American Forest & Paper Association Releases November 2017 Boxboard Report

ePac Flexible Packaging, the industry leader in quick turn, short and medium run-length flexible packaging, has announced it will accelerate its growth and transition to a global enterprise over the next 18 months. Eleven new sales and manufacturing locations will be established across Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East/North Africa, and North America bringing ePac’s global footprint to 36 locations. In Europe, a second plant will be added in each of the UK, France, and Poland. In Austria, ePac Innsbruck will open in Q4 2022, along with a new site(s) to serve the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. In the Asia Pacific region, second plants will be added in Indonesia and Australia, and a new operation will start up in Malaysia. The company also plans to establish an Asia-based Global Services group to manage operations in the region. In the Middle East/North Africa region, ePac West Africa in Ghana will open in Q4 of this year, while evaluations of new sites in Kenya and Turkey are underway. Finally, in North America, previously announced ePac Montreal is planned to open in early 2023, along with 3 additional plants in the US.

Metsä Board, part of Metsä Group, announced in May 2022 that it will explore possibilities to increase folding boxboard capacity in Finland or Sweden in order to support its customers’ growth and to strengthen its service capability. As result of the study, the company will start pre-engineering for a new folding boxboard mill with an annual capacity of approximately 800,000 tonnes at the Kaskinen mill site in Finland. The pre-engineering phase will include technical design, design of infrastructure and logistics solutions and tendering for the main equipment. As part of the pre-engineering, an environmental impact assessment and an environmental permit process will be launched. The company estimates that a possible investment decision could be made in 2024 at the earliest. The pre-engineering for the new folding boxboard mill is based on fossil-free production and world-class resource and production efficiency. Thanks to the best available technology, the consumption of raw materials, energy and water per tonne of folding boxboard produced would be significantly lower when compared with the existing mills. The product concept would benefit from Metsä Board's long-term development work in the production of premium lightweight paperboards.

Packaging Corporation of America announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Sacramento Container Corporation, and 100% of the membership interests of Northern Sheets, LLC and Central California Sheets, LLC in a cash-free, debt-free transaction for a cash purchase price of $265 million. The Company has also announced that it will discontinue production of uncoated freesheet (UFS) and coated one-side (C1S) grades at its Wallula, Washington mill in the second quarter of 2018 to begin the conversion of its 200,000 ton-per-year No. 3 paper machine to a 400,000 ton-per-year high-performance 100% virgin kraft linerboard machine. The acquisition transaction is structured as a purchase of assets resulting in a full step-up of the assets to fair market value. Under the terms of the agreement, PCA will acquire full-line corrugated products and sheet feeder operations in McClellan, California and Kingsburg, California. Click Read More below for additional detail.