Fortress Specialty Cellulose Restarts Operation

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Fortress Paper Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., Canada, reports that its Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill in Thurso, Québec, has restarted operations after taking market downtime of 10 weeks. The FSC Mill initially will be producing northern bleached hardwood kraft (NBHK) pulp and expects to ramp-up to normalized production in approximately 15 days. In keeping with the company's "swing mill" strategy, the FSC Mill will continue to operate by swinging production between both NBHK pulp and dissolving pulp to best respond to changing market conditions, particularly in light of the interim anti-dumping trade duty currently imposed by China's Ministry of Commerce.

Yvon Pelletier, president of Fortress Specialty Cellulose, said that "I am pleased with the initiatives completed at the FSC Mill during this recent downtime. As a result of these improvements, the FSC Mill should operate with greater efficiency and improved reliability over the coming year."

Fortress Paper operates internationally in two business segments—dissolving pulp and security paper products. The company operates its dissolving pulp business at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill, which has expanded into the renewable energy generation sector with the construction of a cogeneration facility and the production of NBHK pulp. Fortress is also evaluating expanding its dissolving pulp capacity by converting the Fortress Global Cellulose Mill at Lebel-sur-Quévillon, Québec, into a dissolving pulp mill and re-starting the cogeneration facility.

The company operates its security paper products business at the Landqart Mill in Switzerland, where it produces banknote, passport, visa, and other brand protection and security papers, and at its high security production and research facility in Canada, where it produces optically variable thin film material.

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