Packaging manufacturers worried by 50% tariffs on steel, aluminum

Due to uncompetitive wood prices from the Polish State Forestry Monopoly and significantly reduced market demand for paper and cardboard products, the company has decided to significantly reduce the planned multi-year strategic investment project at MM Kwidzyn with a focus on energy, further pulp integration and product portfolio, which was announced at the end of April 2023 . MM Kwidzyn will instead focus investments on further increasing its already high share of renewable energy from the current 69%. In addition, discussions were started with employee representatives about a possible closure of the small paper machine (PM 3) for packaging kraft paper and about restructuring, which could lead to a reduction in the workforce of around 110 employees. MM Kwidzyn will continue pulp and virgin fiber board production unchanged. In the paper sector, the PM 1 and PM 2 paper machines will continue to produce up to 360,000tpa of uncoated fine paper and 40-80,000tpa of “IPACK TM Strong Pro” (packaging kraft paper). Since one of the fine paper machines has not been converted, no sack kraft paper will be produced in Kwidzyn.

Over the past year Superior Lithographics, a Los Angeles-based large format printing specialist of litho sheets and top sheets for the corrugated box industry as well as printing and converting folding cartons, has seen impressive improvements in many vital areas including product quality and data on product consistency stemming from state-of-the-art color and quality measuring systems outfitted on its new Koenig & Bauer Rapida 145 seven-color 57-inch press. “Since our new Koenig & Bauer Rapida 145 57-inch seven color press was installed last summer, we’ve seen incredible improvements within our facility,” says Jeff Ku, Vice President of Operations for Superior. “Our data has shown a 32% increase in overall sheet throughput. We’ve also seen an impressive 25% decrease in make-ready time. All this has resulted in our company experiencing an overall growth in business.”

Hugues Simon, President and CEO, commented: "We are pleased with our third quarter 2024 performance. Sequentially stronger results were driven by our Containerboard business, where higher average selling prices and lower production expenses offset the impact of higher raw material costs. Specialty Products results were stable, with stronger selling prices fully mitigating raw material cost and sales mix headwinds. As forecasted, third quarter Tissue Papers results were lower than the previous quarter due to higher average raw material costs and lower pricing related to the expected changes in the mix of products sold." Highlights: Sales of $1,201 million (compared with $1,180 million in Q2 2024 and $1,198 million in Q3 2023); Operating income of $36 million (compared with $34 million in Q2 2024 and $80 million in Q3 2023);