Commercial fire at Longview paper mill expected to continue throughout Wednesday (tdn.com)

Smurfit Kappa has announced the opening of a new International Safe Transfer Association (ISTA) certified lab at its new eCommerce packaging facility in Northampton, UK. This brings with it an expansion of Smurfit Kappa’s network of packaging testing labs and centres that support retailers and producers to develop, test and launch disruptive packaging solutions for eCommerce at minimal risk and with reliable implementation. ISTA certification is often required by online selling platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba or eBay. From its ISTA lab in the Netherlands, Smurfit Kappa has over 14 years of experience and data from testing new and innovative packaging solutions to ensure they are fit for purpose and meet the challenges of the eCommerce supply chain. Most recently, Smurfit Kappa was the first to secure Amazon’s ‘Frustration-Free Packaging’ pre-certification for a three litre Bag-in-Box solution. All this expertise is now also extended into the UK market.

BillerudKorsnäs has been awarded the Climate Prize as part of the supplier engagement initiative “Join us in protecting the planet”, driven by Tetra Pak. The company, which is one of BillerudKorsnäs’ most important customers, launched this initiative last year to create a movement aimed to accelerate sustainability actions across its value chain. “We commit to making safe food available, everywhere. And we promise to do that in a way that protects what’s good: protecting food, people and the planet. In order to shape the future with secure and sustainable food systems we are decarbonizing the materials we use as well as the production processes, and the key ingredient for success here is collaboration. Our supply partner BillerudKorsnäs has achieved the lowest greenhouse gas emissions for the products provided to us and has submitted the most ambitious climate action plan, that is approved by the Science Based Targets initiative in line with a 1.5°C pathway. By doing this, they are one step ahead and this award recognises that they are leading by example in fighting climate change,” says Lars Holmquist, Executive Vice President for Sustainability & Communications at Tetra Pak.

*Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") from ongoing operations for Aluminum Extrusions was $5.1 million in the third quarter of 2023 versus $12.1 million in the third quarter of last year due to sluggish market conditions. EBITDA from ongoing operations during the last four quarters has been weak, in a range of $5.1 million to $14.6 million. -Sales volume of 32.5 million pounds in the third quarter of 2023 declined significantly versus 45.5 million pounds in the third quarter of last year. -Open orders at the end of the third quarter of 2023 were approximately 17 million pounds (versus 20 million pounds at the end of the second quarter of 2023), which is below the quarterly range of 21 to 27 million pounds in 2019 before pandemic-related disruptions that resulted in excessive open orders, which peaked in the first quarter of 2022 at approximately 100 million pounds. *EBITDA from ongoing operations for PE Films was $4.0 million in the third quarter of 2023 versus $0.4 million in the third quarter of 2022. EBITDA from ongoing operations during the last four quarters has been low with a range of negative $2.6 million to positive $4.0 million. *EBITDA from ongoing operations for Flexible Packaging Films (also referred to as "Terphane") was $0.5 million during the third quarter of 2023 versus $7.8 million in the third quarter of 2022 primarily due to lower sales volume and lower margins that the Company believes were driven by customer inventory corrections earlier in the year and now are being driven by global excess capacity and competition in Brazil from imports. See the Status of Current Corporate Strategic Initiatives section of this report for information on the sale of Terphane.