SUPPLIER NEWS

ORDERS & CONTRACTS

Metso will supply Alabama Pine Pulp with a rebuild of its market pulp machine in Claiborne, AL, as the mill converts to roll fluff pulp production. Metso’s delivery will include both a wet end rebuild as well as the new finishing equipment needed for roll fluff pulp production. The scope of supply includes a new headbox, steambox, calender, and winder.

Minerals Technologies announced that it has entered into a long-term agreement with NewPage to supply precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) for filling supercalendered paper at the NewPage Duluth, Minnesota, paper mill. Minerals Technologies will supply PCC from a production facility in Superior, WI, that will be built on a site owned by Graymont WI.

Tieto has supplied a system to Billerud for the rough planning of production at its mills. Also, Tieto has been tasked with supplying a solution for trim optimization for the Gruvön and Skärblacka mills. The rough planning system is part of a larger system at Billerud known as BonD (Billerud on Demand), the group’s new marketing system.

Metso will supply a complete tissue production line to Hayat
Kimya
, Turkey. The line will be installed in the company’s mill
in Yeniköy, which is located near the city of Izmit. Startup is
planned for the fourth quarter of 2010.

Kadant Lamort SAS, a subsidiary of Kadant, has received a repeat order for its compact stock preparation system from a major South America-based tissue producer for installation at its plant in Mexico. The new system has a capacity of 220 tons/day and includes pulping, screening, and cleaning equipment.

UMV Coating Systems has been awarded the coating rebuild project at Saraswati Udyog India. The rebuild contains a new ABCTM Coater including the new metering element INVO® Tip. The delivery and installation is planned for mid 2010. The facility is located in Tamilnadu, India. The mill manufactures coated white duplex board from 100% recycled fibre.

Voith Paper signed a contract with Jindaxing Paper to rebuild
the company’s PM 1 press section using Voith Paper’s Single Nipco
Press technology, and also provide a 2X2 EcoSoft calender. The rebuild
is expected to be complete in December 2010
Thermal Energy International has received a non-binding
purchase order for approximately $4 million from
Kruger Pro-
ducts
, a subsidiary of Kruger, to provide a FLU-ACE® heat recov-

ery solution for its tissue mill operations located in Gatineau, QC. The purchase order and realization of the full revenue potential for this project is subject to negotiation of final contract terms but will allow Thermal Energy to immediately begin detailed engineering of this important project for Kruger Products.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Waukesha Bearings, an operating company of Dover, acquired
Inpro/Seal, a designer and manufacturer of bearing isolator technolo-
gies, effective December 30, 2009. Inpro/Seal is based in Rock Island, IL.
Ashland has agreed to sell its Hercules subsidiary’s refined
wood rosin and natural wood terpenes business (Hercules Spe-
cialty Resins) to
TorQuest Partners, a Toronto-based private
equity firm, for $75 million.

ORGANIZATION

Greycon, a developer of optimization-based solutions for production planning, scheduling and execution in the paper, film and converting industries, announced it has joined the prestigious Industry Value Network group for forest and paper. The group brings SAP customers together with leading-edge software vendors, technology vendors, systems integrators and SAP.

ABB is reorganizing its automation divisions to align their activities more closely with those of its customers. The business units currently in the Automation Products and Robotics divisions will be regrouped into two new divisions - Discrete Automation and Motion, and Low Voltage Products. The Process Automation division will remain unchanged except for the addition of the instrumentation business from the Automation Products division.

PRICING
Effective January 1, 2010, or as contract terms allowed, BASF has
increased its sales prices for all wet end paper chemicals up to 20% in
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Celanese announced that it has increased the price of all emulsions in North America effective Feb. 1, or as contracts allow. Pure acrylic emulsions increased by $0.05/wet lb, and vinyl-based emulsions (including PVAc homopolymers, vinyl acrylic and vinyl acetate ethylene) increased by $0.03/wet lb.

North American titanium dioxide (TiO2) producers have announced plans to
raise prices by $0.06/lb to offset rising raw material costs. Among producers
announcing the 5% increase are DuPont, Cristal Global, Kronos
and Tronox. The increase took effect Jan. 1 (or as contracts permit).

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