International technology Group ANDRITZ has successfully completed a total of four tissue machine start-ups planned for this year at Hengan Group, China. The Hengan Group is thus running nine ANDRITZ tissue machines – two of which are fitted with the largest steel yankees in operation worldwide.

From January to September of this year, two PrimeLine W8 tissue machines were started up at the Chongqing mill and two PrimeLine TM W6 tissue machines at the Jinjiang mill, all ahead of the time schedule. All four orders included the supply of the complete stock preparation and machine control systems. The steel yankees of PM15 and PM16 are the largest for tissue operating anywhere in the world. With a diameter of 4.9 m and a shell length of 6.2 m, they provide for safe and energy-efficient machine operation.

The ANDRITZ PULP & PAPER business area, which manufactures its tissue machine components in Europe and China and is confirming its position as one of the leading suppliers of tissue machines and local services in China with the start-ups for the Hengan Group, will be presenting its latest tissue technology at Tissue World Asia in Shanghai (November 14-16) and at Tissue World Barcelona (March 19-21, 2013).

Metso's Annual General Meeting decided on March 29, 2012 to establish a Nomination Board to prepare proposals on members of the Board of Directors and their remuneration for the next Annual General Meeting which is planned to be held on March 28, 2013. The representatives of the four largest shareholders registered in Metso’s shareholder register as of October 1, 2012 are elected to the Nomination Board along with the Chairman of the Board of Directors Jukka Viinanen as an expert member.

According to the shareholders register, Metso Corporation's four largest shareholders on October 1, 2012 were: 

- Solidium Oy (16,695,287 shares and votes or 11.10% of share capital and votes), 
- Cevian Capital II Master Fund L.P. (10,193,060 shares and votes or 6,78% of share capital and votes), 
- Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company (6,036,943 shares and votes or 4,02% of share capital and votes),
- Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company (3,908,465 shares and votes or 2,60% of share capital and votes).

Metso Corporation

Oliotalo Oy designs and manufactures intelligent remote monitoring solutions and provides engineering services of embedded systems. With this investment, Miston Oy becomes the majority owner of Oliotalo. Kaius Häggblom, the founder and managing director, will stay with the company as the managing director and co-owner. Oliotalo Oy will continue operations as an independent company.

Oliotalo Oy was founded in 2002. It specializes in intelligent remote condition monitoring systems, including a full-scale industrial strength monitoring back-end and a web based user interface. Applications of Oliotalo’s ORM-technology can be found in a wide range of industries, including wind turbines, fork lift fleets and other machine-to-machine applications. With Oliotalo’s range of solutions, customers can monitor, collect and process vital information, enabling remote condition monitoring, pre-emptive maintenance and subsequently lower lifecycle costs and increased reliability. In addition, Oliotalo provides OEM engineering services of embedded systems. Most of Oliotalo’s production goes to exports.
 
”With the investment from Miston Oy, Oliotalo Oy gets a significant boost in our growth and internationalization efforts.” explains Kaius Häggblom, founder of Oliotalo Oy.

Miston Oy is a family owned business with a long history in entrepreneurship. Miston actively invests in high growth Finnish technology companies.

For the 14th time the business daily WirtschaftsBlatt set out to identify the most successful companies in Austria together with the credit reference agency KSV1870 and PwC. The Austrian Leading Companies Award focuses on the solid performance of a firm over a period of years, and not just short-term performance indicators. The current analysis took account of business results over the years 2009 to 2011, but also attached great importance to how the companies dealt with the issue of sustainability. Lenzing AG once again convinced the jury in Upper Austria and won in the category Big Player for the second straight year.

For years the Lenzing Group has achieved good results and has operated extremely successfully. Demand for cellulose fibers from the renewable raw material wood continues to be intact. The global megatrends of population growth (especially in the emerging markets) and the growing awareness of the advantages of ecological products are the driving forces for the ongoing increase in the Lenzing Group’s fibers sales. Lenzing has taken this development into account by implementing an ambitious expansion program at all its global production sites, involving investments of EUR 1.6 bn between 2011 to 2015.

A total of more than EUR 350 mn alone will be invested in the coming years at the Lenzing site in Upper Austria, headquarter of the Lenzing Group. A visible sign clearly in view is one of the biggest industrial construction sites in Austria located at the Lenzing facility, where a highly modern plant for producing the  high-tech fiber  TENCEL®  is  being  built  and  which  will  provide jobs  to  110  new employees starting in 2014.

ÅF has signed a consultancy contract with Tammervoima Oy for a new CHP plant in Tampere, Finland.

The assignment includes pre-engineering, implementation engineering, procurement, project management as well as site and commissioning management services. The value of the contract for ÅF is about 5 million euros including option of 1 M€ for delivery, site and commissioning services.

Tammervoima will build a new waste-to-energy CHP at the Tarastenjärvi power plant site in Tampere,  Finland. The plant will use about 150 000 tons of municipal waste as fuel annually. Output of the power plant will be c. 100 GWh power and c. 300 GWh heat. The project starts immediately and commercial operation starts in late 2015.

