Displaying items by tag: Howe Sound Pulp & Paper

Ledcor Resources and Transportation has invested $70 million to launch a marine transportation service to Howe Sound Pulp and Paper. The company has also acquired a producer of wood chips and hog fuel located in the B.C. Interior region.

The acquisition of Renew Resources and twelve new barges represents an investment of $70 million for Ledcor, making it the only company of its kind to provide all of the related supply chain services from fibre sourcing and harvesting to the processing and delivery of that fibre to end users.

Paul McElligott, former president and CEO of TimberWest, recently joined Ledcor to head up the company's resources and transportation division. "This was a very deliberate, strategic decision that Ledcor made to further diversify into the resource and transportation sectors in our province," said McElligott. "We have positioned ourselves to be the only company that has the capacity to meet all of our customer's needs. This type of vertical integration creates efficiencies in the supply chain."

Howe Sound Pulp and Paper president & CEO Mac Palmiere noted that Renew Resources has played an important role in HSPP becoming a significant renewable clean power generator and that the mill's relationship with Ledcor Resources and Transportation is vitally important in helping secure jobs at HSPP.

McElligott explains that Ledcor Resources and Transportation is creating opportunities to utilize and create value from marginal wood fibre that would have otherwise been slash burned or left on the forest floor. "Instead of doing nothing about a waste disposal problem that compromises our environment, we are producing woodchips and hog fuel for pulp and paper making and green energy production."

The Ledcor Group of Companies is a BC based, employee-owned conglomerate that operates across North America.

Metso and Howe Sound Pulp & Paper have announced an agreement to retrofit the existing Babcock and Wilcox biomass power boiler at Howe Sound's integrated pulp and paper mill in Port Mellon, B.C. Metso will convert the existing hydrograte stoker boiler to a Metso HYBEX^TM Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) boiler. This retrofit, scheduled for installation in June 2011, will increase the boiler's steaming rate on biomass, improve the overall reliability and operability of the boiler, reduce maintenance costs, and increase the mill's ability to produce power for the BC Hydro grid.

Funding for this project is part of the Green Transformation Program provided by the Canadian government.

As well, the conversion of the boiler is enabling Howe Sound to supply green power to the provincial electric grid.

"As a result of this investment in our boiler, we will become one of the largest independent producers of wood-fuelled renewable electricity in British Columbia," said Mac Palmiere, president and CEO of Howe Sound Pulp & Paper.

The order emphasizes Metso's strong capability as a full-scope supplier of bio-energy solutions.

Modification of the current boiler includes pressure parts, fuel and ash handling and installation. Complete automation of the boiler island includes the process automation system, emission monitoring and reporting, instrumentation and electrification retrofit.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and pulp and paper industries.

More than 200 Metso Power biomass-fired boilers, based on various firing techniques, have been supplied worldwide. The fluidized bed boiler was introduced in the late 1970s and since then over 120 Metso power boilers of this design have been supplied. This technology offers an economical, flexible, cost-effective and environmentally compliant solution for burning low heat value, high moisture bio-fuels, according to Metso.

The sale of Howe Sound Pulp and Paper to Paper Excellence B.V., announced in July, is now complete.

Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Limited Partnership, jointly owned by Canfor Corp. and Oji Paper Co. Ltd. of Japan, has completed the sale of all its operating assets to Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Corporation, a newly formed subsidiary of Paper Excellence B.V.

The principal asset in the sale is the pulp and paper facility at Port Mellon, B.C., capable of producing 400,000 tonnes of NBSK pulp and 230,000 tonnes of mechanical paper.

Paper Excellence B.V. continues its buying spree with an agreement to purchase the assets of Howe Sound Pulp & Paper LP. HSPP operates a pulp and paper facility at Port Mellon, BC, capable of producing 400,000 tonnes of NBSK pulp and 230,000 tonnes of mechanical paper and employs approximately 500 people. HSPP is owned by Canfor Corp. and Oji Paper Co., Ltd. of Japan.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and closing is expected during the third quarter of 2010.

Just three months ago, Paper Excellence, a business unit of Indonesia papermaker Sinar Mas, purchased the idled Mackenzie pulp mill in Mackenzie, B.C. The Dutch company has also purchased two European mills from Tembec earlier this year.

The purchase price was not disclosed.