Resolute Forest Products Announces Newsprint Price Increase

The American government is imposing more anti-dumping duties on Canadian newsprint. The U.S. Department of Commerce says a preliminary investigation has found Canadian exporters underpriced uncoated groundwood paper by between 0 and 22.16 per cent. Uncoated groundwood paper includes newsprint, as well as paper for book publishing, printing and writing. The department says it calculated a dumping rate of 22.16 per cent for Catalyst Paper Corp. of British Columbia. It says Resolute Forest Products and White Birch were both found to have dumping rates of 0 per cent. Click Read More below for additional information.

Georgia‐Pacific announced it will build a new softwood lumber production facility in Warren County, Georgia. Construction of the $135 million, 340,000‐square foot, technologically advanced plant is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2018 with an anticipated startup in spring 2019. Georgia‐Pacific’s existing lumber plant in Warren County will continue full operations until the new facility is completed. After startup of the new plant, Georgia‐Pacific estimates hiring an additional 30 to 40 employees, bringing its workforce in Warren County to approximately 150 people. “We have enough property next to our existing mill in Warren County to build a larger facility equipped with the latest in lumber manufacturing technology,” said Fritz Mason, vice president and general manager, Georgia‐Pacific Lumber. “We have a great team at Warrenton and building a new state‐of‐the‐art facility on this site will make it competitive for years to come. The team has earned it.” The new facility will be capable of over three times the output of the current facility. The existing facility has been operating since the early 1970s and technology in the lumber production business has changed significantly since that time. Click Read More below for additional information.

The packaging and speciality papers segment reached another record level of profitability despite flat year-on-year sales volumes, which were constrained by available capacity and low inventory levels in North America and South Africa. Demand remained robust and further selling price increases lifted margins for the segment. Graphic paper sales volumes were 4% higher than the prior year. The segment benefited from tight market conditions which supported selling price increases and drove margin growth. These favourable market conditions enabled all assets to run at full operating rates during the quarter. A substantial improvement in profitability of the European business was a result of favourable market conditions, which facilitated selling price increases in the paper segments and enabled the region to offset higher costs across all input categories. Profitability of the North American business continued its upwards trajectory with the region recording yet another record quarterly EBITDA of US$118 million.