For the third consecutive year, Ecolab Inc. has been named to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) S&P 500 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI). The CDLI highlights companies that have demonstrated a commitment to strategy, governance, stakeholder communications and transparency in their reporting practices.

"Fewer than 20 companies in the S&P 500 have made index three consecutive years"

"At Ecolab, we strive to manage our operations responsibly while we deliver sustainable solutions to more than one million customer locations around the world," said Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Ecolab chairman and chief executive officer. "We are honored to once again be recognized by the CDP for our responsible business initiatives and commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The methodology used to score companies was developed by the CDP with guidance from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Companies were scored on the comprehensiveness of their disclosure practices as well as on aspects of their company's performance in relation to climate change. The report is used by institutional investors and the broader market to assess how companies are managing climate change issues.

Ecolab has made continued progress in its sustainability goals through several company initiatives and also partnered with customer locations around the world to help reduce waste and water and energy consumption.

The CDP is an independent not-for-profit organization that works to reduce the risks posed by climate change by encouraging almost 6,000 of the world's largest companies to report on their climate change strategies, greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. More information, including a full list of the companies on the 2012 CDLI, can be found at www.cdp.net

Source: Ecolab Inc.

The Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG has extended the Management Board mandate of Peter Untersperger (52) for a further three years until April 2016.

Peter Untersperger started his career in Lenzing in 1985 as Assistant to the CFO. In 1994 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Lenzing’s Indonesian subsidiary PT. South Pacific Viscose, and from 1998 he served as its President. In 1999 he was named Chief Financial Officer of Lenzing AG. Since 2009, Peter Untersperger has been Chairman of the Management Board of Lenzing AG.

As a result of this decision, the Management Board of Lenzing AG will continue to consist of Peter Untersperger (Chairman and CEO), Friedrich Weninger (COO) and Thomas G. Winkler (CFO).

NewPage Corporation (NewPage) has announced that it has reached an agreement in principle with all of its major creditor groups concerning the terms of its chapter 11 plan.  A brief summary of the agreement in principle has been posted to the KCC restructuring website, www.kccllc.net/NewPage 

"This is a very important step for NewPage, and assuming satisfaction of certain conditions, this agreement should allow us to emerge from chapter 11 in the near term," said George F. Martin, President and CEO of NewPage. 

The agreement was reached as part of court ordered mediation conducted by the court-appointed mediator, Bankruptcy Judge Robert D. Drain.  At the request of certain parties participating in the mediation, the mediator did not provide any of the term sheets proposed by the parties to the mediation (or any of their material terms) to certain other parties participating in the mediation.  Rather, the mediator served as an intermediary, facilitating discussion among the parties and encouraging the parties to make concessions in an effort to reach agreement upon a consensual chapter 11 plan.

NewPage wishes to acknowledge the outstanding result achieved by Judge Drain in facilitating a consensual chapter 11 plan, and wishes to thank all the mediation participants for their efforts throughout this process.

NewPage also announced today that it contemplates signing in the near term an exit financing facility in the form of a $500 million secured term debt facility and $400 million asset-based revolving credit facility.

SOURCE NewPage Corporation

Wausau Paper has said that the Paper segment earnings in both the third and fourth quarter will be impacted by lower profitability at its Brainerd, Minnesota, facility, as well as recent further weakening demand in its economically sensitive industrial product categories.

Henry C. Newell, president and chief executive officer, stated, “We made the choice to accelerate the conversion of the Brainerd mill to technical paper grades as part of our strategy to divest the print franchise. While the pace of the transition resulted in above- target cash generation, the compressed time period added complexity to the ability to position the additional capacity creating higher-than-expected margin pressure, increased product development costs and reduced operating efficiencies. Weakness in industrial end-use market demand has exacerbated the impact. With few signs of a general economic recovery, we now expect pressure on Paper segment profitability through year end.

“The Company’s Tissue segment continues to demonstrate strong operational performance, driven in part by above-market case shipment growth of 3 to 4 percent. Our expansion program, including product development activities, remains on schedule, with initial start-up of the new paper machine in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, expected in the fourth quarter. Additionally, our balance sheet is strong due to above-forecast cash generation and working capital reductions in our Paper segment.”

Mr. Newell continued, “In the near-term, Paper segment profitability challenges will significantly affect second-half adjusted earnings. Consequently, we are reducing our full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $0.28 to $0.30 per share, and anticipate mid- single digit adjusted earnings per share in both the third and fourth quarters.” The Company’s previous guidance was for full-year adjusted net earnings in the $0.39 to
$0.41 per share range versus prior-year adjusted net earnings of $0.33 per share.

The Company is scheduled to release third-quarter earnings after the market close on Monday, October 29. A call to discuss results will be held at 11:00 a.m. ET Tuesday, October 30. Interested parties may access the webcast of this call from the Investor section of the Company’s website at: www.wausaupaper.com