Iggesund Paperboard’s Vice President Sales & Marketing leaves the company

Mondi has started up new production lines for melt-blown nonwoven fabric and medical face masks at its site in Gronau, Germany to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Mondi Gronau has over 50 years of experience in the production and processing of films, nonwovens and elastic components for hygiene products. Last year Mondi announced it would start up production lines to produce both the important base material, melt-blown nonwoven fabric, as well as the medical face mask themselves. With the new lines, Mondi is building up a local value chain in Germany to address the needs of the pandemic. The fully integrated production with two highly automated high-speed machines allows the output of 700 high-quality medical face masks per minute. This is approximately seven times higher than the standard face mask production line and will produce at least one million medical grade masks a day. The masks are certified as a medical product by the German Johner Institute as well as meeting the German standards OEKO-TEX and Dermatest.

The Sappi Saiccor mill situated in Umkomaas, KwaZulu-Natal hosted a high-level delegation from the office of the outgoing MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), Ms Nomusa Dube-Ncube, as part of the KZN International Investment Conference today. The MEC was accompanied by the Deputy Mayor of Ethekwini, Councillor Belinda Scott and the TIKZN Chairperson, Ms Ina Cronje. This combined R7,7bn investment is aimed at increasing capacity and global competitiveness, significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the company and equipment and process upgrades and improvements. its Saiccor Mill in Umkomaas. Not only will fossil fuel CO2 emissions be halved and SO2 emissions be reduced by 37%, but water use efficiency will improve by 17% and waste to landfill reduced by a massive 48%. This all, while increasing the mills’ capacity by 110,000 tons per annum and creating additional future permanent employment for 120 people and saving the company at least R300m per annum through improved and more efficient processes.

Due to recent cost changes and market conditions French Paper is announcing our first price increase since 3-3-14, over three and a half years. This increase consists of $5/cwt for Glo-Tone and $4/cwt across all other grades, with equivalent changes made among envelope items. All changes will apply to orders placed after December 15th. Along with these pricing changes we have begun the discontinuation of our Mod-Tone grade and will sell remaining items as inventory is available.