News in brief

Pulp & Paper, Sep 2003

International Paper Co. will proceed with its $112-million rebuild of its No. 3 coated paper machine at its Androscoggin mill in Jay, Maine.The project includes improvements to the groundwood pulp mill, bleaching plant, and transformers, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal. Voters in June approved a 20-year tax break for the company

PCA acquired a sheet plant in Fairfield, Ohio, following the startup of a sheet plant in Donna,Texas. The company also plans to start a new sheet plant in Franklin, Wis. The Franklin plant costs less than $10 million and focuses on specialty items and low-volume runs.

Weyerhaeuser Co. plans to lay off 330 workers at its Dryden, Ont., operations. About 220 positions in the pulp and paper and converting operations will be eliminated, effective Oct. 11 .The sawmill will close permanently, affecting approximately 110 hourly employees. The woodroom will continue to operate, supplying chips to the pulp mill.

Based on corrugated market growth in Canada, Smurfit-MBI plans to build a 225,000-ft^sup 2^-, high-performance corrugated container plant in Milton, Ont., that would produce an estimated 2 billion ft^sup 2^ of boxes each year. Construction on the C$60-million project should began in late summer, the plant running by the end of the third quarter 2004. SmurfitMBI, a subsidiary of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., will initially employ approximately 100 workers at the plant.

Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (L-P) agreed to sell approximately 465,000 acres of southeastern Texas timberland to an institutional investor for about $285 million. Molpus Woodlands Group, a timberland investment management group in Jackson, Miss., will manage the timberland on behalf of the institutional investor. Separately, the company said it sold 80,000 acres in two transactions for about $53.5 million. L-P sold acres near Cleveland, Texas, to Cleveland Properties of Texas LLC of Macon, Ga., for about $35.3 million and sold 27,000 acres in and around San Augustine County, Texas, to San Augustine Properties of Texas LLC for about $18.2 million.