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The PM40 closed Friday, 28 August 2020, at 3134.

Get the latest PM40 updates by listening to the weekly Nips show and the PM40 Daily Show on Pulp & Paper Radio International.

The PM40 closed 28 August 2020 up 11.9% from the 30 August 2019 level.

In this issue of Disconnected Comparisons, we evaluate Neenah Paper and Resolute Forest Products.

Reported insider trading since the last issue of PaperMoney.

Some of us older members of the industry are called experienced. You've probably heard the old sayings that experience people are just ones who have survived their mistakes. It is true and it is important. Mistakes are an extremely valuable teacher; far more valuable than the "tuition" they extract in the present when assessed with a longer-term view.

BASF and the fine chemical company DIC have reached an agreement on the acquisition of BASF's global pigments business.

Thanks to the efforts of SpektrTrading, the Belarus dealer for Komatsu forest machines, Komatsu Forest can deliver nine Komatsu 911 harvesters to companies at the Ministry of Forestry in Belarus.

Valmet will deliver a new bleach plant and upgrade of the batch cooking and fiberline to ITC's Bhadrachalam pulp mill in India.

The clothing will be delivered for the start-up of the rebuilt BM 7, which is scheduled for the end of 2020.

The new system will be installed in the corrugated packaging plant of the mill which is undertaking modernization actions.

Ahlstrom-Munksjö announces the launch of TrustShield™ Biological, a personal protective apparel medical fabric designed to shield against hazardous pathogens.

Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. announces the New Face of Premium Packaging with the release of its new portfolio of Monadnock Envi PC 100 Coated Performance Board.

Pixelle Specialty Solutions has introduced OmniLux™ Opaque, a new multipurpose opaque product line designed for web offset, sheetfed, digital toner, and inkjet presses. OmniLux™ features excellent opacity with a 96-bright blue-white shade for crisp, brilliant print image quality and is available in both Text and Cover Weights.

Stora Enso CLT stairs are a lighter weight, cost-efficient single component solution that is fast to install and offers a full timber alternative to concrete or steel stairs.

Cascades PRO, the professional hygiene brand of Cascades Inc., has launched a new hand hygiene campaign to promote the importance of hand drying in preventing the spread of bacteria, viruses and other infections.

FibDex® wound dressing - made from nanofibrillar cellulose by UPM Biomedicals - has taken a significant step in its path to market, as leading medical device distributor Steripolar Oy now sells the product in Finland.

Verso Corporation introduced a new direct mail promotion, Vote for Verso Papers, to create awareness of its extensive 7 & 9 pt. sheetfed, digital, web and inkjet printing papers amongst those designing and printing direct mail for political campaigns. The promotion was printed on a sheetfed printing press on Verso's Anthem Plus® Gloss, 7 pt. cover.

Rainy River First Nations members will be working to redevelop the idle pulp and paper mill in Fort Frances, through a new partnership with Riversedge Developments.

A new operator, Park Falls Development, is in the process of starting up pulp and paper production at the former Flambeau River Papers mill in Park Falls, Wisconsin, USA, which was shut down for financial reasons in September 2019.

Metsä Group's innovation company Metsä Spring and Valmet have decided to continue the development collaboration related to 3D fibre products and hence, to invest jointly approximately EUR 20 million in a new R&D project.

Smurfit Kappa Colombia has announced a new alliance with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Colombia to highlight the protection and conservation of forests in the country. Under the new partnership, both organisations will work together to restore, expand and protect forests and ecosystems that are the habitat of several species of flora and fauna.

This is the second extension LSC has been granted since it received court approval in early June to explore the sale of its assets. The printer filed Chapter 11 on April 13.

R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD) announced that its Board of Directors has approved an amendment of the Company's stockholder rights plan to extend the final expiration date under the Rights Plan to August 28, 2021. The Rights Plan had been scheduled to expire on August 28, 2020.

The World Trade Organization has sided with Canada in a decades-old dispute with the U.S. over lumber imports, ruling the Trump administration incorrectly claimed in 2017 that Canada was improperly subsidizing production.

Green Bay Packaging (GBP) is set to begin construction Sept. 1 on the "super plant," which is scheduled to begin operation in October 2021.

PaperWorks is increasing its production capacity and capabilities, investing in new technology innovation and platforms in the Greensboro, North Carolina facility. The state-of-the-art equipment and new technology platforms will integrate well with PaperWorks' highly-efficient business model by offering the most sophisticated automation geared towards in-line innovation and full-quality control.

Acorn Pulp Group has agreed to purchase a new state of the art molded fiber manufacturing machine from Southern Moulded Pulp and Moulded Fibre Technologies.

The Austrian binderholz Group purchased all assets of Klausner Lumber One LLC, based in Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida, in the auction held on Friday, August 21, 2020. At the auction binderholz was able to prevail over Mercer Inc. and Mayr Melnhof Holz and was awarded the contract at $61 million. The transaction is expected to close at the beginning of October 2020.

