Pratt Industries to Build New Recycled Containerboard Mill in Ohio

Pratt Industries, Atlanta, Ga., USA, a major U.S. recycling, paper, and corrugated packaging company and an affiliate of the family owned Australian firm Visy Industries, has plans to expand its U.S. operations, according to a news report by EUWID Pulp & Paper, Germany. 

A new recycled corrugated case material mill, the fifth of its kind since the foundation of Pratt Industries in 1985, is in the pipeline. The new Pratt Paper mill is to be built in the town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and have a capacity of 360,000 metric tpy (400,000 short tpy) of corrugated medium and linerboard made out of recycled fiber.

The group projected the new mill investment at $275 million. The project is to be financed in large part through a $210 million tax-exempt municipal revenue bond to be issued by the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority. Proceeds will be handed over to Pratt Paper LLC in the form of a loan, and funds will be used by the borrower to finance the project, according the provisional bond prospectus available to EUWID. Pratt Industries will provide the other $65 million from equity.

The new mill in Wapakoneta is to be built on a piece of land 24 ha in size. Construction work is set to get underway in March 2018, with the new paper machine possibly ready to start operating in the fourth quarter of 2019. In project documentation, Pratt Industries discloses that Valmet will supply the paper machine, which will have a wire width of 6.24 meters (5.79 meters web width at the reel) and a maximum operating speed of 1,100 m/min. The facility is expected to produce some 180.000 short tons in its first year of operation.

Pratt Industries put the new facility's demand for recovered paper at the equivalent of 422,000 metric tons (465,000 short tons) annually, including 272,000 metric tons (300,000 short tons) of mixed paper and 150,000 metric tons (165,000 short tons) of old corrugated containers (OCC).

 Pratt Industries plans to meet all of its raw material needs through its corrugating and converting division, Pratt Corrugated Holdings (PCH), which currently manufactures and sells approximately $2.3 billion and 1.32 metric tons (1.48 million short tons) of corrugated sheet and boxes and other specialty packaging. PCH is to purchase 90% of Pratt Paper's new recycled containerboard capacity in Ohio, too. The other 10% would be sold to third parties.