EPA Requires Air Compliance for Old Town, Maine Facility - Clears Way for Possible Ethanol Production
Release date: 05/30/2007
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017
(Boston, Mass. – May 30, 2007) – EPA is taking enforcement action through an administrative order that will require Red Shield Environmental to come into compliance with federal and State air emission limits after restarting pulping operations at a former pulp and paper mill in Old Town, Maine. The order also regulates Red Shield’s efforts to extract ethanol from wood cellulose. As the facility resumes production, EPA is requiring extensive monitoring of air emissions resulting from the pulp operations.
Because the plant has been closed since March 2006, it is unclear what measures and types of control equipment will be necessary to operate in compliance with air emission limits. If necessary, Red Shield will install state of the art pollution control equipment. EPA and the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will provide robust oversight to ensure that public health and environmental quality are not jeopardized while the plant proceeds with emission testing and installing any necessary controls.
Red Shield is planning to produce pulp (but not paper) at the Old Town mill. Additionally, Red Shield will be installing a new organic chemical manufacturing process to produce acetic acid and ethanol from wood cellulose, a priority of the President’s 2007 Energy Plan. Restarting the Old Town mill could create 400 jobs in an economically depressed part of the state.
Maine’s government actively supports innovative technologies to produce an alternative fuel source – ethanol. In 2006, the University of Maine received a $6 million grant from National Science Foundation to explore methods of extracting ethanol from wood cellulose. Red Shield will be installing an experimental ethanol production process developed with assistance from the University of Maine using material from the pulping process. This innovative technology is projected to reduce air emissions of methanol and "total reduced sulfur" at the mill and it is possible that the facility will be able to comply with federal and state air quality requirements without additional controls.
EPA's administrative order requires Red Shield to reach compliance with air emission requirements within 12 months at the latest, and to use best practices to minimize emissions during the interim period. After 12 months EPA will evaluate whether penalties or other actions are appropriate to address noncompliance and any excess emissions.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Defining China's Economy
Defining China's Economy
May 29, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB118039752696916628-lMyQjAxMDE3ODIwOTMyOTk3Wj.html
Since the U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary duties on Chinese paper imports in March, it's had a troubling question on its hands: What is China today, a market economy, or a nonmarket economy?
For over two decades, U.S. law has considered China a "nonmarket" economy. That makes sense to us, given that credit on the mainland is still largely doled out by state-owned banks, with little nod to market forces. The Party may have welcomed the creation of private companies -- and there are many -- but its grip on the levers of power remains firm.
The paper case, however, implied that Commerce thought Chinese companies, in some cases, can be evaluated as operating in a market economy. That put the Department in an awkward spot. For antidumping cases, when a U.S. firm alleges that a Chinese firm is selling at "below market" costs in the U.S., Commerce uses "surrogate" prices to estimate the Chinese company's costs. But in the case of countervailing duties, Commerce is now saying it can use Chinese prices -- implying the mainland is a market economy.
Now, Commerce is trying to mop up this mess. Last week, the Department filed a notice asking for advice on whether it "might grant market-economy treatment to individual Chinese respondents, and, if so, how this might affect our antidumping duty calculations for such enterprises."
If Commerce decides that some China firms aren't subject to surrogate price analysis, that could reduce the sting of some antidumping cases. But the fact remains that the paper case opened up a whole new world of protectionist filings, anyway, in the form of countervailing duties.
It's conceivable that Commerce could, someday, hit Chinese companies with both duties and dumping charges, a form of doublecounting. No matter how Commerce defines China, it's protectionism that's defining Washington these days.
May 29, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB118039752696916628-lMyQjAxMDE3ODIwOTMyOTk3Wj.html
Since the U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary duties on Chinese paper imports in March, it's had a troubling question on its hands: What is China today, a market economy, or a nonmarket economy?
For over two decades, U.S. law has considered China a "nonmarket" economy. That makes sense to us, given that credit on the mainland is still largely doled out by state-owned banks, with little nod to market forces. The Party may have welcomed the creation of private companies -- and there are many -- but its grip on the levers of power remains firm.
The paper case, however, implied that Commerce thought Chinese companies, in some cases, can be evaluated as operating in a market economy. That put the Department in an awkward spot. For antidumping cases, when a U.S. firm alleges that a Chinese firm is selling at "below market" costs in the U.S., Commerce uses "surrogate" prices to estimate the Chinese company's costs. But in the case of countervailing duties, Commerce is now saying it can use Chinese prices -- implying the mainland is a market economy.
