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Paper Excellence to invest $13M in Port Alberni mill upgrade

Paper Excellence will invest over $13 million to improve operations at its Port Alberni paper mill in British Columbia.

The Port Alberni mill, which employs over 300 people, is diversifying its portfolio with food-grade papers used by restaurants and food preparation enterprises.

The investment will be used to eliminate key production bottlenecks in the mill, and upgrade both of Port Alberni’s paper machines to produce food-grade papers.

The mill, which also produces mechanical pulp, is home to the West Coast’s largest coated paper machine and uncoated groundwood paper machine, producing 336,000 tonnes per year of directory and coated papers.

Detailed engineering for the upgrade project will start shortly, followed by procurement of needed equipment.

The company expects the upgrade will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2021.