Sappi Announces Order Moratorium

Mercer International Inc. is pleased to announce that it received approval from the applicable Bankruptcy Court for a sales Order approving the acquisition by its wholly-owned subsidiary of a state-of-the-art CLT manufacturing facility located at Spokane, Washington (the “Facility”) for a price of $50 million, subject to customary adjustments. The closing of the sale is scheduled to occur shortly. The Facility is located on 54 acres of land near Spokane and has an area of about 270,000 square feet; is equipped with state-of-the-art extensive automation technologies including one of the largest CLT presses in the world; has capacity of approximately: (a) 13 million sq. ft. of 5-ply panels annually or 140,000 cubic meters of annual production based on 5-day operations ; and (b) represents about 30% of the current North American mass timber manufacturing capacity.

Ahlstrom-Munksjö is investing in new technology and converting its existing boilers at its Mosinee and Rhinelander plants in Wisconsin, United States, to reduce its carbon emissions and landfill waste. These investments at the Mosinee production plant will enable a reduction in its carbon footprint by an estimated 20%, and a reduction of landfill waste by more than 10%. The project is estimated to be completed at the end of the second quarter in 2023. In addition, the Rhinelander production plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 14% and landfill waste by more than 50%. A new energy center and associated buildings at Rhinelander will consolidate and simplify energy operations, enabling the plant to house a future boiler and a heat recovery steam generator. The project will commence immediately and is estimated to be completed in the third quarter of 2023.  

• First quarter 2018 net income of $24 million and EBITDA of $86 million • Diluted earnings per share of $0.38; 153 percent increase from prior year • Pulp contributed significant EBITDA; Forest Products delivered solid profitability despite duties on U.S. sales; High Purity Cellulose impacted by production issues in two facilities and a spike in energy costs • Integration of Tembec progressing as planned with significant contributions to first quarter profitability • $7 million of transformation and synergy savings achieved; on track to meet 2018 target of $40 million. Click Read More below for additional information.