CEPI, the Confederation of European Paper Industries, and CITPA, the Confederation of Paper and Board Converters in Europe, have revised their Industry Guideline for the compliance of paper and board materials and articles for food contact.

The purpose of the Industry Guideline is, in the absence of a specific measure for paper and board, to enable manufacturers of paper and board materials and articles intended for food contact to demonstrate compliance with the Framework Regulation, (EC) No 1935/2004.  The Guideline is however offered only as voluntary guidance for operators in the industry and there is no intention to replace existing national legislation, which will always take precedence.

Paper manufacturing companies, representing around 50% of the European production of packaging grades, and 20 major converting companies covering a large share of the European paper-based packaging production implemented the Industry Guideline during 2010, the first year of its publication. Many other papermakers and converters are in the process of adopting it in their operations. A further survey of the continuing uptake of the Guideline is foreseen in the coming months following the publication of this revised version.

When the Industry Guideline was conceived, relatively frequent revisions were foreseen to take account of developments. The specific aspects covered in this first revision are:

• the publication of the new CEPI Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
• the coming into force of Commission Regulation on plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food, (EC) No 10/2011)
• the update of German Recommendation on paper and board for food contact (BfR Rec. XXXVI) ,and
• the concerns over the presence of mineral oil hydrocarbons in food

The revision has been made by the same process as the first issue through the work of a Cross Industry Group. The Group will continue its monitoring activity of the sector and the collection of inputs to be taken into account for further revisions. “The paper and board industry has envisaged its Guideline as a moving document which needs to be updated. This is the challenge we have adopted within the industry, supplying safe products and demonstrating compliance with relevant legislation”, said John Swift, Chair of the Cross Industry Group responsible for drafting the Industry Guideline.

Wausau Paper (NYSE:WPP) is proud to announce the launch of Eco Select RT™, a new to the world product family of innovative and sustainable release liner products, utilizing recycled post-consumer waste (PCW) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified fiber. Wausau Paper is a leading provider of specialty papers to the release liner industry with a long history of innovation to meet the needs of the market.

"Our integrated manufacturing model allows us to combine our proprietary papermaking expertise and coating technologies in the same facility. This allows us to create unique solutions to meet customer needs with unparalleled speed to market. Eco Select RT™ will enable our customers to provide an environmentally sustainable solution while providing the superior performing products they have come to expect from Wausau Paper", said Sheila Widule, Strategic Marketing Manager.

Our Eco Select RT™ line fulfills an unmet need driven by the growing trend of environmentally conscience laminators and end-users. This new product family is consistent with our vision to be a leading provider of paper-based, environmentally sensitive brands and solutions to the markets we serve, driven through a model of collaborative innovation" said Jon Bast, Vice President Sales & Marketing.

China's C&S Paper has started up a 25,000 tonne/yr tissue machine at a greenfield plant in Tangshan city, Hebei province. The unit, commissioned in early August, was supplied by Toscotec. It has a width of 3.5m and a design speed of 1,500 m/min. The machine was scheduled to start up at the end of last year. The firm declined to comment on the delay. The tissue producer is pressing ahead with the construction and installation of three other Toscotec units at two mills.

The identical machines will be 3.6 m wide, and have a design speed of 1,600 m/min. The first one is expected to come online in late September at the firm's site in Chengdu city, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The other two will go to the firm's existing mill in Jiangmen city, Guangdong province. A contact close to the project said that civil engineering work is almost completed. The Jiangmen startups are scheduled for the end of this year.

C&S also operates three other tissue mills in China, with one in Zhongshan city, Guangdong province, and one in Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province, and the other in Xiaogan city, Hubei province.

In addition to the new 25,000 tonne/yr unit at the Tangshan facility, the firm has a total tissue capacity of 211,000 tonnes/yr.

New mill planned: C&S signed an investment agreement with authorities in Luoding city, Guangdong province to build a new tissue plant there last week.

According to the firm, a combined capacity of 120,000 tonnes/yr of tissue will come online by March 2014.
But other details of the project are unknown for now.

Domtar Corporation has announced the launching of an interactive, educational site The Forest Academy. The tool, introduced a few months ago, has reached a milestone of 25,000 visitors. The Forest Academy builds on Domtar's original youth education website "Tree World" that had been developed in the 1990s. It provides elementary school students with fun, informative games about trees and forest ecology,

"We're thrilled that teachers and parents are finding the new site to be a useful and engaging learning tool," notes Pascal Bossé, Domtar Vice-President Communications and Investor Relations. "We put a lot of effort into creating the site's top quality educational content, but the flash programming of the games is what makes it fun for adults and kids to learn, and what makes The Forest Academy so unique."

In addition to the games, teachers will find a faculty manual with a wealth of information about trees and forest ecology. For more information, please visit http://www.theforestacademy.com.

SOURCE DOMTAR CORPORATION

Finch Paper LLC announces the appointment of Michael McLarty as Vice President of Forest Management and Wood Procurement. In this role, Mr. McLarty will oversee Finch Forest Management and its staff of professional foresters, as well as lead the wood sourcing team to secure and sustain timber sourced from local, Northeastern forests.

