Conciliator interrupts the conciliation between UPM Communication Papers and Paperworkers’ Union, conciliation continues in other UPM businesses

Due to unaffordability of operations in the current energy environment, temporary downtime has been initiated at the Bruck paper mill in Austria. The new boiler scheduled for start-up in April is expected to contribute to alleviate the situation by reducing the mill’s gas consumption and improve its energy supply. The boiler project and the packaging conversion project at the Bruck mill continue as planned. Bruck has delivered newsprint and LWC magazine paper to its customers despite a challenging energy market since the second half of 2021. Although we have secured parts of the mill’s energy supply in March, the energy prices we presently experience make operations at Bruck unsustainable, says Sven Ombudstvedt, President and CEO of Norske Skog. Norske Skog expects underlying EBITDA for the group in the first quarter of 2022 to be approximately in line with the fourth quarter of 2021.

Ned is an industry veteran with more than 30 years in the pulp and paper industry gained in progressively senior roles with global companies. He most recently served as Catalyst’s Chief Operating Officer. Ned is recognized for successfully leading major operational and performance improvements in cost, productivity, efficiency, quality and safety. He has a track record for successful machine start-ups and rebuilds, as well as leading product development for emerging markets. Ned holds a Bachelor of Science (Paper Science and Engineering) from the State University of New York and Syracuse University.

Paper Excellence Canada today announced it has once again been voted one of Canada’s 2022 Best 50 corporate citizens by Corporate Knights. Paper Excellence Canada is a diversified manufacturer of pulp and paper, including printing and writing, packaging, and specialty papers. The Best 50 award is judged using key performance indicators that relate to the organization’s raw resource use, emissions profile, social performance, safety performance, and percentage of revenue from clean sources. “We continue to be proud of our long association with Corporate Knights and their Best 50 program. Our sustainability report, Forward Focused: 2022 Sustainability Report, was just published last week and I encourage anyone interested in Paper Excellence Canada to read it,” said Graham Kissack, Vice President, Environment, Health & Safety and Corporate Communications.