Moelven earned NOK 141 million from operations in the year’s second quarter, which is NOK 117 million more than last year for the same period. The main reasons for the improved results are better operating conditions, the effect of cost-cutting measures and higher prices for finished goods in the Timber and Wood divisions. Read more
The Swedish state-owned venture-capital company, Fouriertransform, is investing SEK 20 M in El-Forest AB, in which Volvo Technology Transfer (VTT) is among the principal owners. VTT invested in El-Forest AB in 2007 and has since produced forestry-machine prototypes that are continuously being tested and improved. A forwarder is a forestry machine used to transport round timber from the felling site. The El-Forest forwarder is an electric series hybrid and has patented wheel-track following technology to minimize surface damage, which is vital to regrowth at the felling site. Read more
PaperWorks Industries, Inc. today announced price increases coming into effect on August 9, 2010. The company will increase prices on all grades of coated recycled paperboard by $40 per ton. This applies to all North American customers and will include all MasterWorks CRB grades, including the News, Plus, Blister, Freeze, Lite and Beverage grades. Read more
UPM today sold to the State of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources a conservation easement on 187,876 acres (76,000 hectares) of UPM-owned forest land in Northern Minnesota. UPM will receive USD 44 million (approximately EUR 36 million) for the easement and will record a pre-tax capital gain of USD 42 million (approximately EUR 34 million) in the Company's third quarter result. Read more
Eucalyptus pulplog prices in Brazil have been very stable in the local currency and they have hardly changed at all since 2006, as reported in the Wood Resource Quarterly. In US dollar terms, on the other hand, wood fiber costs have increased substantially because of the strengthening of the Brazilian Real. Read more
Stora Enso will permanently close down newsprint and directory paper production at Varkaus in Finland by the end of the third quarter of 2010. The reasons for the planned capacity closure announced on 22 April 2010 have not changed: the European newsprint and directory paper market is strongly structurally oversupplied and sales prices have fallen significantly. As a result, newsprint production at Varkaus Mill is expected to remain unprofitable in the long term.
“The overcapacity position in the European newsprint and directory paper market has persisted in 2010. Consequently, sales prices have fallen significantly. In the longer term demand in Europe is expected to decline further, as has been happening in North America. In addition, the competitiveness of Varkaus is weakened because newsprint production at Varkaus relies on less-competitive virgin fibre, the availability of wood raw material in Finland is not stable and Varkaus is far away from most of its customers and main markets,” says Juha Vanhainen, EVP, Publication Paper Business Area and Country Manager Finland. Read more
New traceability technology can revolutionize the global forestry industry. The growth company Otmetka Log Marking AB outside Uppsala is now, after ten years’ development work ready to present the marking system Woodpecker. With this solution a code or label is stamped into the wood. The code can then be read by an image analysis system - similar to the interpretation of number plates for congestion charging in Stockholm. The system can guarantee full traceability of the timber from where the tree grew in the forest to the saw.
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The Sawmill group Setra is for sale and principal shareholders Sveaskog, LRF and Mellanskog has started the sales process. Price expectations are around 178 000 000 Euro. Setra is Sweden's largest wood products company with with annual sales of approximately 431 million Euro and production in sixteen locations in Sweden. Read more
A new ruling by the Environment Court on the poison PCP from the sawmill in Hjortsberg. In an interview with Smålandsposten Södra agree with the Environment Court ruling about the case of sawmill sites in Hjortsberga but environmental manager Roine Morin thinks the sentence from the court is difficult to understand. Read more
The certification organization FSC plan to review charges against several forest companies about offenses against the FSC standard.
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