Mr. McLarty is a Registered Professional Forester from Northwestern Ontario with more than 15 years of experience in the forest industry. He was most recently the  Timberlands Manager for Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corporation, where he managed fiber procurement and forestland and the company’s forest seedling nursery. Prior to moving to Nova Scotia, Mike was employed with Kimberly-Clark, Neenah Paper, and with Buchanan Forest Products, where he was responsible for forest management activities on both the Ogoki and Kenogami Forests. He is also experienced in strategic, long-term timber harvest planning, regeneration and silviculture programs.
Michael succeeds Roger Dziengeleski, who recently retired from Finch Paper after 33 years of service. During his tenure, Finch became a leader in sustainable forestry standards and launched the innovative Finch Forest Management division, which provides consulting forestry services to landowners across the Northeast.
Finch Paper President and CEO Joseph F. Raccuia said the addition of Mr. McLarty to Finch’s senior leadership team will help drive the company’s sustainability initiatives and further establish Finch Forest Management as an ever-growing, profitable segment of Finch Paper.

“Finch was the first integrated paper mill in the U.S. to receive both Forest Management and Chain-of-Custody certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council and is one of only a few paper companies with an active forestry staff. I’m happy to have Mike continue our industry leading forestry efforts,” Mr. Raccuia said, adding that with its new Family Forest Owner program, Finch is again leading the way in helping small landowners meet certification standards and obtain premium market value from their wood.

Michael earned an Honors Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1999.

Metsä Tissue, part of Metsä Group and a major European tissue and cooking paper products supplier, will update its organization. As a first step, the Management Team will be restructured. The new roles and responsibilities will be valid from 1 December 2012 onwards.

“With this change we will reduce complexity as well as clarify roles and responsibilities. Given the regional character of the tissue business, this move will strengthen our organization regionally and bring decision-making closer to our customers,” says Mika Joukio, CEO of Metsä Tissue Corporation.

“The new organizational structure will support our ambition to improve profitability, stay agile and ensure a strong platform for future growth,” Joukio adds.

The Management Team of Metsä Tissue Corporation will consist of the following persons:

Mika Joukio, CEO
Mariusz Jedrzejewski, SVP, Tissue, Central Eastern Europe
Jori Sahlsten, SVP, Tissue, North Eastern Europe
Mark Watkins, SVP, Tissue, Scandinavia
Christoph Zeiler, SVP, Tissue, Western Europe
Juha Tilli, SVP, Baking & Cooking
Markus Holm, CFO
Ghita Jansson-Kiuru, SVP, Human Resources
Hubert Schönbein, SVP, Brand Marketing and International Sales
Lars Warvne, SVP, Technology

The E-Crane® Group of Companies, leading manufacturer of cranes for handling bulk materials, has succeeded in the acquisition of the Polish company ‘Famaba’, an ISO9001 certified company with 275 employees and revenues exceeding 20 million USD/16 million EURO in the year 2011. Another milestone in E-Crane’s ambitious business plan has been reached.

With this acquisition, E-Crane® fully owns a strategic supplier of high grade steel constructions for the crane industry while at the same time, Famaba stays an important European player in the market for foundations and towers for wind turbines.

Within the E-Crane® Group, Famaba will be operating as a fully independent unit. The already excellent cooperation between the E-Crane® organization and Famaba will be optimized and intensified. It is expected that in the short term this will result in a substantial increase in the capacity for assembling harbor cranes in Adegem as well as important savings in several logistics processes.

This acquisition guarantees employment for E-Crane® personnel at the Adegem (Belgian) assembly facility. Depending on market conditions, a further expansion is under consideration. The board and management of the E-Crane® Group of Companies stay committed to keeping and even increasing employment at the Adegem facility as well as at the Dutch and US based subsidiaries despite the tough economic conditions.

Source: E-Crane Worldwide

Tieto and Efecte are launching an automated self-service channel for corporate customers, providing employees with a single location for subscribing to all services required for their work. Implemented as a cloud service, the self-service channel improves work productivity as employees can subscribe to all required services directly and monitor the progress of the ordering process in real time.

"An easy-to-use self-service system will replace cumbersome telephone calls, email communications and printed forms. We aspire to boost work performance while offering employees access to a better service," says Karl Myréen, Head of Offering Development, EUS at Tieto.

Employees can use a single service to place an order for a new PC, handset, software or workstation, for example, or submit an error notification. All of the services that the organization needs are also available for viewing at a single location. This improves job satisfaction and productivity.

The self-service channel provides seamless integration with the support and ordering systems and is fully scalable according to the organization's size and geographical location and the needs of various personnel groups. The service supports the requirements of multinational organizations, various user roles and multiple language versions. The service guarantees a positive user experience.

"The partnership with Tieto reinforces the distribution of our self-service channel, in Finland, Scandinavia and internationally. In line with our strategy, we can now focus on the development of the self-service channel, thus also generating added value for the service offering of Tieto, a pioneer of outsourcing services. The most important thing, however, is that employees are provided with a user-friendly, transparent channel for all service subscription operations while simultaneously boosting work efficiency," says Efecte CEO Ari Rikkilä.

TIETO CORPORATION