Sylvamo, International Paper Terminate Georgetown Supply Agreement

The suspense is not completely over for Appleton Coated and its 620 employees. The struggling paper mill's sale to Industrial Assets Corp., a used machinery dealer based in Los Angeles, progressed in a six-hour marathon hearing Monday before Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Gill. "I'm not going to take any action," Gill said late Monday. "We have definitive things in place but we're not at the finish line." Lawyers have a maximum of five days to hash out the details of a hybrid agreement that states Industrial Assets will pay $20 million for Appleton Coated and at the same time market the mill as an ongoing operation for 45 days. Mark Freedlander, an attorney for Industrial Assets, said "we have reached an agreement and we are responsible for marketing the entity as a going concern." Click Read More below for additional detail.

Flambeau River Paper announced the shutdown of its #3 paper machine to be effective immediately. #3 paper machine primarily produces commodity white papers and has been impacted by the ongoing and unprecedented rise in pulp costs coupled with an in-elasticity of commodity paper price. Flambeau River Papers’ #1 and #2 paper machines along with the Flambeau pulp mill, woodyard and utilities will continue to operate uninterrupted on a 24 hour, 7 day a week schedule. It is important to point out that PM 1 and PM 2 produce primarily specialty and value-added papers. The size and capabilities of these two paper machines, along with integrated nature of the mill, make them competitive and well suited for continued success in these markets. Over the last five years the mill has worked hard and qualified propriety specialty papers on these machines. Also manufactured on PM 1 and PM 2 are Flambeau’s other value-added papers such as Torchglow and Glacier Opaque branded papers, custom FDA compliant papers, fluorescent colored papers, wet-strength papers, saturating base stocks, deeply colored papers, watercolor papers, book papers, endleaf papers, lightweight offset papers, converting and drawing stocks. Paper grades historically produced on PM 3 such as Offset Papers and Laser Bond papers will not be part of the productive capacity of FRP as we proceed forward. We will work in concert with you and communicate the status of pending orders and shipments.

Effective with deliveries on or after July 1, 2018, UPM is increasing the transaction price of all Coated Groundwood and Coated Freesheet Web grades. The transaction price of Coated Groundwood Grades will increase $2.00/cwt, including all basis weights and finishes of Cote; Ultra; Valor; Star. The transaction price of Coated Freesheet Web will increase $2.00/cwt ($40/st), including all basis weights and finishes of Finesse.