Finch Paper Announces Price Increase on UFR Products

Our Kingsport Mill was named the 2024 Business Recycler of the Year by the Tennessee Recycling Coalition (TRC) during the organization’s annual Tennessee Sustainability Conference. The award is given annually to businesses that practice outstanding leadership in recycling and waste prevention. The Kingsport Mill award recognizes Project Smoky — the conversion of the facility’s uncoated freesheet paper machine into the company’s first 100-percent recycled containerboard facility. The mill, which resumed operations in January 2023, is home to the second-largest recycled containerboard machine in North America and is the largest recycled manufacturer in the state of Tennessee. Kingsport Mill now produces approximately 600,000 tons of high-quality recycled linerboard and corrugated medium every year.

The new disc filter is perfectly suited to all system applications for many different pulp types and leads the way for upgraded performance and reliability in fiber processing. The PrimeFilter D builds on ANDRITZ disc filter technology, which has been well proven over decades, and brings together several key technological innovations in one unit to improve throughput and reduce both investment and operating costs: *HHw technology for advanced feeding and optimum flow conditions within the filter. Thus, the PrimeFilter D can handle higher feed consistencies and higher-freeness pulp, even in the most demanding applications. *CC bagless sectors, offering significant improvements in terms of operation thanks to very homogeneous fiber mat build-up as well as fast mat knock-off. The special design of the sectors eliminates the need for a filter bag and reduces maintenance to almost zero. *Two-level shaft sealing: The innovative, double sealing arrangement is easily accessible and ensures greater reliability and superior filtrate quality.

UPM continues to aim for business-specific collective bargaining with the Paperworkers’ Union but has also begun preparations for arranging working conditions temporarily without a collective labour agreement until agreements with the union are signed. During this week UPM communicates the temporary terms of work to employees of businesses where the contractual party is the Paperworkers’ Union. The current collective agreements between the Paperworkers’ Union and The Finnish Forest Industries Federation will end on 31 December 2021. After termination, the current agreement has no binding effect as the parties of the agreement change. The time for negotiation is running out, so UPM must prepare for a situation where no agreement is in place. “To ensure business continuity and payroll, we will prepare to arrange working conditions after the turn of the year according to labour law, UPM practices and personal employment contracts. With business-specific collective bargaining, we can offer better terms for everyone than without an agreement. Entering the negotiations with the Paperworkers’ Union is still our goal”, says Executive Vice President Riitta Savonlahti of UPM Human Resources.