Announcing Ultrahide® Blockout Poster

As part of a settlement entered into by Verso with two Canadian producers of supercalendered papers, Verso today requested that the U.S. Department of Commerce revoke its order imposing duties on supercalendered papers made by those Canadian producers and imported into the U.S. The SC paper tariffs were intended to offset the impact of Canadian subsidies paid to Canadian producers of SC paper in order to help U.S. producers who were injured by the subsidized imports. However, injurious Canadian SC imports continue to enter the United States even with the tariffs, and imports from other non-U.S. SC producers which are not subject to the tariffs have increased. These factors offset the benefits of the tariffs to Verso. If the Department of Commerce grants Verso’s request to revoke the tariffs, it could provide Verso with a meaningful amount of cash over time, which we will evaluate how to use to best benefit our company and make us an even healthier supplier. However, there is no assurance that the Department of Commerce will grant our request to revoke the tariffs or that such funds will be provided to Verso. Be assured that we continue to make supercalendered paper at the Duluth Mill. Verso’s decision to settle the trade case is unrelated to any decisions about potential changes to Verso’s production assets at the Duluth Mill or to the types of products we make there.

CEO comments, Jan Åström: “We achieved strong organic growth of over five percent in the quarter and were able to maintain our operational result despite the accelerated cost inflation in some of our key raw materials. Our performance was once again led by excellent results in the Filtration & Performance, and Industrial Solutions business areas. We will continue to work on our pricing to mitigate the cost pressure and address the challenges in the coated one-sided papers business. The integration work following the merger is gaining momentum as we achieved an annual run rate of about EUR 17 million in synergy benefits by the end of the quarter. We are now fully comfortable that we can exceed the original target of EUR 35 million and estimate that annual synergy benefits of above EUR 40 million can be reached by the second quarter of 2019. Click Read More below for additional information.

Lecta expands its line of Termax thermal products and launches its two new high-quality grades of Termax top-coated thermal paper on the market, Termax TC20X and Termax TC20XB, for a wide variety of self-adhesive labels. The two new grades of paper in this product line are made to be used as adhesive facestock for food and industrial label applications in which there may be adverse conditions such as moisture, grease or solvents. Both products are highly resistant to grease, water, solvents, scratching and plasticizers, and are therefore an excellent solution to these problems. In addition to excellent chemical and environmental resistance, Termax TC20X and TC20XB papers provide high image resolution, good temperature resistance, high sensitivity, and both are phenol-free. The TC20XB also has a protective layer on the back to protect the label when used with more demanding adhesives.