Major Expenditures

Sonae Arauco is investing more than Euro 100 million in its Meppen industrial unit, in Germany. A new production line for wood fibre insulation materials is to be built here, which from 2025 will expand the portfolio to include flex insulation, pressure-resistant wood fibre insulation boards, and blow-in insulation.

The world's largest machine for the production of kraftliner has entered service in Obbola plant in Västerbotten, Sweden. This major project has been completed ahead of schedule and within budget, significantly increasing opportunities to produce packaging materials that replace plastic.

Clayco, a full-service, turnkey real estate, architecture, engineering, design-build and construction firm, celebrated the groundbreaking of WestRock's new 410,000-square-foot corrugated box plant in Longview, Washington. Located just outside of the Vancouver, Washington metropolitan area, this marks the first collaboration between Clayco and WestRock.

Heinzel Group announces the conversion of an idled paper machine at the Steyrermühl mill in Austria for the production of sustainable kraft papers for flexible packaging. Heinzel will take over the Steyrermühl site from UPM on January 1st, 2024, according to an agreement signed in 2022, and will enter the market with a new range of unbleached and bleached kraft papers shortly thereafter.

The development of the two-lane ring road by RAPP, at the cost of Rp.3 billion, is APRIL's contribution to the Pelalawan Regency Government of a strategic infrastructural asset for the region. The road will alleviate traffic congestion and contribute to the mobility of Pelalawan residents, and in turn boost the regional economy.

The construction work on the new warehouse is expected to start at the end of 2023, to be put into operation in the summer of 2025.

Smurfit Kappa is investing €27 million in a state-of-the-art new waste management and recovery facility at its Nervión paper mill in Iurreta, Spain. The investment will see the mill adopt a fully circular production process involving the biggest landfill reduction project Smurfit Kappa has undertaken to date to support the delivery of its 2025 sustainability commitments.

The facility, which is in Ashland, Virginia, will produce lightweight, 100-percent-recycled linerboard and medium and initially was projected to cost around $380 million. The company now reports the total cost of the project at around $515 million to $525 million, with $396 million invested in the project to date (2018-2022).

The upgrades include a new corrugator, converter, single facer, preheater, glue machine, and control systems as well as an upgrade to the existing single facer and unitizer.

Stora Enso will invest approximately Euro 30 million in its Heinola Fluting site in Finland to renew the energy set-up and process equipment. After the investment, the site can replace also the remaining fossil-based fuels with renewable bioenergy. This will reduce the site's greenhouse gas emissions with more than 90%.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) will invest $400 million and bring at least 100 new jobs to rural Utah over the next 20 years.

Kruger Packaging announced investments of over $30 million to modernize its Place Turcot Containerboard Mill in Montréal. With this important transformation to be completed in 2025, the Place Turcot facility will be the first in North America to manufacture 100% recycled saturating kraft board, a product that is used to make high-pressure laminates for furniture, countertops and decorative paneling.

The mill produces high quality tissue products and the current capacity will be doubled to approximately 145,000 t/a.

The paperboard mill in Waco, Texas will follow the opening early last year of a similar plant in Kalamazoo, Mich., which was the first new coated-recycled paperboard line to be built in the U.S. in decades. Construction is expected to begin later this quarter and start-up is slated for late 2025.

Cascades, a leader in the recovery and manufacturing of green packaging and hygiene products, is pleased to announce that it has purchased a new printing press at its Piscataway, New Jersey, corrugated packaging converting facility.

The roughly $200 million in state tax dollars earmarked for the Escanaba Mill will supplement a $1.06 billion investment by Swedish parent company Billerud to expand paper product production at the mill. The project would help the mill retain nearly 1,200 jobs at the 2,000-acre site in Wells and Escanaba townships in Delta County.

Start-up is expected in the first half of 2024.

The $50 million in upgrades include restarting the mill's C2 paper machine, which will now produce new water-resistant paper grades that are intended to replace single-use plastic products.

International Paper has announced formal plans to invest approximately $103 million to build and operate two natural gas power boilers to generate steam for its Containerboard Mill in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Construction is set to begin in the second quarter of this year and be fully operational by the end of 2025.

Domtar's Kingsport Mill recently produced its first 100% recycled containerboard. The milestone marks the culmination of a two-year, $350 million investment project to convert the former uncoated freesheet paper mill into Domtar's first 100% recycled packaging facility.

Progroup has invested around Euro 72 million in the project at the site, which covers around 28,000 square metres, and created 50 new jobs.

International Paper intends to build a new 20,000-square-foot building at the Cedar Rapids mill that would be home to a boiler and water treatment plant. Together, they would provide steam power to the Cedar Rapids facility. Previously, the plant used the coal-powered Prairie Creek Station. However, that facility is being closed.

Billerud, who took over the mill last year, plans to transform the mill, which has struggled with years of declining profits, into a state-of-the-art, high-end packaging manufacturer. Billerud's Vice President of Technical Services, Michael Glodowski sees their new product line as a way to maintain profitability for decades to come.

A new recycled paper mill will be established in Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (KEZAD) in a move to support the UAE circular economy.

Billerud, a Swedish paper and pulp manufacturer, is eyeing the Escanaba Mill to upgrade from producing paper to making an advanced paper product known as paperboard or cartonboard.