Irving Paper Price Increase Announcement

Duluth's longtime paper mill is expected to be sold to an Italian paper products company, about a year into operations as ST Paper. Sofidel, which operates several plants in the United States, expects to not only preserve but add employees, said ST Paper spokesman Bill Broydrick. "This is good news," he said of expanding operations at the mill, which first opened in 1987 and is a major taxpayer and utility customer, employing about 100. Both Duluth's City Council and St. Louis County commissioners need to sign off on two aspects of the deal, and that could happen this month.

Rottneros has entered into a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) including Guarantees of Origin (GoOs) with the third largest German energy group Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW). The utility will supply Rottneros with just over 30 GWh/annum of clean energy delivered from the 116 MW Målarberget wind farm in Sweden over an 8.5-year period starting in 2025. The partnership marks an additional step in Rottneros’ ambitions to reduce the environmental impact of its operations and its exposure to the volatile and uncertain electricity market. Rottneros’ goal is a fossil-free production according to GHG Scope 1 & 2 by 2030. The emissions from Rottneros’ operations come mainly from its external purchase of electricity, which is also their third largest variable cost item. In addition to helping Rottneros meet its climate targets, long-term PPAs are part of the company’s active work to reduce its long-term exposure to electricity price movements.

In a letter today, Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) of the Senate Finance Committee urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to negotiate a softwood lumber trade deal with Canada that would lessen the harmful impact of subsidized Canadian lumber imports on the U.S. economy. The Senators' letter also expressed strong support for fair competition and the enforcement of existing U.S. trade laws. "The U.S. Lumber Coalition applauds the efforts by members of the Senate Finance Committee to push for a fair trade deal, especially the letter's provision calling for a clean quota agreement to hold Canada to its commitments and maintain a stable, enforceable system," U.S. Lumber Coalition spokesperson Zoltan van Heyningen said. Click Read More below for more of the story.