Now, Commerce is trying to mop up this mess. Last week, the Department filed a notice asking for advice on whether it "might grant market-economy treatment to individual Chinese respondents, and, if so, how this might affect our antidumping duty calculations for such enterprises."
If Commerce decides that some China firms aren't subject to surrogate price analysis, that could reduce the sting of some antidumping cases. But the fact remains that the paper case opened up a whole new world of protectionist filings, anyway, in the form of countervailing duties.
It's conceivable that Commerce could, someday, hit Chinese companies with both duties and dumping charges, a form of doublecounting. No matter how Commerce defines China, it's protectionism that's defining Washington these days.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
'bioactive' paper would detect and destroy disease organisms
Canadian-made 'bioactive' paper would detect and destroy disease organisms
Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 | 9:49 PM ET
Canadian Press: SHERYL UBELACKER
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/070523/x052313A.html
TORONTO (CP) - Imagine masks and gowns for hospital workers that could detect and destroy various infectious diseases, or a paper towel that would change colour when it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria like E. coli.
The concept may seem futuristic, but a Canadian research and industry consortium is already working on developing such "bioactive paper" products that would home in on dangerous bacteria and viruses, then repel or deactivate them.
The Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network is comprised of researchers at 10 universities across Canada, government agencies and nine business partners that include pulp-and-paper companies.
Working with a five-year, $12-million grant from government and industry, the group hopes to develop a variety of products to decrease the threat from communicable diseases, food-borne illnesses and water contamination, while boosting Canada's forest-products industry.
The paper would be "printed" or embedded with chemicals that would recognize specific pathogens, and possibly other chemicals that would kill them, said Robert Pelton, a professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton and scientific director of Sentinel.
Pelton, one of four Canadian scientists who came up with the bioactive paper idea, said the concept was born out of the SARS epidemic that hammered Toronto in 2003.
TORONTO (CP) - Imagine masks and gowns for hospital workers that could detect and destroy various infectious diseases, or a paper towel that would change colour when it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria like E. coli.
The concept may seem futuristic, but a Canadian research and industry consortium is already working on developing such "bioactive paper" products that would home in on dangerous bacteria and viruses, then repel or deactivate them.
The Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network is comprised of researchers at 10 universities across Canada, government agencies and nine business partners that include pulp-and-paper companies.
Working with a five-year, $12-million grant from government and industry, the group hopes to develop a variety of products to decrease the threat from communicable diseases, food-borne illnesses and water contamination, while boosting Canada's forest-products industry.
The paper would be "printed" or embedded with chemicals that would recognize specific pathogens, and possibly other chemicals that would kill them, said Robert Pelton, a professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton and scientific director of Sentinel.
Pelton, one of four Canadian scientists who came up with the bioactive paper idea, said the concept was born out of the SARS epidemic that hammered Toronto in 2003.
Continue Article
"One could imagine health-care workers wearing disposable gowns and face masks, and it would have been better for them if perhaps these gowns and face masks were able to tell the person when they became contaminated," Pelton said Wednesday from Ottawa after a news conference to announce Sentinel's plans.
"So if you had a face mask that changed colour or gave off a smell when it came into contact with the virus, it would alert the worker that they had a problem."
Other conceptual products include food packaging that would warn grocers and consumers of salmonella or E. coli lurking in meat or produce and "dip sticks" to test for bacteria in drinking water.
"A simple application that intrigued us right from the beginning is the idea of having a very simple water filter that you could use in disaster scenarios after hurricanes and things like that just to filter water on a small scale and purify it," he said.
While systems exist for large-scale water filtration, "what would be different about a bioactive paper filter is that it would give you some indication . . . that the water it was producing was safe to drink."
Such filters could be easily air-lifted into disaster zones to help individuals immediately, whereas larger systems can take many days to arrive, he said.
Pelton predicted that simple products like bacteria-flagging paper towels could be on the market within five years, but he conceded that others - including disease-detecting masks, gowns and gloves - require much more research and would take at least a decade to develop.
Complicating marketing forecasts is the feasibility factor: each product would have to be pathogen-specific, meaning that detection chemicals would have to be identified for each health-threatening bacteria and virus before they could be incorporated into any product.
Dr. Andrew Simor, an infectious disease specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, called the bioactive paper idea intriguing but ambitious.
"The SARS one is more complicated, whereas a dip stick for looking for growth of E. coli or salmonella from water is much more straightforward," he said. "If you're talking about field-testing masks that are impregnated with chemicals, you need to know not only do they work and under what circumstances . . . but also are they safe?"
