Canfor Announces Permanent Closure of Polar Sawmill and Suspension of Planned Reinvestment in Houston, BC

In the Packaging segment, total corrugated products shipments with one less workday were up 6.0% and shipments per day were up 7.7% over last year’s first quarter. Containerboard production was 953,000 tons, and containerboard inventory was down 23,000 tons from the fourth quarter of 2017 and up 31,000 tons compared to the first quarter of 2017, primarily due to the addition of recently acquired Sacramento Container. In the Paper segment, office paper and printing and converting paper sales volumes were up 33,000 tons compared to the first quarter of 2017, and production volume was up 10,000 tons primarily due to no scheduled maintenance outages in the first quarter of 2018. Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM has signed an agreement on the sale of the recovered paper sorting plant ASK Kinsau in Germany to the Fisel Holding GmbH & Co. KG, a recovered logistics and municipal waste disposal company. The sale and purchase agreement includes the site and buildings. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. All employees of ASK Kinsau will be transferred to the new owner. “We are pleased, having found a long-term oriented and innovative buyer for the Kinsau site. The Fisel Group has a high level of expertise in handling recovered paper. As an integral part of this recycling company the sorting facilities could be better developed and optimized,” says Marco Kulterer, responsible for RCP Supply Chain & Operations at UPM Sourcing.

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.