recent press conference in Beijing with participation of Mr. Zhang Yongli, Deputy Minister of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), Mr. Wang Aiwen, Mayor of the City of Yichun, Mr. Wang Wei, General Secretary of CFCC, and Mr. Benson Yu, Director of the PEFC China Initiative.

The agreement follows the expression of intention by the CFCC at the PEFC General Assembly in November 2010 that it expects to apply for PEFC membership in 2011 and submit the scheme for endorsement, a move that was very much welcomed by PEFC and its members.

Verso Paper Corp. (NYSE: VRS) today announced that it will report its financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2010, and year-end results in a news release before the market opens on Thursday, March 3. Management will host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Thursday, March 3, 2011, to discuss the fourth quarter and year-end results.

This release and the fourth quarter and year-end results will be made available on Verso's website at www.versopaper.com/investorrelations by navigating to the Financial Information page.

Analysts and investors may participate in the live conference call by dialing 719-325-4810 or, within the U.S. and Canada only, 877-795-3635, access code 6098038. To register, please dial in 10 minutes before the conference call begins. The conference call and presentation materials can be accessed on Verso's website at www.versopaper.com/investorrelations by navigating to the Events page, or at http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=92194.

A telephonic replay of the call can be accessed at 719-457-0820 or, within the U.S. and Canada only, 888-203-1112, access code 6098038. This replay will be available starting at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on March 3, 2011, and will remain available for 14 days.

Source: Verso Paper Corp.