Such testing would take a long time, said Simor, noting that the team of scientists assembled across the country is impressive but may need expanding to test and validate certain products.
"Even their group, I think, would acknowledge that all of this is still dreaming - but if you don't dream you can't start to address the problems."
Still, bioactive paper could be a dream product for Canada's pulp-and-paper industry, which is under duress because of intense global competition, a high loonie (which hurts exports), high energy costs and a lumber industry depressed by low U.S. housing starts.
"It's too early to say whether this is going to be a huge money-maker, but the Canadian paper industry is going through probably its most challenging time ever," said Peter Ham, vice-president of product development for the pulp group of forestry company Tembec Inc.
"Sentinel is an exciting opportunity, it's one of those things we need to take a look at because of all of these factors that we're facing and needing to look at ways to make different products than the industry has been historically making," said Ham, chairman of Sentinel's board.
"If the Canadian pulp-and-paper industry's really going to survive and thrive in the future, we're going to need to branch out into really different things."
© The Canadian Press, 2007
Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 | 9:49 PM ET
Canadian Press: SHERYL UBELACKER
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/070523/x052313A.html
TORONTO (CP) - Imagine masks and gowns for hospital workers that could detect and destroy various infectious diseases, or a paper towel that would change colour when it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria like E. coli.
The concept may seem futuristic, but a Canadian research and industry consortium is already working on developing such "bioactive paper" products that would home in on dangerous bacteria and viruses, then repel or deactivate them.
The Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network is comprised of researchers at 10 universities across Canada, government agencies and nine business partners that include pulp-and-paper companies.
Working with a five-year, $12-million grant from government and industry, the group hopes to develop a variety of products to decrease the threat from communicable diseases, food-borne illnesses and water contamination, while boosting Canada's forest-products industry.
The paper would be "printed" or embedded with chemicals that would recognize specific pathogens, and possibly other chemicals that would kill them, said Robert Pelton, a professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton and scientific director of Sentinel.
Pelton, one of four Canadian scientists who came up with the bioactive paper idea, said the concept was born out of the SARS epidemic that hammered Toronto in 2003.
TORONTO (CP) - Imagine masks and gowns for hospital workers that could detect and destroy various infectious diseases, or a paper towel that would change colour when it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria like E. coli.
The concept may seem futuristic, but a Canadian research and industry consortium is already working on developing such "bioactive paper" products that would home in on dangerous bacteria and viruses, then repel or deactivate them.
The Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network is comprised of researchers at 10 universities across Canada, government agencies and nine business partners that include pulp-and-paper companies.
Working with a five-year, $12-million grant from government and industry, the group hopes to develop a variety of products to decrease the threat from communicable diseases, food-borne illnesses and water contamination, while boosting Canada's forest-products industry.
The paper would be "printed" or embedded with chemicals that would recognize specific pathogens, and possibly other chemicals that would kill them, said Robert Pelton, a professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton and scientific director of Sentinel.
Pelton, one of four Canadian scientists who came up with the bioactive paper idea, said the concept was born out of the SARS epidemic that hammered Toronto in 2003.
Continue Article
"One could imagine health-care workers wearing disposable gowns and face masks, and it would have been better for them if perhaps these gowns and face masks were able to tell the person when they became contaminated," Pelton said Wednesday from Ottawa after a news conference to announce Sentinel's plans.
"So if you had a face mask that changed colour or gave off a smell when it came into contact with the virus, it would alert the worker that they had a problem."
Other conceptual products include food packaging that would warn grocers and consumers of salmonella or E. coli lurking in meat or produce and "dip sticks" to test for bacteria in drinking water.
"A simple application that intrigued us right from the beginning is the idea of having a very simple water filter that you could use in disaster scenarios after hurricanes and things like that just to filter water on a small scale and purify it," he said.
While systems exist for large-scale water filtration, "what would be different about a bioactive paper filter is that it would give you some indication . . . that the water it was producing was safe to drink."
Such filters could be easily air-lifted into disaster zones to help individuals immediately, whereas larger systems can take many days to arrive, he said.
Pelton predicted that simple products like bacteria-flagging paper towels could be on the market within five years, but he conceded that others - including disease-detecting masks, gowns and gloves - require much more research and would take at least a decade to develop.
Complicating marketing forecasts is the feasibility factor: each product would have to be pathogen-specific, meaning that detection chemicals would have to be identified for each health-threatening bacteria and virus before they could be incorporated into any product.
