Fortress Paper Declares Production Restart at Thurso, Quebec Pulp Mill

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Fortress Paper Ltd. has announced that it has restarted operations at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill (FSC Mill) at Thurso, Quebec. The dissolving pulp mill had been undergoing repairs since the third week of September following failure of auxiliary gas collection system related to of one of the boilers. The press release by the company states that all necessary repair works have already been completed well ahead of schedule.

On September 21^st, the company announced that a burst occurred in a pressurized auxiliary gas collection system relating to one of the recovery boilers at the mill. Following this, Fortress Paper had immediately notified the concerned government authorities and had implemented health and safety precautions at the mill premises. No injuries or material damages to property were reported. Meantime, the cogeneration facility had continued to operate at a reduced rate.

Within one week from the date of the incident, the company had identified the source of failure and had taken all necessary steps towards speedy repairing and replacing of the damaged components. After initial assessment of costs related with the event, the company had expressed the hope that the repair, replacement and business interruption costs would be covered by insurance. The company had already initiated an insurance claim pursuant to the incident.

Mr. Giovanni Iadeluca, President of the FSC Mill thanked the efforts put in by the FSC Mill team in resolving the issue in such a short period of time. He noted that the company has been able to restart the operations three days prior to the originally anticipated restart date. The production and cogeneration facilities have started working normally with effect from October 6^th, he noted. Iadeluca thanked the entire FSC Mill team for hard work put in to achieve ramp up of operations ahead of the planned schedule.

The FSC Mill located in Thurso, nearly 150 kilometers west of Montreal, is a major producer of dissolving wood pulp. It employs approximately 325 workers and has an estimated production capacity of nearly 165,000 tonnes ADMT of dissolving pulp. Fortress Paper had commissioned a new biomass-based 24 megawatt cogeneration facility at the mill in October 2013 which produces green energy.

Fortress Paper is considered to be one among the few top players in the global dissolving pulp market along with Sappi, Rayonier, Bracell, Tembec, Lenzing, Neucel, Aditya Birla, Phoenix Pulp & Paper, Nippon Paper, Sun Paper, Yueyang Paper, Qingshan Paper, Shixian Paper, Nanping Paper and others.