Caraustar Announces a Minimum 7.0% Price Increase on all Paper Tube and Core Products

After Carlsberg and Johnnie Walker, the latest alcohol brand to trial paper bottles is Absolut. As part of a three-month pilot test, the vodka brand will be sold in paper bottles in 22 Tesco stores across Greater Manchester throughout the summer. Made from 57% paper, the bottles will include a recyclable plastic barrier, with customers able to recycle the packaging as paper through normal household waste. Following trials of the bottle at festivals in the UK and Sweden, this will be the first time such paper bottles will have been sold commercially in-store by a global spirits company. “This is a step closer towards our vision of a fully bio-based bottle,” said Elin Furelid, Director of Future Packaging at Absolut. “We are exploring packaging that has a completely different value proposition. Paper is tactile, it’s beautiful, it’s authentic, it’s light. That was our starting point, but this is not just an idea on paper.”

Nine Dragons Paper, the biggest manufacturer of packaging paper in China, has commissioned Voith to build and deliver three XcelLine paper machines for the production of high performance testliner and white top testliner. The three lines will further strengthen the paper manufacturer’s leading position in the packaging paper segment. The commissioning of the machines is planned for 2022 and 2023. “We are delighted to have received the orders from China’s largest packaging paper manufacturer Nine Dragons and we look forward to our renewed collaboration on a partnership basis,” says Hanson Zhao, Vice President Sales & Application Asia at Voith Paper. The planned daily production volume of the three identical paper machines is especially high: approximately 2,400 metric tons each, at production speeds of 1,400 m/min. In order to meet these requirements, the components must be extremely high-performing and robust. The elaborate former design of the machines, which are equipped with a DuoFormer DII E, allows for the required speed with high basis weights at the same time.

Georgia-Pacific is making significant investments, totaling more than $50 million, at its Port Hudson mill in Zachary, Louisiana. The investments will greatly enhance the company’s retail consumer towel business. Investments to the Port Hudson mill include upgrades to increase capacity and improve capability of existing converting equipment and enhance internal infrastructure. Construction has begun, with startup of the lines scheduled for some time in mid-2023. “This truly is an investment in our customers and consumers who value the quality of our products,” said Vivek Joshi, president of the retail tissue, towel and napkin business for Georgia-Pacific.