Solenis to Increase Prices on all Water Treatment, Process and Pulp & Paper Product lines across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

With Termax, Lecta boasts an extensive range of thermal papers that is constantly evolving to meet POS, ticket and label application needs. Over the last years, Lecta has developed a series of high-quality thermal products that have recently obtained the official "No phenols added" certification issued by Ineris, the French National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risk. This certification guarantees that there is no Bisphenol A (BPA), S (BPS), F (BPF) or 12 other phenolic compounds in our Termax TFX, Termax TEX, Termax TC20X and Termax TCLLX products. In addition to this "phenol-free" recognition, the entire Termax range is manufactured in accordance with ISO 14001 and EMAS environmental standards, ISO 50001 energy management standards, ISO 9001 quality standards and ISO 45001 standards for occupational health and safety management systems. The range is also available with PEFC or FSC® C011032 Chain of Custody forest certification upon request. Termax is Lecta's fully updated range of heat-sensitive papers specially designed to grow with your business.

The second quarter was challenging with all-time low sales volumes and with currency-neutral net sales declining by 18% compared to the same period last year. The largest sales decline was in North America due to the continued inventory destocking resulting in production curtailments. This, in combination with historically high fiber costs in Europe led to a weak result. By all indications, the blastomycosis outbreak at the Escanaba mill is behind us. Following a three-week idling and deep cleaning of the facilities, operations were successfully resumed on the 8th of May. We continue to work closely with local, state and federal health experts as they complete their analysis of the testing and sample collection at the mill. Results will be made publicly available in due course. The negative financial impact of the outage and the deep clean was SEK 85 million in the quarter. From the 1st of April, our financial results are reported according to a regional structure. Business conditions differ vastly between Europe and North America, even if the current situation of high inventories and destocking applies to both regions. Region Europe’s profitability deterioration in the second quarter was primarily due to all-time-high fiber cost and soft volumes. Region North America on the other hand delivered a comparatively healthy margin, despite an operating rate of 50-60%, thanks to our cost-leadership and tight cost control.

Paper Excellence Canada announced today that Northern Pulp notified Nova Scotia Environment of its intention to pause the Environment Assessment for the new Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF) to facilitate further detailed discussions with stakeholders about how Northern Pulp and the community can best work together to foster a clean environment, maintain and protect jobs, and contribute to a strong Nova Scotian economy. “We remain concerned that the Environmental Assessment, based on the current terms of reference, is ambiguous and would not result in a clear outcome. Instead, it could lead to more uncertainty, division, and disappointment among stakeholders,” said Graham Kissack, VP, Environment, Health, Safety and Communications for Paper Excellence Canada, on behalf of Northern Pulp. “Pausing the assessment will provide time for us to further engage the community in discussion about the mill and its future, how we can best co-exist, and an appropriate Environmental Assessment process for the environmental improvement being proposed.”