Fortress entering into the specialty cellulose sector

22 Mar '10

2 min read

Fortress Paper Ltd announces the signing of an asset purchase agreement (“APA”) to acquire the assets of a northern bleached hardwood kraft (“NBHK”) manufacturing facility located in Thurso, Quebec (the “Thurso Mill”) from Fraser Papers Inc. (“Fraser”) with the intention to convert this operation into a world class, low cost, specialty cellulose (dissolving pulp) operation.

Concurrently, Fortress Paper intends to build a biomass-based cogeneration plant at the Thurso Mill which will produce green electricity resulting in material net energy savings (income). Upon closing of the acquisition of the Thurso Mill, which will be completed through its wholly-owned subsidiary Fortress Specialty Cellulose Inc, the Corporation intends to incur capital expenditures of approximately $153 million to convert the non-operating NBHK mill into a high quality specialty cellulose mill and to construct a new cogeneration facility. In connection with the proposed capital expenditures, Fortress Paper is pleased to announce that it has pre-arranged specific financing initiatives to fund the conversion and cogeneration projects.

The specialty cellulose mill is planned to have an annual production capacity of more than 200,000 air dried metric tonnes and is expected to be completed in mid-2011. In entering into the specialty cellulose sector, Fortress Specialty will focus on producing dissolving grade cellulose for the textile industry, primarily targeting viscose fibre (rayon) products which have shown strong growth of approximately 10% in China and 7% worldwide over the past five years. Rayon is a technically evolved and versatile fibre with many advantages, particularly in the warmer and higher growth regions of the World.

Fortress Paper also plans to construct a 25 megawatt cogeneration facility to service a net 18.8 megawatt power supply agreement over a 15 year term. The location of the cogeneration facility provides it with access to on-site generation of biomass and an extensive local network of chip and other biomass suppliers.

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Fortress Paper is a leading international producer of security and other specialty papers. Fortress Paper operates two paper mills, the Landqart Mill located in Switzerland and the Dresden Mill located in Germany. Fortress Paper's security papers include banknote, passport and visa papers and its specialty papers include non-woven wallpaper base products, and graphic and technical papers. As an extension of its security papers business, the Landqart Mill has been actively developing and marketing innovative paper-based security products.

Fortress Paper Ltd

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