PAPER CLIPS

Pulp & Paper, Mar 2005

BRIEF NEWS AND REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE INDUSTRY

* Boise Cascade Holdings LLC has filed a registration statement with the SEC for a proposed IPO later this year of its Class A common stock. Boise intends to apply to have its shares listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol BCC. The company was acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners in October in a $3.7-billion transaction that was part of Boise's office supply merger with OfficeMax.

* Kruger Inc.'s Wayagamack mill's No. 4 paper machine in Trois-Rivieres, Que., could be producing 44-g (29.7-lb) lightweight coated (LWC) paper "in a couple of months," industry sources said in February. Basis weights have been slowly moving down since the paper machine started up in November 2003, as part of Kruger's long-term strategy to manufacture ultra-lightweight paper with weights as low as 42-g (28.4-lb). Sources say the No. 4 paper machine is currently producing 600 tpd of 49-g (33.1-lb) paper. The sources say Kruger is working with Metso on a furnish blend for ultra-LWC.

* The Quebec Forest Industry Council urged the government to ensure that agreements are made with First Nations in the province, and urged Aboriginal tribes to give priority to negotiating agreements over legal proceedings that impact the forest industry.

* The number of daily newspapers in the newsprint-buying group Publishers Associated to Gain Economy (PAGE) topped the 500 mark in the first week of January. The purchasing cooperative for independent and privately owned newspaper companies says it is now the largest purchasing entity in the newspaper business, representing 504 daily newspapers and a circulation of more than 10.3 million copies a day.

* Weyerhaeuser Co. said eight of 10 original environmental projects under the U.S. EPA's Project XL program at its Oglethorpe, Ga., market pulp mill are fully implemented. The company says it was the first forest products company to be accepted into the 1997 program.

BRIEF NEWS AND REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE INDUSTRY

* Besicorp-Empire Newsprint announced the appointment of HSH Nordbank AG, New York branch, as lead arranger for financing its recycled newsprint facility project in the city of Rensselaer, N.Y. The project will manufacture finished recycled newsprint for sale to publishers and printers.

* The U.S. Dept. of Commerce announced the imposition of antidumping duties of 112% on all imports of tissue paper from China, according to U.S. manufacturers of the product.

* SP Newsprint Co. began installing a new $20-million drum pulper to improve filtering of nonpaper materials at its Dublin, Ga., newsprint mill and help eliminate contaminants from entering the Oconee River. The company said last August it was committed to buying the machinery after environmentalists threatened action over plastic and other foreign material allegedly escaping through its treated water discharge system.

* A San Francisco commission has recommended approval of a $0.17 charge for paper and plastic grocery bags, the first such fee in the U.S. that aims to cut down on waste and environmental pollution. The recommendation made in January by the city's Commission on the Environment is expected to go to supervisors after a study on the impacts of the proposal is completed by April.

* SFK Pulp Fund completed a three-year labor deal with the union at its 350,000-mtpy market NBSK mill at Saint-Félicien, Que., contacts told Pulp & Paper Week. The deal is in line with a pattern agreement set earlier by Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.

* Georgia-Pacific Corp. (G-P) plans to spend $85 million on pulp-washing and pre-bleaching machinery at its Palatka, FIa., kraft paper, tissue, and kraft linerboard mill, the Palatka Daily News reported to improve the quality of its wastewater treatment.

* A Minneapolis investor put forward a plan to turn the former Eastern Fine Paper mill at Brewer, Maine, into waterside restaurants, bars, offices, and condominiums, at a cost more than $30 million.