Dr. Andrew Simor, an infectious disease specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, called the bioactive paper idea intriguing but ambitious.
"The SARS one is more complicated, whereas a dip stick for looking for growth of E. coli or salmonella from water is much more straightforward," he said. "If you're talking about field-testing masks that are impregnated with chemicals, you need to know not only do they work and under what circumstances . . . but also are they safe?"
Such testing would take a long time, said Simor, noting that the team of scientists assembled across the country is impressive but may need expanding to test and validate certain products.
"Even their group, I think, would acknowledge that all of this is still dreaming - but if you don't dream you can't start to address the problems."
Still, bioactive paper could be a dream product for Canada's pulp-and-paper industry, which is under duress because of intense global competition, a high loonie (which hurts exports), high energy costs and a lumber industry depressed by low U.S. housing starts.
"It's too early to say whether this is going to be a huge money-maker, but the Canadian paper industry is going through probably its most challenging time ever," said Peter Ham, vice-president of product development for the pulp group of forestry company Tembec Inc.
"Sentinel is an exciting opportunity, it's one of those things we need to take a look at because of all of these factors that we're facing and needing to look at ways to make different products than the industry has been historically making," said Ham, chairman of Sentinel's board.
"If the Canadian pulp-and-paper industry's really going to survive and thrive in the future, we're going to need to branch out into really different things."
© The Canadian Press, 2007
Paper industry targeted over environment impact
Paper industry targeted over environment impact
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1934061.htm
Reporter: Timothy McDonald
ELIZABETH JACKSON: To make paper, manufacturers often need to cut down trees, pulp the wood, and then bleach what's left.
A new report from Access Economics says making a humble sheet of A4 paper has significant environmental consequences.
The paper industry concedes that there are environmental costs, but says the industry is a relatively clean one.
Timothy McDonald reports.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Computers have so far failed to make the workplace paperless.
In fact, Australia consumes well in excess of one and a half million tonnes of office paper each year.
The Director of Access Economics Steve Brown says making all that clean white paper can be a dirty business.
STEVE BROWN: Paper manufacturing has got a number of dimensions to its process where it can inflict some damage on the environment, whether its through the sourcing of pulp or the emissions of greenhouse gases or other effluents into river systems.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Manufacturer Double-A paper commissioned Access Economics to write a report on the environmental costs of making paper.
It found that paper from the developing world usually has the biggest environmental cost.
Australian companies do better, but they often leave a bigger carbon footprint than European manufacturers, because they're more reliant on fossil fuels.
Even recycled paper incurs environmental costs, because it needs to undergo a bleaching process and it requires considerable energy to produce.
Steve Brown says it's up to the government to do something about those costs, through regulations that would see them included in the consumer price.
STEVE BROWN: If all the environmental costs were taken into account then the price of paper would actually go up between four and 39 cents a ream, depending on where you got your paper from.
One of the issues with environmental costs is that they're not often factored into the end price.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: The Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council says the environmental impact of paper is tiny when compared to other industries.
The Manager of Pulp and Paper Miles Prosser says Australian manufacturers are well regulated, and environmentally conscious.
MILES PROSSER: It's a renewable resource, plantations are grown for the purpose of paper and they're grown and re-grown. In Australia we have very high rates of paper recycling, more than 50 per cent of the fibre we use to make paper in Australia is recycled.
And any of the industries or paper mills that are manufacturing paper are very tightly controlled in terms of what can happen.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Environment groups say one way to reduce the impact is to consume less.
John Dee runs Planet Ark, an organisation that encourages practical steps to reduce environmental impacts.
He says that the paperless office isn't common yet, but he's now gone paperless, and he's spoken to many corporations who've done the same.
He says most companies do it because it reduces costs, but there are also environmental benefits.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Timothy McDonald with that report.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2007/s1934061.htm
Reporter: Timothy McDonald
ELIZABETH JACKSON: To make paper, manufacturers often need to cut down trees, pulp the wood, and then bleach what's left.
A new report from Access Economics says making a humble sheet of A4 paper has significant environmental consequences.
The paper industry concedes that there are environmental costs, but says the industry is a relatively clean one.
Timothy McDonald reports.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Computers have so far failed to make the workplace paperless.
In fact, Australia consumes well in excess of one and a half million tonnes of office paper each year.
The Director of Access Economics Steve Brown says making all that clean white paper can be a dirty business.
