Printweek - Paper Supply Crisis

I have written before on this blog about the situation in the paper industry, about the shortages and rapid price increases.

A few weeks ago a very interesting article was written by Jo Francis for Printweek magazine covering the situation, which you can read here... 

https://www.printweek.com/briefing/article/navigating-the-paper-supply-crisis

A particularly interesting part of the article is an explanation of how in less than three years, the industry has lost nearly 6 million tonnes of paper & board production, listing the following mill closures and cuts in capacity:

Cuts to capacity – going, going gone – how nearly 6m tonnes per annum of paper production disappeared

Feb 19: Germany’s Scheufelen files for insolvency for the second time in two years. It had produced 140,000 tonnes of premium coated paper per year

Mar 19: Arjowiggins’ largest mill, Bessé-sur-Braye with capacity of 320,000tpa of recycled coated and uncoated papers goes into liquidation after parent Sequana went into administration

Mar 19: Lecta shuts down coated woodfree production on PM 8 (200,000tpa) at its Condat mill, with the intention of converting it to label and packaging papers

May 19: Stora Enso confirms exit from coated woodfree paper market, removing more than a million tonnes of capacity as a result. The 1.08m/tpa Oulu mill in Finland will be converted to packaging board

Feb 20: Sappi Europe says it will close 240,000tpa coated woodfree PM2 at its Stockstadt mill

July 20: UPM closes its Chapelle newsprint mill in France, which produced 240,000 tonnes of newsprint per year

Aug 20: UPM announces it will shut its Kaipola mill in Finland by the end of the year and decommission its three paper machines, an annual reduction of 450,000 tonnes of newsprint and 270,000 tonnes of graphic grades. It also puts a ‘for sale’ sign up at UK newsprint mill UPM Shotton 

Aug 20: SCA says it will exit the publication papers market

Feb 21: SCA makes its last reel of publication paper at its Ortviken paper mill (756,000tpa) where three paper machines were shuttered and the site switched to the production of chemically pre-treated thermo-mechanical pulp (CTMP)

April 21: Stora Enso plans to close its Veitsiluoto (790,000tpa woodfree uncoated paper) and Kvarnsveden (565,000tpa SC magazine paper) mills in Sweden, slashing annual capacity by 35% to 2.6m tonnes

May 21: Zanders Paper goes into liquidation. It had two paper machines and capacity to make 325,000tpa of high gloss, cast coated paper, label papers, and board

Jun 21: Stora Enso sells its 310,000tpa Sachsen newsprint mill in Germany. The new owners will convert it to make containerboard

Sep 21: Newsprint production ceases at 250,000tpa capacity UPM Shotton. The new owner is converting the mill to produce cardboard

An excellent piece of research by Jo Francis, thank you.I suggest you read the whole article online.

https://www.printweek.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.04.2022

Aylesford Newsprint in administration

Today, the sad news has been announced that Aylesford Newsprint has gone into administration (going into administration effectively means your company is being taken under the management of a court appointed administrator – who must be a licensed insolvency practitioner - appointed by the courts).

Aylesford Newsprint Ltd is a paper mill based near Maidstone in Kent, producing on average 400,000 tonnes of recycled newsprint every year from recycled waste fibre, much of it sourced from London. Paper has been manufactured on the Aylesford site since 1922.

In 1993 they harnessed new recycling technology and became a leader in the production of 100% recycled newsprint under the brand name Renaissance newsprint.

In October 2012 the mill joint owners (SCA and Mondi) sold the mill to Martland Holdings, a US investment group. At the time of the sale SCA reported that the mill had been loss making for several years. However, ahead of the sale, Aylesford Newsprint was recapitalised to leave a business with no debt. Sadly this does not appear to have set them on the road to recovery.

Aylesford Newsprint processes over 500,000 tonnes of recycled waste fibre, produces 400,000 tonnes of newsprint paper operating 365 days a year. The mill is situated on a 100 acre site which, as you'll be able to appreciate from the picture below, is huge.

This is very sad news for the area and the 300 employees that work there. This is 'heavy' industry - the type of industry that once it is lost, is unlikely to come back. I hope that the administrators will be able to restructure the business and find a buyer.

...however it is not all bad news for the UK paper industry. In September 2009, I wrote about a new paper mill opening in Kings Lynn in Norfolk.
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/paper-mill-actually-opens-in-uk.html

Well, last month they produced the two millionth tonne of newsprint - a remarkable achievement as it was achieved in 12% less time than the initial million tonnes produced on this machine. You can read about it on the following link: http://www.palmpaper.co.uk/en/News/

http://aylesford-newsprint.co.uk/
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/malling/news/aylesford-newsprint-goes-into-administration-32271/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.02.2015