Volume 1, Number 2
Jul 1994

Company News

Cross Pointe Paper Corp. has opened its Dayton paper mill, which has been closed since October 1993. It will produce 50,000 tons of printing and writing papers a year. This mill converted to alkaline in 1992.

Fisher International, Inc., which provides comprehensive information to suppliers of the paper industry, is expanding its database to include pulp and paper mills in Mexico. It recently moved to larger quarters: 50 Water Street, South Norwalk, CT 06854 (203/854-5390).

The Bronx Community Paper Co. is a joint project of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a local community development association, the S.D. Warren Company and MoDo Paper Company of Sweden. They want to build a recycling mill in the South Bronx to produce high quality 100% recycled chlorine-free pulp from office waste paper. The idea originated with Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a NRDC senior scientist; S.D. Warren is funding the development phase. The idea is not to find a use for the South Bronx, but to promote environmentalism directly, through manufacturing recycled paper.

Another recycling facility, Patriot Paper Corp., had the same idea in 1990. It was located in the middle of the "urban forest" in Boston. The 200-year-old mill and its 20-year-old deinking system needed extensive upgrading; that and other problems (examined in the September 1993 Pulp & Paper) forced it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1993. It is still shut down. So success in such ventures is not a foregone conclusion; but Patriot was a pioneer, and other recycling mills may find the way easier as a result.

Simpson Paper Company, which makes printing and writing paper at ten mills across the country, has decided to discontinue production of white offset papers. It will continue to produce coated papers, text and cover, high-end commodity grades, and technical and specialty grades. Uncoated commodity grades manufactured at the Shasta Mill in Anderson, California and the San Jacinto Mill in Pasadena, Texas, were dropped begin-ning June 15 of this year. They amounted to nearly 200,000 tons annually. An implementation plan was developed to manage the product shift with the least impact on the customers.

Simpson has not decided to cease manufacturing all uncoated free-sheet papers, as recently stated in a supplier's press release on a related development. Of the 19 Simpson papers listed in the booklet North American Permanent Papers, only one, Simpson Hy-Opaque, is being discontinued.

Some Simpson mills are alkaline, some are acid.

Strathmore's Turners Falls mill received ISO 9002 certification June 7 after nearly two years of effort by staff. Less than two months later, on August 4, Strathmore announced in a letter to vendors that the Turners Falls mill would be closed by the end of the year. Overcapacity in printing papers production was cited as the reason.

This mill, like the old Ward mill, made a variety of colors. One of its machines made alkaline paper most of the time, and the mill was slated for conversion, but this was never completed. Its papers will be transferred to other locations, but none will be transferred to alkaline mills. The acid deep colors from Turners Falls will continue to be acid.

The former Ward Paper Company, in Merrill, Wisconsin, bought by Strathmore in December 1987, will be shut down by October 15, and the company will cease to exist. Only its Brite-Hue papers will continue to be produced. Brite-Hue text, cover and laser/copy bond papers are remarkable because they are a) made in 17 deep colors, b) alkaline, and c) buffered. In fact, they meet the ANSI/NISO standard. Ward was good at making this kind of paper. (Despite the fact that Strathmore announced the mill's closure, papers made at the Merrill mill are listed as Hammermill papers; and if you call the mill, they will answer the phone "International Paper." This is because the chain of ownership sometimes blurs the identity of mills and papers. Ward is owned by Strathmore, which is owned by Hammermill, which is owned by International Paper.)

Scott Paper Company, a major manufacturer of tissue, owns S.D. Warren, the largest producer of coated free-sheet papers in the U.S. Now Scott is restructuring and wants to focus on its personal care and cleaning products, so it plans to divest Warren, which has mills in Muskegon, Michigan; Skowhegan, Maine; Mobile, Alabama; and Westbrook, Maine. Rumored and actual potential purchasers include International Paper, Mead Corp., an S.D. Warren executive, Weyerhaeuser and Union Camp. So far no potential buyer has expressed an interest in buying all four mills. That would be expensive: their combined capacity of coated free-sheet is 1.15 million tons per year, twice that of their nearest competitor, according to the news item in the July Pulp & Paper.