Mill Rock Capital, a growth and operations oriented private investment firm, announced today that it has created a new platform, Mill Rock Packaging Partners LLC ("Mill Rock Packaging Partners"), to invest in growth oriented companies with advanced service and product capabilities in the specialty packaging industry.

The Kalispel Tribe of Indians has officially submitted a bid to purchase the shuttered Ponderay Newsprint Co. in Usk, which ceased operations in June and eliminated about 130 jobs.

Weyerhaeuser Company has announced leadership and organizational changes that position the company to further enhance the long-term value of its timberlands portfolio.

To ensure future competitiveness of UPM Communication Papers, UPM announces plans for permanent closing of UPM Kaipola paper mill in Finland, sale of UPM Shotton paper mill in Wales and streamlining Communication Papers business function teams. In addition, UPM Biorefining and UPM Specialty Papers announce plans for reorganising and streamlining activities in Finnish pulp mills, UPM Forest and UPM Tervasaari mill in Finland.

SCA intends to invest SEK 1,45bn in the production of chemically pre-treated thermo-mechanical pulp (CTMP) at the Ortviken paper mill in Sundsvall. In parallel, SCA is initiating consultations with trade unions and employee representatives to discontinue the production of publication paper at the mill.

308 workers will be affected by the repurposing of the Domtar Kingsport mill, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Mill Rock Packaging Partners

Amcor announced it has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative to create a path forward to a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.

Domtar has successfully completed a surveillance audit on the Wabigoon Forest for the new Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) National Standard for Canada.

As pandemic-induced online shopping has boosted demand for boxes, DS Smith, a sustainable packaging leader, launched its Circular Design Principles, citing company research that shows better packaging design could save the industry $46 billion a year in logistics costs globally.

Officials with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said a recent fish kill along the southern reaches of the Escanaba River at Gladstone was the result of a pipe failure at Verso Corporation's Escanaba Paper Mill.

GP is expanding its offerings to include paper padded mailers.

This work reaches beyond International Paper's traditional supply chain in an effort to identify natural climate solutions that can be replicated anywhere around the world.

Kimberly-Clark announced it has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative rooted in four ambitious goals intended to drive significant systems change by unifying diverse cross-sector approaches, setting a national strategy, and creating scalable solutions to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.

Industry and government are working with partners to harvest the growing number of trees killed by a spruce beetle outbreak.

Stora Enso has appointed Annette Stube as EVP, Head of Sustainability and a member of the Group Leadership Team. She will start on 1 September 2020.

Stora Enso will build a pilot facility for producing Cellufoam™ by Stora Enso, a lightweight, fiber-based foam material for protective packaging and cushioning.

Surinder Ghog, the CEO of AP Group, blamed "disproportionately high property taxes" for the closure, which affects 70 employees. In 2019, the mill's tax bill went up by half a million dollars -- from $1.6 million in 2018 to $2.4 million.

Clay Dunn, (63), President, North America business segment has decided to retire at the end of 2020 after successfully leading Huhtamaki's business in North America since 2005. Ann O'Hara, (49), MBA, BSE (Chemical Engineering), has been appointed President, North America business segment and a member of the Global Executive Team.

Firefighters brought a weekend fire quickly under control at International Paper while limiting damage to equipment in the wood room and an area of a chip pile.

DS Smith, the FTSE100 sustainable packaging leader, has announced the appointment of Johan van Baarle as Sales Director of its Paper Division. Reporting to Niels Flierman, Managing Director for Paper, Van Baarle will be responsible for the division's paper sales across Europe and North America - managing around 5 million tonnes of paper produced at DS Smith's mills annually.

Clay Dunn, President, North America business segment has decided to retire at the end of 2020 after successfully leading Huhtamaki's business in North America since 2005. Ann O'Hara has been appointed President, North America business segment and a member of the Global Executive Team. Ann will join Huhtamaki on November 1, 2020 and will assume the role of President, North America on January 1, 2021 following a two-month transition period with Clay Dunn.

International Paper has announced an upcoming annual outage of its mill in Ticonderoga to perform necessary inspections and maintenance, according to a press release.

The St. Charles Fire Department was able to extinguish a fire in a paper compactor at R.R. Donnelley on Monday night, Aug. 24.

Marcus Svensson has been appointed Head of Public Affairs at Södra. He will organise, coordinate and manage Södra's work within public affairs going forward.

Metsä Board's Kyro mill will be 150 years old this year, 2020. The wood grinding plant along the Kyröskoski rapids was started up in 1870.

Terry Paul Greenwood served our country as a member of the United States Army. He tragically died Thursday, Aug. 20, while on contract at Georgia-Pacific. Saturday, The Widows Sons held a memorial ride to honor his legacy just to say thank you.

Marc Shore, president of WestRock's Multi Packaging Solutions (MPS) business, decided to leave WestRock, effective August 17, 2020. Patrick Kivits has assumed the role of president, MPS since Shore's departure.