An extensive maintenance shutdown is in progress at UPM's Fray Bentos pulp mill. The preparations for the shutdown started already on 13 October 2010. The mill is to be restarted as previously estimated on 10 November 2010. The shutdown was scheduled in mutual understanding with the Uruguayan environmental authority DINAMA.

In addition to normal annual maintenance works the super heaters in the recovery boiler will be replaced. During the maintenance period, 800-1,000 additional workers will be working onsite. This is the most extensive maintenance since the start of the mill on 10 November 2007.

For further information please contact
Mr Matías Martínez, Communication Manager, UPM Uruguay, +598 456 20100

UPM's Fray Bentos Pulp Mill is located on the bank of the River Uruguay 4 kilometres east of the city of Fray Bentos, in Uruguay. The mill's annual production capacity is about 1.1 million tonnes of bleached eucalyptus pulp, which is suitable for manufacturing fine and magazine papers, carton and tissue paper. The mill started its operation in November 2007 and is among the most modern ones in the world. Designed with the latest technologies available, the mill operates in compliance with the strictest standards set by the European Union and Uruguayan legislation.

UPM leads the integration of bio and forest industries into a new, sustainable and innovation-driven future. Our products are made of renewable raw materials and are recyclable. UPM consists of three Business Groups: Energy and pulp, Paper, and Engineered materials. The Group employs around 24,000 people and it has production facilities in 15 countries. In 2008, UPM's sales amounted to EUR 9.5 billion. UPM's shares are listed on the Helsinki stock exchange. UPM – The Biofore Company – www.upm.com and www.upmbiofore.com

The Quebec Ministry of Transport planned to close Highway 148 at Thurso for at least part of the day Tuesday while Fortress Paper unloaded 100 tonnes of Finnish equipment that will be used to produce a type of pulp that can be used to make rayon.

Mill manager Marco Veilleux said the equipment arrived just before 8 a.m. after a trip by barge from Montreal along the Ottawa River. Veilleux said unloading was to start at 8 a.m. and would take at least a couple of hours. Highway 148 would be closed so the equipment can be moved by truck across the road.

Chinese customers have bought 78 per cent of the Thurso mill production even before it starts operation next summer. Fortress bought the mothballed Fraser Papers mill earlier this year and recalled workers to produce traditional pulp.

Stora Enso's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 31 March 2010 decided to appoint a Nomination Board to prepare proposals concerning (a) the number of members of   
the Board of Directors, (b) the members of the Board of Directors, (c) the remuneration for the Chairman, Vice Chairman and members of the Board of Directors and (d) the remuneration for the Chairman and members of the committees of the Board of Directors.

The Nomination Board shall consist of four members: the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and two members appointed by the two largest shareholders (one each) according to the register of shareholders on 30 September 2010.

Stora Enso's Nomination Board has now been appointed. The composition of the Nomination Board is as follows: Gunnar Brock (Chairman of the Board of  Directors), Juha Rantanen (Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors), Marcus Wallenberg (appointed by shareholder Foundation Asset Management) and Keijo Suila (appointed by shareholder Solidium). Keijo Suila is the Chairman of the Nomination Board.

For further information, please contact:
Ulla Paajanen-Sainio, Head of Investor Relations, tel. +358 2046 21242

About Stora Enso

Stora Enso is a global paper, packaging and wood products company producing newsprint and book paper, magazine paper, fine paper, consumer board, industrial packaging and wood products. The Group is the world leader in forest industry sustainability. We offer our customers solutions based on renewable raw materials.

Our products provide a climate-friendly alternative to many non-renewable materials, and have a smaller carbon footprint. Stora Enso is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Index. Stora Enso employs some 27 000 people worldwide, and our sales in 2009 amounted to EUR 8.9 billion. Stora Enso shares are listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki (STEAV, STERV) and Stockholm (STE A, STE R). In addition, the shares are traded in the USA as ADRs (SEOAY) in the International OTCQX over-the-counter market.

