Operations News

On Tuesday, Sept. 19, the packaging company WestRock announced to its employees that its shutting down operations in Louisville.

Several fire departments responded to a blaze at the Weyerhaeuser wood production facility in Buckhannon, West Virginia on Monday, Sept. 25, but teams on site contained the fire quickly after it started.

A paper mill near Escanaba will be temporarily laying off an unknown number of employees during a planned maintenance outage beginning the first week of October. Billerud said it is opting to idle its Escanaba Mill's paper machines during this outage due to a low demand for paper and inventory destocking. The company said it intends to take an additional week of market-related downtime following the maintenance to balance production with customer needs.

The return to work will be gradual, starting September 18. Workers have been on strike since July 4. The company imposed this measure after a third production stoppage by employees.

Fire crews across Northern Michigan were responding to a major fire near the Great Lakes Tissue Co. mill in Cheboygan on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

The closure is part of the company's $500 million plan to expand its Broadway mill that will add roughly 500 new jobs. The expansion is scheduled to be operational for the first half of 2024.

Units from the Toledo Fire Department, as well as the Emergency Response Team (ERT) from Georgia-Pacific, responded Monday morning, Sept. 11, after reports of a fire in the dryer section of the paper building at the Georgia-Pacific containerboard mill.

The CT scanner and its fingerprinting technology also enables SCA to follow the logs journey through the sawmill, from sorting to finished product in the warehouse.

Aki Temmes has been appointed Executive Vice President responsible for UPM Fibres Business Area as of 1 December 2023. He will report to Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO and be based in Helsinki, Finland.

Antti Koulumies, M.Sc. (Eng.), has been appointed Senior Vice President, Timber and Forest. Koulumies will take the leadership of UPM Forest and continue to lead UPM Timber. The current leader of UPM Forest Sauli Brander, B.Sc. (Eng.), eMBA, has been appointed Vice President, UPM Global Forest Affairs. He will focus on global forest advocacy as well as global forestry themes, such as climate-positive forestry and biodiversity.

Chief Taylor said that Davonne Woods was working for H&M Contracting at the PCA plant on Industrial Rd. when he was killed. According to Taylor, a witness reported seeing the large truck Woods was driving roll over into a pond on the property.

Daio Paper Corp. announces plans to spend approximately 19 billion yen to reconstruct the boiler at its subsidiary, Iwaki Daio Paper Corp., based in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

With deep expertise in finance, strategy, accounting, treasury, and risk management, Mr. Nunziata brings more than 20 years of strong leadership experience with a track record for implementing enterprise-wide changes and driving key financial and process improvements in large-scale organizations.

Crews from the Longview Fire Department responded to a fire Monday evening at Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility.

Mikko Antsalo has been appointed Metsä Fibre's Senior Vice President, Sales and Customership, and a member of Metsä Fibre's Management Team as of 1 March 2024.

PotlatchDeltic Corporation announced the appointment of Wayne Wasechek as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Wasechek has served as Interim Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer, since April 19, 2023.

President and CEO Henrik Hjalmarsson has decided to leave Inwido to take on the position of President and CEO in another business.

Sustana, a manufacturer of premium, sustainable recycled fiber and paper products, announces the appointment of Aaron Ling to Director of Sustainability. In this role Aaron will be responsible for driving the implementation of Sustana's ESG initiatives and supporting the development of the group's sustainability strategy.

This comes after members of Teamster Local 346 narrowly approved a 3-year labor contract with respect to the mill's 166 hourly employees on August 11. It ended a short notice strike that began July 15 over wages.

Western Pulp will cease production operations at its Jacksonville facility at the end of the month, while continuing its shipping operations to help customers manage the transition to new suppliers, according to the company's announcement Tuesday, Aug. 15.

An internal company memorandum provided Tuesday morning confirms the plant closure but gives no date.

Cascades inc., a leader in the recovery and manufacturing of green packaging and hygiene products, announces that the second paper machine at its St. Helens, Oregon Tissue plant will be closed, resulting in the complete shutdown of the facility. The end of operations will be effective at the beginning of October.

One employee was transported to the hospital to be treated for heat-related injuries.

LP Building Solutions (LP), a leading manufacturer of high-performance building products, announced that Gabriel Farias has been named Vice President of OSB Manufacturing and Landon Stephens as Director of OSB Sales and Marketing Planning.

No injuries were reported. The fire was extinguished shortly after firefighters arrival.