Buckeye Technologies Inc. (NYSE:BKI) announced the release of its 2012 Sustainability Report. This report (which summarizes calendar year 2011 results) highlights Buckeye’s continuing efforts to reduce fossil fuel usage, water usage, solid waste production, and air emissions. Buckeye has reduced greenhouse gas emissions which are generated by fossil fuels and purchased electricity by over 10% per ton since 2007, and now generates 77% of its total energy needs from renewable biomass. In addition, significant reductions of water used daily were achieved (down 6% since 2007) while reducing wastes by 30% since 2007. The report also shares information about Buckeye’s social impacts, including employees’ impressive response to a renewed corporate-wide commitment to safety, reducing the Total Incidence Rate from 3.5 to 2.0 during the reporting period.

Buckeye announced separately in May 2012 that our Foley plant located near Perry, FL, achieved certifications from three internationally recognized organizations that promote responsibly managed forests: the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC™). These certifications followed a rigorous year-long process of developing documents, manuals and procedures to guide fiber procurement and track fiber chain of custody. The purpose of these certifications is to ensure that companies which use forest resources meet society’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Buckeye is committed to monitoring and reviewing its sustainable forestry programs and to continually improving and broadening the practice of sustainable forestry. Certification to these standards further demonstrates Buckeye’s commitment to meeting customer demand for products that are derived from forest fiber that is legally harvested and well-managed.

John Crowe, Chairman and CEO, emphasized that “Buckeye is continuing to make progress on our sustainability strategy which embraces the importance of protecting the environment and resources for future generations while leveraging long-term business and shareholder value.”

CelluForce, the world leader in the commercial development of NanoCrystalline Cellulose (NCC), also referred to as Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNC), is participating in two  upcoming industry conferences:  the ‘Nanocellulose Summit 2012’ in Kyoto, Japan on October 15, 2012, and ‘Investing in Cellulose 2012’, in London, UK, on November 5, 2012. Dr. Richard Berry, Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, and Jean Moreau, President and Chief Executive Officer of CelluForce, will be presenting at these conferences respectively.

‘The 209^th Symposium on Sustainable Humanosphere: Nanocellulose Summit 2012’welcomes the world’s top scientists and large research project leaders involved with nanocellulose to present on each country’s current status and prospects concerning nanocellulose research and industrialization.

In its second edition, ‘Investing in Cellulose 2012’ is a global conference on specialty cellulose, organized by CelCo. The company focuses primarily on the specialty cellulose business including the organization of cellulose training courses as wellasadvisory and consultancy to the industry.

What:                  CelluForce – What do we do?

Who:                   Richard Berry, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, CelluForce

When:                 Monday, October 15, 2012, 4 p.m. JST

Where:                Kyoto Terrsa Venue, Shinmachi Kujo Minami-ku, Kyoto, Japan (Kyoto Citizen’s Amenity Plaza)

What:                  Nanocrystalline technologies: Bringing Innovation to the Market

Who:                   Jean Moreau, President and CEO, CelluForce

When:                 Monday, November 5, 2012, 2:30 p.m. BST

Where:               The Royal Horseguards Hotel, 2 Whitehall Court Whitehall, London SW1A 2EJ, United Kingdom

Log and lumber imports to China were down 19% during first eight months of 2012, y-o-y, with the biggest declines seen of logs imported from Russia and the US, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly

Importation of both logs and lumber to China fell substantially in 2012, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. Total imports, by value, during the first eight months was 4.3 billion dollars, or 19% less than in 2011, with the biggest declines in logs imported from Russia and the US, and in lumber from North America.

The reduction in construction activities in China during 2012 has resulted in reduced demand for lumber, and as a consequence, a sharp decline in the importation of softwood logs and lumber to the country. During the first eight months this year, China imported logs and lumber worth 4.3 billion dollars, or 19 percent less than the same period last year, as reported in the Wood Resource Quarterly (www.woodprices.com). By volume, log imports were down 17 percent and lumber imports down five percent.

The importation of softwood lumber in August was down for the third consecutive quarter to 1.1 million m3, which was a decline of 21 percent from May and 23 percent lower than in August 2011. Canada and Russia are the two dominant suppliers of softwood lumber to China, together accounting for 84 percent of the total imports, with the US, Chile and New Zealand making up most of the remaining import volume.

During the first eight months of this year, Russia, Chile and New Zealand have increased their shipments to China, while volumes from North America have declined. Exports from the US are down as much as 41 percent as compared to the same period in 2011.

