Meet the new Crown Van Gelder

Kruger Products officially inaugurated its Sherbrooke Tissue Plant, which was commissioned in 2021, and also broke ground at its expansion project where another tissue plant will be built on a site adjacent to the Sherbrooke Plant by 2024. This second project, which represents further investments of $351.5 million, will deliver on the Company’s vision to make Sherbrooke a major premium-quality tissue product manufacturing hub in North America, featuring Canada’s most advanced and best-performing TAD tissue machine. In total, the Company will have invested nearly $1 billion in the Estrie Region since 2018. The Sherbrooke Plant’s inauguration and the ground breaking of the expansion project took place in the presence of Mr. Joseph Kruger II, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Kruger Inc.; François Legault, Premier of Québec; Pierre Fitzgibbon, Québec Minister of Economy and Innovation; Geneviève Hébert, Member for Saint-François and Deputy Government Whip; Évelyne Beaudin, Mayor of Sherbrooke; Dino Bianco, Chief Executive Officer, Kruger Products L.P.; and Patrice Bégin, General Manager, Kruger Products Sherbrooke Plant.

Five years ago this week, many in the Strait of Canso area breathed a collective sigh of relief when its largest single employer restarted production after a yearlong shutdown. The reopening of what is now Port Hawkesbury Paper came after a year of legal wrangling and negotiations with the various groups that have a stake in the future of the mill, formerly NewPage Port Hawkesbury, which had shut down when its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States. It’s a very different company than when it shut down in September 2011. Only one of the mill’s two paper machines — the newer supercalendered machine that produces paper for the magazine and catalogue market — went back into production, cutting the number of employees by about half to around 300. Click Read More below for more of the story.

Total European shipments of graphic papers in April 2022 were down 14.8% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were down 8.8%. Total European shipments of newsprint in April 2022 were down 10.5% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were down 5.4%. Total European shipments of sc-magazine in April 2022 were down 16.5% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were down 9.6%. Total European shipments of coated mechanical reels in April 2022 were down 27.6% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were down 18.8%. Total European shipments of uncoated mechanical (improved & others) in April 2022 were down 14.1% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were down 10.0%. Total European shipments of coated woodfree in April 2022 were down 1.6% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were UP 2.4%. Total European shipments of uncoated woodfree in April 2022 were down 17.3% vs. April 2021 and year-to-date shipments were down 11.5%.