Reinvented for the future: A new carton packaging approach to hand soap refills

Metsä Board announced on 15 September 2022 that it will start pre-engineering for a new folding boxboard mill in Kaskinen, Finland. The pre-engineering has now been completed and Metsä Board has decided not to proceed with the investment in the Kaskinen folding boxboard mill. The total cost of the planned investment was significantly higher than originally estimated, meaning that the targets for payback time and return on capital employed would not have been met. Metsä Board has decided to launch programmes for new product options as well as growth and development investments at its existing mills in order to implement its strategy to grow in fibre-based packaging materials and renew its industrial operations. The programmes will support Metsä Board's target of fossil-free production by the end of 2030. In addition, the company will continue to develop packaging solutions that reduce the use of plastics.

WestRock Company (NYSE: WRK) today announced it will permanently cease operating its paper mill in North Charleston, South Carolina, on August 31, 2023. The North Charleston mill produces containerboard, uncoated kraft paper (KraftPak®), and unbleached saturating kraft paper (DuraSorb®), with a combined annual capacity of 550,000 tons. Containerboard and uncoated kraft currently produced at the mill will be manufactured at other WestRock facilities. The Company intends to exit the unbleached saturating kraft paper business when the mill shutdown is completed.

Total containerboard production in July remained essentially flat (-0.2 percent) compared to July 2019. It was up four percent when compared to the same seven months of 2019. July 2020 production of containerboard for export decreased seven percent compared to the same month last year; it was up 28 percent year-to-date. The containerboard operating rate was 89.4 percent, down 1.6 points from July 2019 and up 3.1 points year-to-date. Mill inventories of containerboard at the end of July decreased 7,000 short tons from the previous month and were up 67,000 short tons compared to July 2019.