SCA to increase kraftliner prices by € 50 per tonne

DS Smith, the leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions, today announced an ambitious upgrade program to its kraft paper mill in Viana, Portugal. A multiyear €145M package of investments will bring some of the most up to date paper-making machinery to Viana, rebuilding the mills paper machine and reducing CO2 emissions. Marking the company’s commitment to both growth and the circular economy in Portugal, the investment package will include the rebuild of the existing paper machine and a brand-new state of the art recovery boiler which will be one of the most modern in Europe. The boiler will improve environmental performance by enhancing steam efficiency at the mill by 25%, with steam from the boiler being recycled back into the mill. The start-up of the new boiler, provided by market leader Valmet, is expected to be in early 2025.

Total Packaging Papers shipments were 222,200 tons, 3.4% lower than September 2016. Bag & Sack shipments were up 3.8% year-to-date, while Food Wrapping shipments were down 7.8% over the same period. The operating rate for September 2017 was 87.9%, while the year-to-date rate was 88.7%. Inventories were 168,300 tons, down slightly since August.

Sonoco announced it is implementing a $50 per ton price increase for all grades of uncoated recycled paperboard (URB) in the United States and Canada, effective with shipments beginning February 19, 2018. A positive of the robust economy is solid backlogs at our mills. A challenge that the growing economy presents is inflating input costs such as we are seeing in freight, energy and a host of other paper-making consumables. Sonoco must seek to recover these inflating costs in the market,” said Palace Stepps, division vice president of sales and marketing for Sonoco’s U.S. and Canada paper and adhesives.