Whilst forest certification in the 1990s originally set out to improve forest management in tropical countries, twenty years later only one percent of the global supply of wood from certified forests originates from the tropics.

The PEFC Stakeholder Dialogue (10 November 2010, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) will elaborate on the challenges and opportunities of expanding forest certification in the tropics, especially for locally controlled forests. REGISTER NOW!

“Certification in the tropics is largely utilized by large scale commercial operations, often run by international, foreign-owned companies, with few forests under local control - managed or owned directly by families, communities or indigenous peoples - having achieved certification”, explains Caroline Stein, Acting Head of Development at PEFC International.

“Yet certification is not only an important tool to verify sustainable forest management practices, but also a pre-requisite of doing business with a wide range of private and public sector organizations requiring certification as evidence of sustainability within their respective timber procurement policies. Local forest owners that are unable to obtain certification are essentially excluded from markets requiring such evidence which in many cases has direct economic and social impacts on the people that depend on these forests for their livelihoods.”

Promoting certification of locally controlled forests especially in the tropics is one of the key activities of PEFC internationally. “Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on our planet. They are considered to be critical in tackling climate change, while at the same time contributing to the livelihoods of millions of forest dependent people”, emphasizes Ben Gunneberg, PEFC International General Secretary.

“With 25% of tropical forests under local control, there is a clear need for forest certification systems to increase their relevance to small scale forest operations to ensure that all responsible forest managers and operators, large and small, can benefit from certification.”

The PEFC Stakeholder Dialogue will look into the complex challenges facing certification in the tropics, including issues such as

• socio-political factors limiting the desirability of long-term investment
• unresolved land tenure issues
• lack of consistent market incentives to compensate for additional costs
• lack of relevant national certification standards, and
• the cost barrier of certification itself, especially for small forest owners and communities.

Participants will discuss in how far changing framework conditions can assist in overcoming these challenges and serve as important drivers to advancing certification. Such framework conditions include:

• Public and private procurement policies demanding legal and sustainable timber
• Governments developing timber assurance systems
• REDD, Carbon trading and Payments for Ecosystem Services offering increased opportunities to value and market forest products from well managed forests
• Strategic partnerships between different actors show first successes.

PEFC Workshops (Thursday, 11th November 2010)

Participants are also invited to attend the PEFC Workshops on Thursday morning.

GMOs
The revised PEFC forest management standard, to be presented for approval by the PEFC General Assembly on 12th November 2010, bans the use of GMOs in forest management.

Research suggest that GMOs offer economic and technical benefits especially in plantation forestry, while there are at the same time concerns about potential negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. With various stakeholders suggesting a more flexible approach towards GMOs, PEFC continues to monitor ongoing research, scientific findings and societal expectations. Like all PEFC criteria, the current PEFC position on GMOs may be changed by due process and will be re-considered during the next revision cycle in 2015.

New Approaches to Certification
The Stakeholder Dialogue on the previous day tackles challenges and opportunities that forest certification faces in the tropics.

PEFC as the world’s largest forest certification system is committed to increase access to PEFC certification in tropical forests, especially for its core constituency, small-, family- ,and community forest owners.Given the outcome of the discussions of the previous day, this workshop discusses the way forward for PEFC to overcome existing barriers and take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Further Information

• REGISTER NOW!
• Previous PEFC Stakeholder Dialogues

Download:

Agenda.pdf (464.78 kB)

Eco-friendly printing is one of the big issues in the print media industry, with a growing awareness of the need to protect the environment. The increasing scarcity of resources and the impact on air, water, and soil are making this urgently necessary, with the focus first and foremost on cutting CO2 emissions. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) provides support for its customers in all areas relating to environmental protection, thus helping enhance their competitiveness.

