Powell River’s paper mill is scheduled to resume production in May, according to mayor Dave Formosa. Speaking at the city council meeting on March 4, Formosa said he wanted to announce that the Catalyst Paper Corporation mill in Powell River will be starting up one paper machine. “We’re looking for that to happen in May,” said Formosa. “They are anticipating four- to six-week lead time so certain workers will be called back to the operation to start getting the facility ready to fire up one machine. “They will be making a new product that has not been made here before. It’s a brown, heavy paper that will line boxes, so it’s a box liner, which happens to have a good market. That’s good news.” Formosa said the mill is hoping to start up a second machine once it gets enough orders for the thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) operation. He said that is where the mill would take pulp from the TMP operation, dry it on the paper machines onto rolls, and then sell it into Asia as a raw material.

Smurfit Kappa’s Townsend Hook paper mill in the UK has introduced a new state-of-the art drying process innovation to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Traditionally, paper drying is one of the most energy-intensive aspects of the manufacturing process. The innovative new processes implemented have resulted in a 6% reduction in steam energy consumption and a 5% reduction in total CO2 emissions from the Kent-based paper mill. A ‘digital twin’ approach was used in the project to create a virtual representation of the drying system to simulate how it would perform. An early example of digital twin technology usage was during the rescue mission of the Apollo 13 spacecraft in 1970 when computer models were used to determine flight characteristics far from earth.

Overview • Third quarter of 2020 reported operating income of $300 million, adjusted operating income of $347 million • Record-high adjusted lumber earnings of $387 million, driven by unprecedented surge in lumber prices and strong operational performance across all regions despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic • Total net debt of $526 million at September 30, 2020, improvement of $331 million from prior quarter; available liquidity of $1.1 billion; net debt to capitalization of 18.6% at September 30, 2020 • Vida Group (“Vida”) completed acquisition of Bergs Timber Production AB (“Bergs”) sawmill assets • Cumulative cash deposits of $548 million on countervailing and anti-dumping duties at September 30, 2020