Cosmo Specialty Fibers Celebrates Three-Year Anniversary

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Cosmo Specialty Fibers recently marked the third anniversary of its reborn pulp mill in Cosmopolis, Wash., USA. Dormant for about half a decade, the former Weyerhaeuser Specialty Cellulose Mill at Cosmopolis was purchased by the Gores Group LLC and restored to commercial production capability as Cosmo Specialty Fibers in only six months. Two hundred jobs were added to an area where unemployment is typically the highest in the state.

Initially, the 140,000 tpy of production capacity was almost exclusively viscose pulp. However, Cosmo is currently transitioning more than 35% of its capacity to various specialty grades in support of a diverse customer base around the world. The mill was originally designed to make specialty grade dissolving pulp, developing a global reputation for producing the highest-quality softwood acetate for major chemical customers worldwide.

"The qualification process to sell acetate is never easy, but our mill has an excellent legacy reputation for acetate production, and we were able to bring back former employees who had built that reputation for product quality and reliability. We also carried out international recruitment for added technical strength," said Mike Entz, CEO of Cosmo Specialty Fibers. "I am really proud of what we have accomplished during the three years since we purchased the mill."

Since production started in May 2011, Cosmo Specialty Fibers has driven down the operating cost per ton by more than 50%, reduced its use of fossil fuel to less than 5%, and made substantial sales inroads into the higher-margin specialty pulps. "The last few months have positioned us well as we have partnered with Central National-Gottesman (CNG), which provided us with excellent worldwide sales and logistics, attained PEFC/SFI fiber chain-of-custody certification, and achieved record production and cost per ton performance," Entz added.

Entz went on to say that Cosmo Specialty Fibers is completing acetate and specialty pulp qualifications with several customers in the next few months, and is also evaluating the potential development of biochemicals from residual streams. "Developing biochemicals and fuels from residual process streams is now a necessary practice in our industry," he said. "We unload our treatment system by diverting residual streams into these new product processes and reduce the effects of pulp market volatility, both of which enhance our financial position."

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