Howe Sound Pulp and Paper purchased by Paper Excellence

Howe Sound Pulp and Paper has been sold by its owners (Canfor and Oji Paper Co. Ltd. of Japan) to Paper Excellence B.V.

Paper Excellence B.V. is based in the Netherlands and is associated with one of the world’s largest pulp and paper producers of Asia Pulp and Paper brands.

This is the third Canadian acquisition for Paper Excellence. The company already owns a pulp mill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, and a pulp mill in Mackenzie, British Columbia. When Paper Excellence purchased the idled Mackenzie mill in April, for $20 million, they said they were planning to invest tens of millions before the start of production in the fall.

Paper Excellence also recently purchased two kraft pulp mills in France from Tembec.

“I think this a great thing going forward for HSPP,” said Strang. “At the core of Paper Excellence’s business is pulp and paper. They will be looking at a lot of our products to facilitate their operations. The indication is they have plans to invest in the mill here and increase our overall production. We certainly don’t anticipate any reduction in our work force. In the short-term, it’s business as usual.”

The purchase price for the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper mill is not known, but the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

The Howe Sound mill, located in Port Mellon, British Columbia, employs about 500 workers and has production capacity of 400,000 tonnes of NBSK pulp and 230,000 tonnes of mechanical paper at the facility, which was first acquired by Canfor in 1951.

Canfor and Oji Paper created the Howe Sound partnership in 1988 in a deal that expanded the plant's pulp production and added its newsprint mill.

Sources:

Paper Excellence to buy HSPP (Coast Reporter)

Howe Sound pulp mill sold to Dutch firm (Biv Interactive)