Canfor Pulp Announces Leadership Transition

Paper Excellence is pleased to have received $4.5 million from the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program. This funding will help support an important transformation project taking place at our Catalyst Port Alberni mill. The $4.5 million will be invested at Catalyst Port Alberni to expand the mill’s production capacity for food packaging papers. Traditionally, this mill produced printing and writing grades; however, demand for these products has been in steady decline. Transitioning to food grade papers means meeting growing market demand, providing sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic serving containers, and advancing BC’s circular economy. The new grades will be produced using unique pulping capabilities developed at the Catalyst Port Alberni mill that net a higher yield in fiber use. As a result, the mill will be able to increase the amount of food packaging materials it produces but will use less residual wood fibre to do so.

Conciliator Leo Suomaa has submitted a proposal for a settlement in the collective labour agreement negotiations between UPM Pulp and the Paperworkers’ Union. The conciliator has asked the parties to state their position on the proposal by 14 April 2022 at 10:00 EET. In the meanwhile, the conciliator will continue the conciliation with the Union and with UPM’s other businesses. Paperworkers’ Union has now also agreed that all business can run the negotiations parallel instead of having them one by one. "I am pleased that the negotiations have reached a point where the conciliator has seen it possible to submit a proposal for a settlement. I am hopeful that the agreement will be reached, and I hope we get to start the mills as soon as possible," says Juha Kääriäinen, Vice President, Finland Pulp Operations at UPM Pulp, the chief negotiator for UPM Pulp.

Phoenix Paper is pleased to announce the launch of their new product line, Phoenix Inkjet. Fall of 2022, Phoenix Paper entered the Inkjet paper market, offering Phoenix Premier™, a treated inkjet sheet, and Phoenix Preferred™, an untreated inkjet sheet to Commercial Inkjet Printers. Phoenix Paper completed the launch of their Inkjet line in March of 2023 with their 7pt. and 9pt. treated Phoenix Premier™ Grades. Field trials were conducted on each Phoenix Inkjet grade at OEMs and commercial ink jet locations to ensure the products met the paper applications required by end users. Phoenix Paper Field Tech Representatives were involved in the quality trials at major OEMs and the paper scored high in all categories.