In August, the average import value for all softwood lumber imported to China was down nine dollars to $203/m3 from a year ago, according to Customs data. The cost for Russian lumber fell as much as $19/m3, while Canadian average costs were down only five dollars to $200/m3 over the past year. Costs for Canadian lumber have steadily increased from earlier this year and here at a 12 month-high in August.

Chinese softwood log imports have fallen dramatically this year. From January through August, imports from Russia were down 21 percent, and from the US, 31 percent as compared to the same period in 2011. The two other major log-supplying countries, New Zealand and Canada, have shipped practically the same volume this year as last year.

With the reduced demand for logs by the lumber industry in China, log prices have fallen through most of 2012. According to the latest issue of the WRQ, average import softwood log values in the 3Q/12 were down 13 percent from a year ago, and domestic Chinese-fir log prices have fallen about six percent in 12 months.

The European paper recycling rate reached an impressive 70.4% as announced today by the ERPC (European Recovered Paper Council) in their annual monitoring report. The report shows that the total amount of paper collected and recycled in the paper sector remains stable at 58 million tonnes, the same as in the previous years, but with an increase of 18 million tonnes since 1998, the base year for the first voluntary commitment the paper value chain set itself for increasing recycling in Europe. Since 2000 the recycling rate has increased by 18%-points due in part to the excellent work of the ERPC.

A new reporting format includes more indicators in addition to the volumes and recycling rate. For example, the number of European countries exceeding a 70% recycling rate going up to 13, whereas 12 EU countries still have under 60% recycling rates for paper, indicating further potential for increasing paper recycling in Europe. The number of cycles a paper fibre goes through in the loop reached, on average, 3.4 (compared to the global average of 2.4).

In addition to the quantitative progress, a lot of qualitative work has been done to establish an ecodesign towards improved recyclability and in the area of waste prevention. The results include pioneering work to give recycling solid and scientific support, such as the adoption of scorecards to assess the recyclability of paper-based products.

Extra Info:

• 2011 ERPC Monitoring Report: http://www.paperforrecycling.eu/publications/erpc-publications
• The European Recovered Paper Council (ERPC) was set up after the successful launch of the first

‘European Declaration on Paper Recovery’ as an industry own-initiative in November 2000 with the aim to monitor the progress made towards meeting the targets set out in the European Declaration. In
2011 the industry committed itself to meet and maintain a voluntary recycling rate target of 70% in EU 27 plus Switzerland and Norway by 2010, which is higher than in any other region in the world, and qualitative targets in areas such as waste prevention, ecodesign, and research and development. ERPC monitors the progress of the European Declaration openly and transparently and coordinates the joint work to achieve the set targets. Additionally, ERPC

•  coordinates the commitments of all the Signatories and Supporters.
•  takes steps to improve the quality of the information available.
•  discusses all relevant matters regarding the successful operation of the European Declaration.
•  coordinates public information on the achievements of the European Declaration.
•  produces annual reports.
• Members of ERPC are CEPI, CITPA, ERPA, ETS, INGEDE, INTERGRAF, FEPE. Supporters include the EASDP, EuPIA, FEICA, FINAT, RADTECH Europe. The European Commission, DG Environment and DG Enterprise, are permanent observers of the ERPC.

International technology Group ANDRITZ has received an order from C&S Paper Yunfu, Luoding, Guangdong Province, China, to supply two PrimeLineST tissue machines, each equipped with a steel yankee. Start-up is scheduled for the end of 2013.

The tissue machines have a design speed of 1,900 m/min and a width of 5.56 m. The steel yankees will be 18 ft in diameter with a shell length of 6.2 m, making them the world’s largest steel yankees for tissue. ANDRITZ’s scope of supply also includes the complete stock preparation plant as well as automation and drive systems.

These will the first PrimeLineST machines in China.  The design of the PrimeLine ST is to reduce energy consumption in the drying process, which uses relatively cheap steam only.  A large, high-precision steel yankee is combined with a steam-heated hood to achieve the maximum possible output at stable runnability, and this is achieved with significant cost savings.

The machinery and equipment will be manufactured at ANDRITZ’s production facilities in Europe and China. With this turnkey delivery, the PULP & PAPER business area is strengthening its position as one of the leading suppliers of tissue machines and local services in China.

Support staff and facilities are expanding to help customers meet the challenges of today’s process operations – wherever they are

Emerson Process Management has embarked on a programme to strengthen its support service capabilities for customers around the world. In 2012, Emerson extended its current footprint of 374 global service locations by opening eight full-service facilities, staffed by trained, certified personnel. In the next few years, the company expects to increase the number of service facilities by nine per year, while expanding its support staff at a pace roughly double the underlying automation market growth rate.

