Norske Skog launches the ‘home advantage’ this month with completion of an $85 million project to produce lightweight coated paper at its Boyer mill.
The conversion of one of the Tasmanian mill’s two paper machines to LWC has turned an industry problem into an opportunity.
Over recent years Boyer, along with newsprint mills globally, has been challenged by reduced consumption and over capacity. This has occurred while light weight coated products have continued to be imported into Australia. Now the project, nearing completion just 18 months after its September 2012 announcement, is set to add value and create a unique service proposition for users of coated catalogue and magazine. Annually, it will deliver approximately 140,000 tonnes of product to customers, most of whom are located in Australia’s south eastern states, while replacing current imports into Australia.
Norske Skog account director Michael Lukin says the most obvious benefit of the new lightweight coated product – which has been given the name Vantage – is its local production in Australia: “This brings a number of quite significant advantages for our customers, including shorter delivery lead times, the need to hold less inventory, greater flexibility and greater predictability,” he says.
“We could even make the occasional ‘production miracle’ possible if a customer suddenly needs a product in a couple days, something European and American printers have enjoyed for decades.”
A further benefit is that the LWC stocks are made here and managed from here. “There are no time zone delays to speak to someone, and no delay to get technical support flown from overseas,” says Lukin “Our business is all done here locally and the decisions we have made around the project have been done in close consultation with our customers.”
At the same time the project and product are backed by Norske Skog’s global expertise. The papermaker is a large producer of both newsprint and magazine grades globally with mills internationally.
“We have access to global knowledge and expertise, enabling us to adapt and apply innovative developments in modern paper production,” he says. “We have installed state-of-the-art equipment and the support network that comes with it.”
Not only did the project make sense in the marketplace, it’s also a significant investment for Tasmania, where Norske Skog Australia is an important regional employer.
The conversion project involved extensive civil engineering works, including the extension of the existing building. Installation of a 50 tonne overhead crane and substantial foundation work to support the new equipment. In addition to the new coating and calendaring equipment the mill has also installed a new WinBelt winder along with new reel and roll handling equipment. In the pulp mill a high consistency bleach plant has been installed to bleach the pulp for the base sheet. A ground calcium carbonate (GCC) plant has also been built on site by Omya, Boyer’s supply partner and global leader in carbonate supply. The plant will supply filler and coating to the production processes.
Another positive outcome is that the upgrade is taking place without disruption to customers as both machines have continued running at full capacity for the bulk of the upgrade period. PM2 (the machine being converted) was only shut down in mid December 2013 for the final conversion work to be completed. Boyer’s second machine (PM3) has remained unaffected and has in fact been diversified to now produce improved news grades previously produced on PM2.
Pictured above: The coating, calendar and reel section;
On our homepage: The calendar stack
Reproduced from a GXpress NewsLeaders feature