Sustainability Report 2009/2010
Dedicated to the CO2 footprint issue, the Heidelberg Sustainability Report for financial year 2009/2010, which has just been published, explains the ins and outs of the topic, its importance in the print media industry, how the CO2 footprint can be influenced, and what Heidelberg is doing to reduce it in press production and the print process. Heidelberg is committed to taking a holistic approach to eco-friendly printing, giving consideration not only to cutting the CO2 footprint but also to reducing and avoiding energy consumption, emissions, and process waste.

Through the example of manufacturing a press, the Sustainability Report 2009/2010 explains what the CO2 footprint is made up of and how it can be calculated precisely. For instance, the materials and energy used in manufacturing a Speedmaster XL 105 five-color press with coating unit add up to 218 metric tons of CO2. Examining the ratio of materials to CO2 emissions provides interesting findings. Heidelberg is currently the only press supplier that uses such a precise method and can ensure carbon offsetting for the presses it manufactures.

The Sustainability Report itself serves as an example for calculating a publication's carbon footprint. It also identifies the aspects that have the strongest impact on CO2 emissions, such as paper and the energy used - factors that therefore offer the greatest potential for savings.

Two customer profiles from Germany and the Netherlands offer a powerful demonstration of how varied the approaches to environmental protection and implementing it in practice can be and how important personal commitment is.

The report is rounded off by news on the environment, business, and social responsibility, and site and project information.

"We have a clear commitment to taking a pioneering role in environmental protection in the printing industry and providing our customers with support in putting this into practice. We see our comprehensive measures in this area as an opportunity to combine environmental and economic benefits. Printing ecologically ultimately also means thinking economically," says Stephan Plenz, Member of the Management Board at Heidelberg.  

Environmental protection along the entire value added chain
Environmental protection at Heidelberg has been an integral part of its company objectives since 1992. The company works consistently and systematically to achieve this aim along the entire value added chain, from product development and production to their use by customers. Heidelberg focuses on three aspects - wherever possible, consumption of resources, emissions, and waste should be reduced or, ideally, avoided completely. In producing the Sustainability Report 2009/2010 it was also made use of the opportunities for conserving resources and minimizing CO2, while the CO2 emissions that could not be avoided were offset. The report therefore leaves no CO2 footprint overall.

The Annual General Meeting for 2010 resolved to have the following composition for the Nomination Committee prior to the Annual General Meeting for 2011: the Chair of the Board, who shall not chair this Committee, and two additional members, one of whom will represent the company's largest shareholder and the other who will represent one of the company's four largest shareholders.

Olle Grundberg, Nemus Holding AB, has thereby been appointed as Chair of the Nomination Committee together with Jan Alkmark, Danske Bank A/S, Danmark, Sverige Filial, and Kjell Ormegard, Chair of the Board of Rottneros AB.

According to the instruction resolved by the general meeting, it is the duty of the Nomination Committee to prepare and present proposals to the general meeting for: the election of a chair and other board members; the board fee to be divided between the chair and other board members together with any remuneration for committee work; the election of and fee for an auditor, when applicable; and the election of a chair at the annual meeting of shareholders (AGM).

Shareholders wishing to submit views or present a proposal to the company's Nomination Committee may do so to the Chair of the Nomination Committee, Olle Grundberg, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 19 April 2011 at Sunne.

For further information, please contact:
Chairman of the Nomination Committee, Olle Grundberg, mobile +46 70 654 44 20
Chairman of the Board, Kjell Ormegard, mobile +46 70 668 93 76

Metso will supply two board machines to Liansheng Paper Industry (Longhai) Co., Ltd. to its mill in Longhai City in Fujian Province on the southeast coast of China. The start-up of both machines is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012. The value of the order will not be disclosed. The order is included in Paper and Fiber Technology’s Q3 orders received.

Metso’s delivery will include two board machines. The combined annual capacity of the two machines will be about 800,000 tonnes. One of the new machines will produce testliner and the other will produce fluting. Both machines utilize new technology in machine building, design and operation.