STEVE BROWN: Paper manufacturing has got a number of dimensions to its process where it can inflict some damage on the environment, whether its through the sourcing of pulp or the emissions of greenhouse gases or other effluents into river systems.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Manufacturer Double-A paper commissioned Access Economics to write a report on the environmental costs of making paper.
It found that paper from the developing world usually has the biggest environmental cost.
Australian companies do better, but they often leave a bigger carbon footprint than European manufacturers, because they're more reliant on fossil fuels.
Even recycled paper incurs environmental costs, because it needs to undergo a bleaching process and it requires considerable energy to produce.
Steve Brown says it's up to the government to do something about those costs, through regulations that would see them included in the consumer price.
STEVE BROWN: If all the environmental costs were taken into account then the price of paper would actually go up between four and 39 cents a ream, depending on where you got your paper from.
One of the issues with environmental costs is that they're not often factored into the end price.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: The Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council says the environmental impact of paper is tiny when compared to other industries.
The Manager of Pulp and Paper Miles Prosser says Australian manufacturers are well regulated, and environmentally conscious.
MILES PROSSER: It's a renewable resource, plantations are grown for the purpose of paper and they're grown and re-grown. In Australia we have very high rates of paper recycling, more than 50 per cent of the fibre we use to make paper in Australia is recycled.
And any of the industries or paper mills that are manufacturing paper are very tightly controlled in terms of what can happen.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Environment groups say one way to reduce the impact is to consume less.
John Dee runs Planet Ark, an organisation that encourages practical steps to reduce environmental impacts.
He says that the paperless office isn't common yet, but he's now gone paperless, and he's spoken to many corporations who've done the same.
He says most companies do it because it reduces costs, but there are also environmental benefits.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Timothy McDonald with that report.
Friday, May 25, 2007
NAPM warns of further paper price hikes in '07
NAPM warns of further paper price hikes in '07
Helen Morris, PrintWeek, 24 May 2007
National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) chairman Ian George has forecast further paper price increases for fine paper during 2007.
George said that papermakers and merchants must improve their bottom-line figures in order to invest in the future.
His comments follow a series of paper price rises over the past year, most recently a significant hike in March.
George said: “Further increases for 2007 cannot be ruled out as the inevitable consequences of the challenging manufacturing environment paper suppliers are operating in globally, combined with resulting
consolidation and closure of UK and European mills.
“Merchants will have little to no control over these further increases predicted for the papermaking industry.”
George acknowledged that the news would not be welcomed by many printers that are struggling to maintain any profit margin and are facing customers who continue to resist prices increases.
“There would appear to be little alternative if the paper industry is to survive, as few would argue that
current levels of profitability are not sufficient to sustain any real long-term investment,” he said.
The fundamental problem, George said, lay in the in-balance of supply and demand in Europe, combined with increasing costs.
He said that since 2000, the four largest European manufacturers of fine paper, UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, M-real and Sappi, had suffered significant falls in profit levels.
However, some 2.5m tonnes of capacity have been removed from the European paper market in the past 18 months. Eight mills closed in the UK in 2006 alone.
“The considered view of the NAPM is that it is preferable for the market to now see steady, measured price increases, with all parties working together to manage the inevitable in a stable and consistent way,” said George.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAPER PRICE RISES
September 2006 mills revealed increases of 5-6%
March 2007 increases of 2.5-8%; a significant increase in pulp, raw materials and energy costs blamed for the rise
Helen Morris, PrintWeek, 24 May 2007
National Association of Paper Merchants (NAPM) chairman Ian George has forecast further paper price increases for fine paper during 2007.
George said that papermakers and merchants must improve their bottom-line figures in order to invest in the future.
His comments follow a series of paper price rises over the past year, most recently a significant hike in March.
George said: “Further increases for 2007 cannot be ruled out as the inevitable consequences of the challenging manufacturing environment paper suppliers are operating in globally, combined with resulting
consolidation and closure of UK and European mills.
“Merchants will have little to no control over these further increases predicted for the papermaking industry.”
George acknowledged that the news would not be welcomed by many printers that are struggling to maintain any profit margin and are facing customers who continue to resist prices increases.
“There would appear to be little alternative if the paper industry is to survive, as few would argue that
current levels of profitability are not sufficient to sustain any real long-term investment,” he said.
The fundamental problem, George said, lay in the in-balance of supply and demand in Europe, combined with increasing costs.
He said that since 2000, the four largest European manufacturers of fine paper, UPM-Kymmene, Stora Enso, M-real and Sappi, had suffered significant falls in profit levels.
However, some 2.5m tonnes of capacity have been removed from the European paper market in the past 18 months. Eight mills closed in the UK in 2006 alone.
