- The Washington state attorney general’s office announced July 1 that it’s investigating whether any criminal activity contributed to the May 26 white liquor tank implosion at Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview that killed 11 people and injured eight others.
- Futhermore, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries announced July 2 that in addition to its ongoing investigation of the disaster, it opened new inspections at two other kraft pulp and paper mills in the state: at Smurfit Westrock’s Longview plant down the road from NDP, and at Port Townsend Paper Co. in Port Townsend.
Production at NDP’s site remained suspended as of parent company Nippon Paper’s most recent update on June 24. It said the financial impact is still being assessed.
Washington AG to investigate Nippon Dynawave paper mill disaster | Packaging Dive
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The industry utilized its assets more effectively with total paper and paperboard operating rate reaching 87.5% in 2024, a nearly four percentage point increase from 2023. U.S. paper and paperboard production increased 3.2% last year, with increases in all categories, led by strong growth in containerboard. U.S. paper and paperboard capacity declined by 2.0% in 2024, to 78.1 million tons. By comparison, the average annual rate of decline since 2015 was 0.9%.
The industry continues to invest in new machines and machine conversions, particularly in the packaging and tissue sectors. Four machines came online in 2023 producing containerboard, one boxboard machine came online this month, and another will start up later this year. Containerboard capacity declined 0.9% in 2024. Despite three consecutive declines in 2022 through 2024, containerboard capacity continues to account for more than 50% of total U.S. capacity to produce paper and paperboard. Packaging paper capacity increased 4.6% on the heels of a strong 4.8% growth rate in 2023. For the second year, all the growth came in unbleached packaging papers while bleached packaging papers has now declined for six consecutive years.
Following improved global market balance as well as improved demand for printing paper, SCA announce a price increase in Europe of € 40 per ton for Coated Mechanical reels and Uncoated Mechanical reels, valid for deliveries from January 1 2018.
Effective with all orders shipping on or after October 1, 2017, Evergreen Packaging is raising the transaction price on all coated groundwood products by $1.00/cwt. This increase applies to all products, including, but not limited to, the following brands: TruSpec4; TruSpec4.5 Low Glare; TruSpec4.5; TruSpec5. All standard upcharges will continue to apply.