"Our service expansion plans are driven by two challenges our customers face today," said Emerson Process Management’s Terry Buzbee, President, Final Control. "Developed countries are losing experienced personnel due to demographic shifts, and process facilities are being commissioned in emerging markets where enough skilled workers are hard to find. As a result, process manufacturers are turning to us more and more for services to keep their assets performing at peak efficiency. Our commitment is to meet these needs with local service centre facilities and skilled service teams."

As the worldwide drive for resources and goods grows beyond traditional markets, Emerson is expanding to provide prompt local service to process operations wherever they are. To date this has included commissioning service facilities in Brazil, Qatar, India, Spain, Italy, China and Turkey. Within a year, the company plans to open nine additional service centres – including two in Asia, two in the Middle East and Africa, one in Latin America and three in Europe. Emerson is also adding new capabilities and support services to meet customer needs that a few years ago didn’t exist or were met by in-house resources.

With the shrinking of plant maintenance budgets and the availability of technology to predict automation asset performance, Emerson has developed a family of reliability services including asset prioritisation, on-site or remote asset management, and turnaround planning and management.

More customers are running to failure and also running with less maintenance staff and spares inventory. Emerson is filling that gap with Certified Repair and Quick Ship product manufacturing and service centres. These service centres provide machining, manufacturing, fabrication, actuation, instrumentation and quality assurance, and are designed to operate at faster than factory lead-times to the following KPI Responsiveness Standards:

• Service centre location less than two hours from customer plant
• 24 hour replacement parts delivery
• 24/7 repair availability (on-site and depot) to customer timeline requests
• New product delivery in five days (10 days for systems)

"Our capability to quickly ship new and repaired products to customers when they need them is critical to getting their plants up and running," said Buzbee. "We want to be the partner our customers know they can trust to not only get them back on-line, but also keep them running reliably."

By further augmenting customers’ existing operating staff with Emerson service specialists to help plan the adoption of new technology and maintenance best practices, plant uptime can be increased more quickly and reliably. Customers can also take advantage of Emerson’s extensive online training capabilities to re-skill workers without travel costs or time away from their facility.

"Our mission is to develop and expand all of these local service and execution capabilities in every major industrial cluster within each world area," said Buzbee.

Sonoco, one of the largest diversified global packaging companies, today announced that Marty F. Pignone has been named vice president, Paper North America, effective December 1, 2012. Pignone will replace John M. Grups, 61, division vice president and general manager, who will be retiring from Sonoco following a 36-year career.

In this position, Pignone, 55, will have responsibility for Sonoco's 12 uncoated recycled paperboard mills in the United States,Canada and Mexico and related support functions. He reports to John Colyer, vice president, Paper and Industrial Converted Products.

"Following John's decision to retire after nearly four decades with Sonoco, it was important that we installed a seasoned paper manufacturing veteran to head this manufacturing-intensive operation," said Colyer. "Marty previously led our North American paper mills for eight years and implemented several key safety and operating excellence initiatives that improved performance during his tenure. In this new role, we're asking him to improve operating performance and safety near-term, while further developing our paper manufacturing management team."

Pignone joined the Company in 1997 and was elevated to division vice president and general manager of Paper, North America in 2000. He became vice president, Global Manufacturing in 2009 and later vice president, Operating Excellence, where he has led the Company's global manufacturing improvement initiatives as well as supply management and product quality improvement. Pignone graduated in 1978 from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and received a Master of Science in business administration from Stanford University in 1991. Prior to joining Sonoco he worked for General Electric and Kodak.

Grups' retirement is effective March 31, 2013. During the transition, he will work with Pignone on several manufacturing initiatives. Grups took over the Company's Primary Materials Group in September 2011 after serving as staff vice president, Operating Excellence for eight years. Grups is a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. He also holds a master's degree from Purdue University in industrial management.

SOURCE Sonoco

Kemira's co-determination negotiations in Finland have been concluded. The negotiations concerned Kemira's sites in Helsinki, Espoo, Oulu, Sastamala, Kuusankoski, Joutseno, Vaasa and Harjavalta.

In the beginning of the negotiations it was estimated that the personnel reductions may affect approximately 260 employees' working in Finland. As a result of the negotiations, the head count reduction will be 152 in Finland, out of whom 79 persons will leave the company through pension schemes. Kemira will continue analyzing the outsourcing opportunities. The terminations will be carried out by the end of October. Kemira will support the affected employees by providing outplacement services which aim at re-training and re-employment.