“The considered view of the NAPM is that it is preferable for the market to now see steady, measured price increases, with all parties working together to manage the inevitable in a stable and consistent way,” said George.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAPER PRICE RISES
September 2006 mills revealed increases of 5-6%
March 2007 increases of 2.5-8%; a significant increase in pulp, raw materials and energy costs blamed for the rise
Thursday, May 24, 2007
St. Marys vital part of history – the Sault's and the Zeppas'
St. Marys vital part of history – the Sault's and the Zeppas'
Dan Bellerose
Local News - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Updated @ 4:57:57 PM
"It's sad to think that a place with so much history, so many memories, could be closing for good after more than 100 years," said Zeppa, a retiree residing on Mark Street.
Her late father, Joseph Pohrybunk, began work at the mill no later than 1920, three years after the Lake Superior Paper Co. amalgamated with the Spanish River Pulp & Paper Mills Ltd.
Her late husband, Joseph Zeppa, worked nearly 40 years for the Abibiti Power and Paper Co., which took over from Spanish River Pulp & Paper in 1928, retiring in 1984 at about the time St. Marys Paper Inc. was launched by Chicago entrepreneur Dan Alexander.
Her son and daughter found summer employment at the mill, her son as a student worker and her daughter as a tour guide.
The 111-year-old paper mill isn't history yet.
A court-appointed receiver is currently reviewing offers for the company assets, including one from potential local suitors wanting to resume operations at the specialty papermaker, idle for about a month.
The cash-strapped, 380-worker mill underwent an unsuccessful six-month restructuring process.
"The community would be devastated if it were to close," said Zeppa.
"From what I read, it sounds like the majority of workers are too young to retire and too old to go looking for other work."
She has memories of long-forgotten Spanish River Pulp & Paper.
"I remember as a child taking hot meals for my father right into the mill itself . . . Sometimes he would give me a small container of fresh pulp I could use on school projects," she said.
"A lot of fathers from the neighbourhood (the Pohrybunk's lived in the vicinity of the mill) ended up working there."
Among her mementos from Spanish River Pulp & Paper are an engraved silver cup, company service pins, photos from company picnics, and her father's International Brotherhood of Paper Makers No. 133 badge.
"Every employee got an engraved silver cup from Patterson's Jewelers to commemorate the birth of a child, the engraving would include the child's name and birth date," said Zeppa.
Spanish River Pulp & Paper was founded in present-day Espanola, located on the Spanish River, a company town in the early 1900s.
It had a second mill in Sturgeon Falls at about the time of amalgamating with Lake Superior Paper Co., which commissioned the area's first newsprint paper machines in the summer of 1912.
One-hundred-forty-two employees from the three mills served in the armed forces during the First World War, 16 never to return.
Abitibi Power and Paper, with eight pulp and paper mills in three provinces, merged with Spanish River in 1928.
The stock market crash and ensuing Depression forced Abitibi, founded in 1914 in Iroquois Falls, into bankruptcy in 1932, but demand for newsprint kept the paper machines humming until the Second World War.
Zeppa remembers work being scarce in the Depression years, under the ownership of Abitibi Power and Paper.
"People would only be working a couple days a week but they kept people working until times got better," she said.
Zeppa herself was among more than 100 pioneering women who went to work at Algoma Steel Inc. for the last three years of the Second World War.
It marked the first time in the history of the steelmaker that women had advanced beyond clerical pools and onto the shop floor.
"There was a shortage of labour and we were replacements for the men who went off to war," said Zeppa, who got in three years as a tester and recorder in the open hearth mill.
"All the women on production jobs were let go in late 1945 when the guys started returning."
Abitibi's 56-year ownership of the Sault paper mill ended in the spring of 1984, when a consortium headed by Alexander purchased the closure-threatened mill from Abitibi Price Inc.
New ownership immediately began investing $17 million into converting the oldest of Abitibi's 13 Canadian operations from a groundwood to supercalender producer, for the more lucrative glossy publication market.
Paper machine No. 5, the current workhorse of St. Marys' three machines, was commissioned in 1988 at a cost of $145 million and bumped annual production from 120,000 tons to 220,000 tons.
Dan Bellerose
Local News - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Updated @ 4:57:57 PM
"It's sad to think that a place with so much history, so many memories, could be closing for good after more than 100 years," said Zeppa, a retiree residing on Mark Street.
