Clearwater Paper Suspended Arkansas Operations Due to Severe Weather Conditions

Stora Enso has completed the union negotiations regarding the closure of pulp and paper production at Kvarnsveden. A total of 340 people will be permanently laid off. Some 25% of the redundancies can be managed through pension arrangements, and 100 people have already found new jobs within Stora Enso or with an external employer. The redundancies will mostly take effect in November. In April 2021, Stora Enso announced a plan to permanently close down pulp and paper production at its Kvarnsveden site due to the declining paper market. As a result of the co-determination negotiations regarding the Kvarnsveden site, pulp and paper production will be closed permanently from 30 September 2021. The customer service centre at Kvarnsveden will be closed by 31 December 2021. The power plant will continue to operate, but only for the purpose of district heating and for maintaining the buildings onsite. When the co-determination plan was announced in April, the maximum personnel impact was estimated to be 440 people. As a result of the negotiations, 340 people will be permanently laid off. Some 25% of the redundancies can be managed through pension arrangements, and 100 people have already found new jobs within Stora Enso or with an external employer.

Stora Enso has signed an agreement to divest its Sachsen Mill located in Eilenburg, Germany, to the Swiss-based family-owned company Model Group. Sachsen Mill has an annual production capacity of 310 000 tonnes of newsprint specialty paper based on recycled paper. Under the agreement, Model Group will own and operate Sachsen Mill after the transaction is closed. Stora Enso will continue to sell and distribute Sachsen’s paper products under a contract manufacturing agreement for a period of 18 months after the closing. After that period, Model will convert the mill to the production of containerboard. All 230 employees at Sachsen Mill will move to Model Group with the transaction. “We believe Model will be a good owner to ensure long-term development of the Sachsen Mill. We will continue to serve our customers with high quality paper products from Sachsen Mill at least until the end of 2022,” said Kati ter Horst, EVP, Stora Enso’s Paper division.

UPM has signed a contract to sell forest estates to Silvestica Green Forest Finland Oy. The contract covers 6,877 hectares of forestry land located in Kajaani, Sonkajärvi and Sotkamo in Finland. In addition, the parties have signed a separate long-term wood purchase and forest management agreement. Silvestica Green Forest Finland Oy is committed to certify the estates according to FSC® and to join the UPM managed FSC group certificate (FSC C 109750). For the time being the estates are PEFCTM certified. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Silvestica Green Forest Finland Oy is owned by a Swedish company Silvestica Green Forest AB, which is an investment fund for institutional investors founded in spring 2017 by SEB, the leading Nordic financial services group. Silvestica owned companies will invest in forest estates in Sweden, Finland and the Baltic countries. The forests will be managed by CRK Forest Management AB with CEO Rickard Lehmann in charge of forest activities and reporting to investors. Click Read More below for additional detail.