Update: UPM and Sappi have filled out the leadership of their planned European graphic-paper JV — Marco Eikelenboom (Sappi Europe CEO) as SVP Sales & Marketing, Antti Hermonen (UPM Communication Papers) as SVP Operations, Jan Sander van Tuijl (Sappi Europe) as SVP Supply Chain and Jan Gustafsson (UPM) as SVP HR; the 12-mill, 19-machine venture still targets closing by end-2026 pending EC clearance (PULPAPERnews, EUWID)
Forestry & Timber
B.C. named the area north of Campbell River as the first candidate site for its Working Forest Landscape Model, a three-zone approach (timber production, biodiversity restoration, habitat/conservation) developed with the Nanwakolas Council's four member First Nations, La-kwa sa muqw Forestry (JV with Western Forest Products) and BC Timber Sales; Forests Minister Ravi Parmar pitched it as a shift from "cut-block-by-cut-block permitting toward operational plan forestry," with technical and socio-economic analysis over the coming months, while environmental groups warn it creates guaranteed logging zones (Comox Valley Record, Castanet)
NZ Super Fund committed a further US$50M to its Domain Timber Advisors mandate after fully deploying its 2023 US$150M commitment — the US$200M account now spans ~270,000 acres of US timberland, targeting fragmented or undermanaged tracts for aggregation (Wood Central, Timberbiz)
Swedish forest-owner association Norra Skog booked a ~€4.8M operating loss for H1 2026 but chose not to pass the weak forest-products market on to members through lower wood prices (Global Wood Markets Info)
Cambium Timber plans to invest ~US$20M in Argentina's first CLT and glulam plant in Virasoro, Corrientes (EUWID)
Groupe Siat will stop manufacturing planed products at its Niederhaslach (Alsace) site from the end of 2026 (EUWID)
Wood Pellets
Europe heads into winter 2026/27 with tighter pellet supply: exceptionally high sawlog prices after a wet summer curtailed salvage logging are pushing sawmills to cut output, shrinking sawdust and chip feedstock, while unusual summer consumption by power plants drew down stocks (Global Wood Markets Info)
Germany exported 156,119 t of pellets in Q2 2026, down 14.1% year-on-year (EUWID)
UK waste-wood biomass supplier Seras acquired Enva's dedicated wood-processing business (Manchester, Middlesbrough and Tilbury sites), adding northern capacity and an animal-bedding line; terms undisclosed, further acquisitions planned (Bioenergy Insight)
Industry Technology Vendors
Valmet — Turkish hygiene-products maker Eruslu ordered two Advantage DCT 200TS tissue machines (2,200 m/min, combined ~140,000 tpy) for Bursa, moving into tissue base-paper production with startups in 2027 and 2028; separately, Spain's LC Paper hit full production on a Valmet Perini MyGo converting line (600 m/min) in 16 days, lifting output ~25% vs 2025 (Tissue World – Eruslu, EUWID, Tissue World – LC Paper)
Andritz — Gold Hongye (APP China's tissue arm) started up two PrimeRefine HC T high-consistency refining systems (screw press + HC refiner) for tissue stock prep at its Rudong (Jiangsu) and Xiaogan (Hubei) mills; 50+ such systems are now sold worldwide (Andritz)
Raute — Signed ~€31M contracts with Kohila Vineer (Latvijas Finieris) for the Kohila, Estonia birch plywood expansion: veneer drying/grading modernization plus scarf-jointing, patching, lay-up, pre-press, hot-press and repair/overlay lines (R5 and R7 series), delivered H2 2027–Q1 2028 with staged startup from autumn 2027; the €70M+ project roughly doubles capacity from ~45,000 to ~85,000 m³/yr (Wood & Panel, Global Wood Markets Info)