Her late father, Joseph Pohrybunk, began work at the mill no later than 1920, three years after the Lake Superior Paper Co. amalgamated with the Spanish River Pulp & Paper Mills Ltd.
Her late husband, Joseph Zeppa, worked nearly 40 years for the Abibiti Power and Paper Co., which took over from Spanish River Pulp & Paper in 1928, retiring in 1984 at about the time St. Marys Paper Inc. was launched by Chicago entrepreneur Dan Alexander.
Her son and daughter found summer employment at the mill, her son as a student worker and her daughter as a tour guide.
The 111-year-old paper mill isn't history yet.
A court-appointed receiver is currently reviewing offers for the company assets, including one from potential local suitors wanting to resume operations at the specialty papermaker, idle for about a month.
The cash-strapped, 380-worker mill underwent an unsuccessful six-month restructuring process.
"The community would be devastated if it were to close," said Zeppa.
"From what I read, it sounds like the majority of workers are too young to retire and too old to go looking for other work."
She has memories of long-forgotten Spanish River Pulp & Paper.
"I remember as a child taking hot meals for my father right into the mill itself . . . Sometimes he would give me a small container of fresh pulp I could use on school projects," she said.
"A lot of fathers from the neighbourhood (the Pohrybunk's lived in the vicinity of the mill) ended up working there."
Among her mementos from Spanish River Pulp & Paper are an engraved silver cup, company service pins, photos from company picnics, and her father's International Brotherhood of Paper Makers No. 133 badge.
"Every employee got an engraved silver cup from Patterson's Jewelers to commemorate the birth of a child, the engraving would include the child's name and birth date," said Zeppa.
Spanish River Pulp & Paper was founded in present-day Espanola, located on the Spanish River, a company town in the early 1900s.
It had a second mill in Sturgeon Falls at about the time of amalgamating with Lake Superior Paper Co., which commissioned the area's first newsprint paper machines in the summer of 1912.
One-hundred-forty-two employees from the three mills served in the armed forces during the First World War, 16 never to return.
Abitibi Power and Paper, with eight pulp and paper mills in three provinces, merged with Spanish River in 1928.
The stock market crash and ensuing Depression forced Abitibi, founded in 1914 in Iroquois Falls, into bankruptcy in 1932, but demand for newsprint kept the paper machines humming until the Second World War.
Zeppa remembers work being scarce in the Depression years, under the ownership of Abitibi Power and Paper.
"People would only be working a couple days a week but they kept people working until times got better," she said.
Zeppa herself was among more than 100 pioneering women who went to work at Algoma Steel Inc. for the last three years of the Second World War.
It marked the first time in the history of the steelmaker that women had advanced beyond clerical pools and onto the shop floor.
"There was a shortage of labour and we were replacements for the men who went off to war," said Zeppa, who got in three years as a tester and recorder in the open hearth mill.
"All the women on production jobs were let go in late 1945 when the guys started returning."
Abitibi's 56-year ownership of the Sault paper mill ended in the spring of 1984, when a consortium headed by Alexander purchased the closure-threatened mill from Abitibi Price Inc.
New ownership immediately began investing $17 million into converting the oldest of Abitibi's 13 Canadian operations from a groundwood to supercalender producer, for the more lucrative glossy publication market.
Paper machine No. 5, the current workhorse of St. Marys' three machines, was commissioned in 1988 at a cost of $145 million and bumped annual production from 120,000 tons to 220,000 tons.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Sappi’s new CEO, at last
Sappi’s new CEO, at last
Sappi captures Ralph Boëttger, a passionate aviator, and executive director at Imperial Holdings.
Barry Sergeant
14 May 2007
Sappi, the world's leading maker of fine paper and dissolving pulp, has announced the appointment of Roeloff Jacobus "Ralph" Boëttger as its new CEO, following 13 months when Sappi stalwart Eugene van As reverted to executive from non-executive chairman to fill the interregnum after the sudden, and shock, departure of previous CEO Jonathan Leslie.
On Monday Sappi also announced that Van As would retire from the board of Sappi at its annual general meeting in March 2008. Boëttger, 45, a chartered accountant by training, was at age 34 appointed CEO of Safair, and appointed the next year to the executive committee of SAFREN Limited. Since 1998 he has been with Imperial Holdings, following the acquisition of Safair; since 2002, he has been an executive director of Imperial Holdings.
The new moves at Sappi should not only resolve a period of executive instability at the group, but should also see the group continuing to capitalise on recent evidence that fortunes may at least have changed in the global forest products sector.
