Paper Excellence announced the permanent closure of the Mackenzie Pulp Mill located in Mackenzie, BC. Production at the mill was originally curtailed in June 2020 due to market impacts caused by COVID-19 and lack of local economic fibre. Since acquiring the Mackenzie mill in 2010, Paper Excellence has invested more than $360 million in the facility. However, despite these investments and the committed team of employees in Mackenzie, the facility’s small production capacity and the ongoing lack of local economic fibre meant the mill could not be globally competitive. Paper Excellence is restarting one of the paper machines in its Powell River mill in early May, investing with and establishing jointly beneficial partnerships with First Nations, and making a $13 million capital investment in the Port Alberni facility to diversify into higher-value markets. Furthermore, Paper Excellence is working towards making a significant capital investment in its Crofton facility and restarting its facility in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

This August, J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) volunteered to host a visit to our operations as part of the Atlantic Canadian Teachers’ Tour, held in Truro, Nova Scotia. Educators from all over the Atlantic Provinces gathered to learn more about the forestry industry and how it impacts our region. The three-day tour involved tours of local mills, private woodlot owners land and JDI freehold land, pre-commercial thinning and commercial thinning.

Norske Skog Saugbrugs has since 2006 developed new and sustainable products based on fibre. CEBINA is a natural fibre product and add rheology control in fluids and armouring in solid materials. Following significant marketing efforts and customer testing in 2020, Norske Skog is proud to announce that CEBINA is now sold to customers in Norway and internationally. “The CEBINA sales in the fourth quarter are incredibly exciting. We have been able to establish promising cooperation with companies, consultants and researchers, who see the unique potential in the green and sustainable product we have developed,” says Hugo Harstad, Commercial Development Director of CEBINA at Norske Skog Saugbrugs. Product development of CEBINA continues at full speed, and Saugbrugs works closely with, among others, Re-Turn in Fredrikstad to identify new applications. In 2020, a new variant of CEBINA has been developed in which the water in which the fibrils are suspended has been replaced with a polymer. This enables the use of CEBINA in, for example, epoxy floor coverings and adhesives.