UPDATE: Verso mill fire blamed on lightning strike (wausaupilotandreview.com)

Verso Corporation announced plans to upgrade the shuttered pulp line and No. 3 paper machine at its Androscoggin Mill in Jay, Maine, enabling this equipment to restart for the manufacture of packaging products. The paper machine and associated pulping capacity were temporarily idled in January 2017 and shut down in July 2017 as a result of declining demand for the graphic paper products formerly produced on the machine. With an anticipated completion date in the third quarter of this year, this project will help Verso continue to diversify its product mix into growing market segments and is expected to create approximately 120 full-time jobs at the mill and additional jobs throughout the Maine forest products supply chain. The estimated total capital cost of the project is $17 million, $4 million of which will come from a Maine Technology Asset Fund 2.0 challenge grant administered by the Maine Technology Institute. Funds from the grant will be become available as certain milestones in the project are reached. Click Read More below for additional information.

Zhao Lei, President, Wuzhou Special Paper, says: “In collaboration with ANDRITZ, we have set a world record by achieving a capacity of 1,500 admt/d using just one HC refiner in our new production line. With this cutting-edge system, we will be self-sufficient in pulp production, guaranteeing top-quality products without having to rely on outsourcing.” Zhang Yancheng, Vice General Manager, Wuzhou Special Paper, adds: “ANDRITZ's proven technology, coupled with its team of domestic and international experts, has greatly supported our production line start-up. We're very satisfied with the high fiber quality and the low energy consumption.” The new system produces pulp for premium folding boxboard using eucalyptus and acacia chips as raw material. The patented state-of-the-art P-RC APMP (Pre-conditioning Refiner Chemical Alkaline Peroxide Mechanical Pulp) process ensures optimum pulp quality at minimum operating cost and lowest environmental impact.

*Operating profit for January–March was SEK 653 million (January–March 2017: SEK 627 million). Operating profit includes a forest property sale of SEK 70 million. Prices for paper and wood products increased, wheras costs for wood and other input goods rose. *Compared with the fourth quarter of 2017, profit was SEK 232 million higher, mainly as a result of income from the forest property sale and due to that fourth-quarter earnings were affected by a maintenance shutdown. *Profit after tax for January–March amounted to SEK 507 million (485), which corresponds to earnings per share of SEK 6.0 (5.8). Click Read More below for additional information.