Resolute Forest Products – US Directory Price Increase Announcement

Canfor Corporation announced that its 70%-owned subsidiary, Vida Group, has entered into an agreement to purchase three sawmills located in Sweden from Bergs Timber for a purchase price of CAD$43 million plus working capital. The three mills, which are located in Vimmerby, Mörlunda and Orrefors, Sweden, will add approximately 215 million board feet to Vida’s annual capacity. With additional investment, Vida anticipates the production capacity of the mills can be increased to 300 million board feet. After taking into account this additional production capacity, Sweden represents 22% of Canfor’s globally diversified operating platforms, plus 43% in British Columbia, 31% in the Southern United States and 4% in Alberta.

The U.S. Department of Labor put a new rule into effect that allows employee benefit plan administrators to use an electronic “notice-and-access” disclosure system, as a default method, which will make it much more difficult for millions of Americans who received critical, paper-based information about their 401k, pension and retirement plan rules. In a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, 10 percent of U.S. adults said they do not use the internet. American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Heidi Brock issued the following statement in response to the rule: “The American Forest & Paper Association is disappointed the Department of Labor’s ‘notice-and-access’ rule will result in fewer Americans receiving critical financial information to help them plan for retirement. “By creating electronic disclosures as the default, U.S. retirement plan holders must now navigate an onerous process to retrieve critical plan and benefit information that would otherwise arrive automatically and reliably by mail."

Powell River’s paper mill is scheduled to resume production in May, according to mayor Dave Formosa. Speaking at the city council meeting on March 4, Formosa said he wanted to announce that the Catalyst Paper Corporation mill in Powell River will be starting up one paper machine. “We’re looking for that to happen in May,” said Formosa. “They are anticipating four- to six-week lead time so certain workers will be called back to the operation to start getting the facility ready to fire up one machine. “They will be making a new product that has not been made here before. It’s a brown, heavy paper that will line boxes, so it’s a box liner, which happens to have a good market. That’s good news.” Formosa said the mill is hoping to start up a second machine once it gets enough orders for the thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) operation. He said that is where the mill would take pulp from the TMP operation, dry it on the paper machines onto rolls, and then sell it into Asia as a raw material.