Liansheng Paper Industry (Longhai) Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Fujian Liansheng Paper Co., Ltd. In 2009, Fujian Liansheng Paper ordered a containerboard machine from Metso to its Zhangzhou mill. The new order for two machines to the Longhai mill further emphasizes the good co-operation between Fujian Liansheng Paper and Metso.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. www.metso.com

Further information for the press, please contact:
Hannu T. Pietilä, Vice President, Sales, Paper business line, Metso, tel. +358 40 503 4085

PEFC Latvia has applied for re-endorsement of its national forest certification system. Stakeholders globally are invited to provide comments and feedback during the consultation period, which is open until 12 December 2010.

"Forest owners in Latvia are keen to gain recognition by PEFC at global level. They take great pride in the new forest management standard. The standard is designed to comply with PEFC International’s Sustainability Benchmarks, while at the same time incorporating the unique tradition and culture of forest management in Lativa,” said Mr. Arnis Muižnieks, Chairman of PEFC Latvia Council.

Latvia is one of the most forested countries in Europe, with forest covering more than 55% of the Latvian territory.

With about half of the Latvian forests owned by the state, there are about 150.000 private forest owners in Latvia, who, together with their families, form a remarkable part of society in country with a population of just over 2 million people. These forest owners, whose holdings average less than ten hectares, are instrumental in maintaining the cultural, historical and environmental heritage of the Latvian countryside.

The forest sector is also of strategic importance to Latvia’s national economy. Of all the companies registered in Latvia, 8% are linked to the forest sector, which employs around 5% of the labour force. The forest sector’s share of Latvia’s gross domestic product is about 5%; in 2009, the value of products turned out by the sector reached 1.2 billion Euros, including an export value of 0.9 billion Euros.

The global public consultation is a required element in the assessment process by PEFC International, complementing the Latvian national public consultation, which was part of the standards development process and held at the beginning of this year.

The Latvian national forest certification system was previously endorsed by PEFC between 2001 and 2008.

Please submit your comments by 12 December 2010 using PEFC's Online Consultation Tool.

Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, today announced the final conclusions of its Global Asset Network Optimization (GANO) project which impact eight sites globally. The measures are part of the company's overall 2009/2010 restructuring program and will lead to a reduction of up to 100 positions worldwide. Implementation will be finalized by 2013.

Following a reorganization of the Textile Chemicals Business Unit (BU), the BU headquarters will move from Reinach, Switzerland to Singapore. The move strategically locates the BU management at the center of the world's main textile markets. The Reinach-based application development laboratories for technical textiles and finishing will relocate to Muttenz, Switzerland. Muttenz will also remain the location for the BU's dedicated European sales and marketing operation.

Research & Development staff currently based at Reinach will transfer to Frankfurt, the global hub for Group R&D. This move supports the strategy of creating a 'critical mass' for R&D in Frankfurt, enhancing collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Recognizing the need to be close to key customers, the Paper Specialties BU HQ team will remain in Switzerland, moving from Reinach to Muttenz. Earlier this year the Reinach-based Leather Services BU staff also completed the move to Muttenz. As a consequence, Clariant will consolidate its activities in Switzerland at two locations - Muttenz and Pratteln (Corporate Center), and exit Reinach by 2013.

In France, the relocation of the Clariant French headquarters from Nanterre to Lamotte has been proposed and is being discussed with workers' representatives.

Clariant will also close production sites at McHenry (US), Delta (Canada) and Sefakoy (Turkey) in order to consolidate country production arrangements, thereby reducing costs and management complexity. In Guatemala City (Guatemala) Clariant will amalgamate three sites into a single production, warehousing and office facility. At Roha (India) and Shizuoka (Japan) individual production lines will be closed.

The implementation of these measures will lead to a reduction of up to 100 positions worldwide, of which approximately 70 are in Europe, including 27 in Switzerland. A further 60 Switzerland-based employees will be offered transfers to Germany and Singapore.

The GANO project was established in 2009 to address the structural weaknesses of Clariant's asset base and the long-term overcapacity issues of its production network. Including all transferring and receiving locations, approximately 30 sites are included in the GANO project.