VANCOUVER, BC — The University of Northern BC campus in Prince George will be home to one of the most modern research facilities in western Canada. The I.K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Laboratory, as it…
VANCOUVER, BC — The University of Northern BC campus in Prince George will be home to one of the most modern research facilities in western Canada. The I.K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Laboratory, as it will be called, has received a $500 000 contribution, from Ike Barber, Slocan chairman and chief executive officer, as well as $400 000 from the company he heads to create a new position dedicated to research on interior forests. “We have an excellent forest resource base in the interior of BC,” Barber said. “The research-and-development work made possible by these contributions will help government and industry foresters balance the need to preserve biodiversity and sustain the forest resources with the need to harvest in a sustainable manner.”
POWER SUPPLY: BORALEX CONSIDERS COGEN PLANT IN QUEBEC
MONTREAL, QC — Boralex Inc. and Norampac Inc. are looking into the possible construction of a $43-million wood-waste cogeneration plant, which would supply electricity and steam to Norampac’s containerboard mill in Cabano, QC. The proposed plant would fulfill the mills’ requirements for steam and electricity, while allowing it to recycle a significant portion of its wood waste. Boralex, a subsidiary of Cascades Inc., is an independent power producer with an installed capacity of 160 megawatts (MW).
TAKEOVER: FCC SEEKS TO BUY ITS PARENT
VANCOUVER, BC — In a move that was the subject of much speculation, Fletcher Challenge Canada (FCC) has announced it will purchase the pulp and paper assets of its New Zealand-based parent company, Fletcher Challenge Ltd. The reported sale price is over CDN$2billion. This will give FCC operations around the Pacific Rim with a total capacity of more than two millions tonnes per year (t/y) of groundwood papers and more than 1 million t/y of pulp. Value of the company is said to be more than CDN$5 billion. Robert Stewart, former chairman of Scott Paper Ltd. in Canada, has been named chairman and acting president and ceo. Stewart had been a member of the board of FCC. Soon after the deal was announced, it was reported that FCC would be on the acquisition trail, with Pacifica Papers a likely target.
BRIEFLY
Weyerhaeuser Co. has announced it will honor MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.’s environmental pledges. The sensitive issue was seen as a potential roadblock in the way of Weyerhaeuser’s takeover of the Canadian icon of the forest products.
Old newspapers and office papers are now banned from landfills in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. A 50% surcharge above the $65 per tonne tip fee will be levied against loads of waste that contain more than 10% newspaper. Businesses will be affected most by the ban, since households have curbside collection and other recycling means at their disposal.
Montreal-based Kruger Inc. has won the Dow Jones Gold Quality Award, which is given annually to the best newsprint supplier. The selection is based on such criteria as sheet runnability, printability and over-all service.
Paper machine clothing suppliers Asten of Charleston, SC, and JWI of Ottawa, ON, plan to merge, creating a new company, AstenJohnson. It will have German-based Heimbach as its European partner.
Albany International Corp., Albany, NY, has announced plans to buy shares of the paper machine clothing businesses of the Geschmay Group for about $232 million (US) in cash.
Paris-based Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux plans to acquire Nalco Chemical Company, Naperville, IL, for $4.1 billion (US) in cash. As well, Degremont, a subsidiary of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, has acquired English China Clays’ water treatment and paper process chemicals business, Calgon Corp. The deal was valued at $425 million (US).
ACQUISITION: LOUISIANA-PACIFIC, BOISE CASCADE BID FOR FOREX
VAL D’OR, QC — Two weeks after Louisiana-Pacific Corp. announced it planned to acquire Groupe Forex Inc., the leading Canadian producer — and the fourth largest in North America — of oriented strand board (OSB), Boise Cascade Corp. said it was also interested. In the original deal, Louisiana-Pacific building products company said it would pay about $408 million (US) in cash and assume about $50 million in debt to acquire the Val d’Or, QC-based Forex. Under the terms of the agreement, Louisiana-Pacific has offered to acquire all of Forex’s 23-million fully diluted shares for $26 per share. It was reported that Boise Cascade will top that offer, a report that sent Forex class A shares up by CDN$2.25 to $28.50 each.
The Forex acquisition is designed to increase Louisiana-Pacific’s OSB business, which is taking market share away from plywood because of its lower price at comparable strength. Forex’s three board plants in Quebec were key to the deal, said Mark Suwyn, Louisiana-Pacific’s chairman and chief executive officer.
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