The very bad news is that consumption of newsprint in North America will continue to decline. There is some good news also, but we don’t want to exaggerate; it’s just relatively good news – making the best of a difficult situation. Surviving in a declining industry is very difficult, but prospering in a declining industry is barely possible. Nevertheless, that is the goal.
The “good news” is summarized in the following bullet points: Continue Reading
The employers, suppliers, and mill communities of AbitibiBowater are all breathing a sigh of relief. It is finally over. Sacrifices were required, but they are survivors – they made the cut – and now can expect things to settle down for a while. Well, maybe…or maybe not.
The future of newsprint is not promising, of course, and Canadian producers are still in the red. Nevertheless, market conditions are looking much better over the short-term and medium-term. Newsprint capacity and demand are in balance right now. It is also likely that some serious White Birch capacity will be eliminated prior to that company exiting bankruptcy. The newsprint market just might be healthy well into 2011. Continue Reading
Category : Environmental Issues, Newsprint, Paper, Recycling
Prior to the AbitibiBowater closure of its Gatineau mill, the most recent five newsprint machines to close in North America were all 100% recycled. The most recent closure in Europe was also a recycled machine. The two machines at Gatineau were 40% recycled, according to The Newsprint Fact Book. Continue Reading
Category : Newsprint
It would be interesting to read that feasibility study – maybe the rest of us are missing something. See the story here in the Winnipeg Free Press. Continue Reading
An interesting disconnect has taken place in recent months between the actual trend in newsprint prices compared to pricing that has been expected. The following is a short excerpt from this month’s Reel Time that will be published on Monday. It is only a small part of the discussion, but I thought that the” paper people” would find it interesting. Continue Reading
Category : Newsprint, Weekly Feature
Danny Williams claims that his government did not intend to confiscate AbitibiBowater’s mill property in Grand Falls Newfoundland. Williams indicated that the province had only intended to take from its rightful owner everything that had value, not the mill itself. The CBC reports here that… Continue Reading
We have been concerned that the Provincial governments in Canada might try to prevent some of the closed AbitibiBowater paper mills from closing permanently. If, for example, the company were forced to sell paper mills for very low prices (basically give them away) then perhaps buyers could be found for some of them. This would have just prolonged the pain for all remaining newsprint producers. There is no mention of any such pressure in the link here, and the company is selling the mills with the agreement that the new owners can not produce paper at these paper sites. So this is a sad story but a touch of good news for the market.
The company is attempting to sell four mills for a minimum of C$13.8, which is scrap value. Isn’t that depressing? That is probably about the cost of a new winder or a supercalender.
Category : Environmental Issues, Newsprint, Recycling
From an environmental perspective the basics of paper recycling are primary-school simple. Continue Reading
Category : Environmental Issues, Newsprint, Recycling
There have been four recent closures of recycled newsprint paper machines, in addition to the January shut down of Catalyst’s deinking pulp facility in Coquitlam British Columbia. These are not all permanent closures but it will be an uphill battle to keep any of them going for the long-term. Continue Reading
In perusing our media sources we found nothing worthy of a Weekly Feature, and I did not have the time to write one, so we will try for next week-end.
Now for the quiz. We just finished our April Reel Time. In that report we mentioned that the following newsprint mills had been recently shutdown, or closures had been announced. Your question is, “What do they all have in common that contributed to their demise?
AbitibiBowater at Thorold Ontario
Atlantic Packaging Newsprint machine at Whitby Ontario
Blue Heron at Oregon City Oregon (in bankruptcy but still might be producing some newsprint)
White Birch at Newberg Oregon ( pm #5 probably down permanently, but this has not been made official)