DS Smith, Mondi in multi-million pound CCM boost

In a total investment of £104m, DS Smith is buying M-real’s New Thames Paper Mill (NTPM), which is located on the same site as the firm’s St Regis Paper mill at Kemsley in Kent, to strengthen competitiveness in a sector predicted to double in size over the next three years.

The £104m investment includes £37m to convert NTPM, which currently produces uncoated business and graphic paper, to produce 260,000 tonnes of lightweight CCM by January 2009.

It also includes the purchase of the outstanding 50% stake in Grovehurst Energy, the joint venture between DS Smith
and M-real commissioned in 1995 to power both plants at Kemsley.

Total UK production of lightweight CCM is less than 100,000 tonnes per year and much of the supply – with a testliner of 100gsm or lighter and fluting of 90gsm or lighter – currently comes from continental Europe.

DS Smith Group chief executive Tony Thorne said the investment would create one of the most flexible and cost-competitive CCM mills in Europe.

Mondi has confirmed that the Swiecie Mill in Poland will be the location for its new machine for lightweight recycled containerboard.

The company has received board approval to invest ¤350m (£237m) in the new PM7, which will produce 470,000 tonnes of board a year.

Mondi will use part of the money to build a new corrugated box plant in Swiecie, which the company said would consume significant volumes of recycled testliner and fluting.

Wolfgang Brunner, communications and marketing manager for Mondi’s Europe & International Division, said retailers and consumers were driving the growth of lightweight CCM.

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