The personnel reductions are related to the restructuring program "Fit for Growth" announced in July. The program aims to improve the company's profitability, internal efficiency and to accelerate growth in the emerging markets. The expected EUR 60 million cost savings impact of the program will occur as follows: EUR 10 million in 2012, EUR 50 million in 2013 and EUR 60 million in 2014. The ultimate goal of the program is to reach at least 10% EBIT margin in 2014. Redundancies will account for 50% of the expected savings. The targeted cost savings for Kemira's sites in Finland will be achieved with fewer redundancies than originally anticipated.

The expected restructuring charges connected to the program amount to EUR 85 million of which EUR 35 million will be cash cost and EUR 50 million being write-downs. EUR 55 million of the restructuring charges will be booked in the second half of 2012, and the balance in the first half of 2013.

The organizational restructuring also affects Kemira's sites outside of Finland and the negotiations in the sites affected by the possible personnel reductions will be completed in each country according to the local legislation.

New power plant turbines in Belovskaya and Tom-Usinskaya will receive ultramodern automation with highest possible system availability and usability.

Metso and the Russian company Power Machines signed a contract on delivering Metso DNA automation systems for steam turbines in two modernized power stations in the industrial region of Belovskaya and Tom-Usinskaya in Middle West Siberia. The delivery for the newly built turbines will be made for the Kuzbassenergo, a member of the Siberian Generating Company (SGK), as the end user.
The Metso DNA Steam Turbine Controller includes all steam turbine control and steam turbine governor functions required for safe and reliable steam turbine operation. A robust system has a proven track record with components that are utilized in power plant applications worldwide, implementing a redundancy concept that covers all system levels.

Metso provides reliable technical expertise

”Metso is a logical choice for Power Machines as a business partner ,” says Alexei Ignatyev, Head of steam turbines control systems department, Power Machines, St. Petersburg. “We have a long experience of cooperation with Metso: we appreciate very much the comprehensive approach of Metso to solving process automation issues in energy production. Another advantage is the reliability of Metso’s technical expertise and the wide selection of products in the field of automation. Our choice is the Metso DNA automation system with opportunities for accelerated processes.”

In the Belovskaya power station, two new turbines of the currently six condensation turbines will be equipped with the Metso DNA system. The capacity of each turbine to is 220 MW in the power production plant with a total volume of 1200 MW.

The Tom-Usinskaya power station will receive Metso DNA automation systems for two of its altogether nine thermal turbines producing close to 1300 MW. The power station is one of the largest in southern West Siberia. The area is known for its heavy industry, among others, coal, iron ore and cast iron production.
The delivery will take place in the autumn of 2012 and in early 2013. 

Power Machines (in Russian: Silovye Mashiny) is a Russian energy systems machine-building company headquartered in Moscow. Power Machines manufactures steam turbines, including turbines for nuclear power plants. In addition to Russia, Power Machines has supplied equipment to almost 60 countries with a significant market in Asia. Power Machines is a long-standing partner of Metso in power automation.

Kuzbassenergo is a Russian joint-stock company that is specialized in the distribution of electricity and energy. Its headquarters are located in the city of Kemerovo in the Kemerovo region in Southwest Siberia. The company supplies reliable energy and regular heat and energy for consumers. In 2011, the amount of the electricity generated by Kuzbassenergo was 22.6 billion kWh.

Metso will convert the combustion technology at the Haapaniemi 2 power plant of Kuopion Energia in Kuopio, Finland, from pulverized peat-fired combustion to fluidized bed technology. Metso’s delivery scope covers all the modifications in the boiler required by fluidized bed technology, such as modifications in the pressure vessels, new air, ash and fuel systems inside the boiler house as well as new superheaters and economiser. The rebuild will be carried out during the summer and early autumn of 2013. The value of the order will not be disclosed.

The target of the project is to decrease the power plant’s emissions since the Industrial Emissions Directive will tighten the emission requirements for power boilers by the beginning of 2016. After the conversion, the plant will use practically no heavy fuel oil at all, and also resulting in lower fuel costs. In the future, the boiler will run on peat and wood with a mixing ratio that can be varied flexibly.

“This conversion will make us less dependent on energy peat that has suffered from delivery problems. It will also enable us to maintain the competitiveness of district heating in the future. The project makes it possible to significantly decrease CO₂ emissions and is thus in line with the Climate Policy of the City of Kuopio,” says Esa Lindholm, Managing Director at Kuopion Energia.

The order is included in Metso’s Pulp, Paper and Power third quarter 2012 orders received.

Kuopion Energia Oy produces electricity and district heat, sells electricity and handles the group’s administration services. In 2011, the company’s net sales amounted to EUR 68.3 million and it employed 113 people.