The sector has recorded a rotten century to date, but in the divisions, fine paper has suffered the most. In Europe, prices for coated fine paper may at last be turning around, after six years of decline. In North America, the fine paper sector has been hurt by Asian imports, but these have recently been hit by a levy, and may soon be subject to a further one.
Against this background, on March 6 last year Sappi made the shock announcement that Leslie tendered his resignation from the group with immediate effect. Leslie had joined Sappi in April 2003 from a senior position at Rio Tinto, a senior global diversified resources stock. Subsequent to leaving Sappi, Leslie re-emerged as the CEO of London-listed Nikanor, which is involved in rehabilitation of a number of material copper cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For some time, investors have been anticipating a change in Johannesburg-based Sappi's fortunes. Its latest quarterly results, released last week, appear to have justified the move in the stock's price to record highs of $18,65 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, from a low of $10,67 over the past twelve months.
Sappi reported adjusted quarterly operating income (which attempts to show like-on-like figures) for the three months to March 31 2007 (the second quarter of Sappi's 2007 financial year) of $74m, the best in four years. Sappi's results were significantly boosted by sharp increases in the price of pulp, the material derived from trees and used as the essential ingredient in papermaking.
Sappi is long of pulp in southern Africa and North America, but short of pulp in Europe. Sappi manufactures 46% of its product in Europe, 29% in North America, and 25% in southern Africa.
Given the group's global operations and exposure, Boëttger's experience in that field clearly boosted his chances of selection as new Sappi CEO, a process that was both drawn out and meticulous. At Imperial Holdings, Boëttger has been responsible for the local and international logistics operations, the aviation division and the heavy commercial vehicle distribution operations. His field of responsibility encompasses businesses operating in southern Africa, numerous European countries, the Middle East and Asia.
Sappi captures Ralph Boëttger, a passionate aviator, and executive director at Imperial Holdings.
Barry Sergeant
14 May 2007
Sappi, the world's leading maker of fine paper and dissolving pulp, has announced the appointment of Roeloff Jacobus "Ralph" Boëttger as its new CEO, following 13 months when Sappi stalwart Eugene van As reverted to executive from non-executive chairman to fill the interregnum after the sudden, and shock, departure of previous CEO Jonathan Leslie.
On Monday Sappi also announced that Van As would retire from the board of Sappi at its annual general meeting in March 2008. Boëttger, 45, a chartered accountant by training, was at age 34 appointed CEO of Safair, and appointed the next year to the executive committee of SAFREN Limited. Since 1998 he has been with Imperial Holdings, following the acquisition of Safair; since 2002, he has been an executive director of Imperial Holdings.
The new moves at Sappi should not only resolve a period of executive instability at the group, but should also see the group continuing to capitalise on recent evidence that fortunes may at least have changed in the global forest products sector.
The sector has recorded a rotten century to date, but in the divisions, fine paper has suffered the most. In Europe, prices for coated fine paper may at last be turning around, after six years of decline. In North America, the fine paper sector has been hurt by Asian imports, but these have recently been hit by a levy, and may soon be subject to a further one.
Against this background, on March 6 last year Sappi made the shock announcement that Leslie tendered his resignation from the group with immediate effect. Leslie had joined Sappi in April 2003 from a senior position at Rio Tinto, a senior global diversified resources stock. Subsequent to leaving Sappi, Leslie re-emerged as the CEO of London-listed Nikanor, which is involved in rehabilitation of a number of material copper cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For some time, investors have been anticipating a change in Johannesburg-based Sappi's fortunes. Its latest quarterly results, released last week, appear to have justified the move in the stock's price to record highs of $18,65 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, from a low of $10,67 over the past twelve months.
Sappi reported adjusted quarterly operating income (which attempts to show like-on-like figures) for the three months to March 31 2007 (the second quarter of Sappi's 2007 financial year) of $74m, the best in four years. Sappi's results were significantly boosted by sharp increases in the price of pulp, the material derived from trees and used as the essential ingredient in papermaking.
Sappi is long of pulp in southern Africa and North America, but short of pulp in Europe. Sappi manufactures 46% of its product in Europe, 29% in North America, and 25% in southern Africa.
Given the group's global operations and exposure, Boëttger's experience in that field clearly boosted his chances of selection as new Sappi CEO, a process that was both drawn out and meticulous. At Imperial Holdings, Boëttger has been responsible for the local and international logistics operations, the aviation division and the heavy commercial vehicle distribution operations. His field of responsibility encompasses businesses operating in southern Africa, numerous European countries, the Middle East and Asia.
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