Suzano announced (Sept. 22) October hardwood pulp increases of US$50/t in the Americas and Europe (European list to ~US$1,360/t) and US$20/t in Asia (~US$590–600/t), citing Chinese port stocks down ~130,000 t in a week to 2.32M t, tighter European supply after Domtar's closures, and renewed Asian buying — its second consecutive monthly hike (Rio Times, Brazil Stock Guide)
U.S. Paper Mill will restart PM 12 ("The Chief") at the former Pixelle mill in Chillicothe, Ohio by December, hiring up to 350 over the next year with priority for former mill workers; the site, idled by Pixelle in August 2025 and bought in October 2025, already employs 180+ in data-center, aerospace and medical-device roles (Scioto Valley Guardian, Scioto Post)
Pratt Industries will invest $97.6M (incl. $80M+ in equipment) in its first Iowa plant, a corrugated packaging facility in Bondurant creating 105 jobs, backed by $1.8M in IEDA tax credits (PaperAge)
M&G Investment Management and Arini Capital notified the European Commission (Sept. 1; published Sept. 10) of their planned joint acquisition of Italian cartonboard maker Reno de Medici from Apollo as part of RDM's debt restructuring; the deal is flagged for the simplified merger procedure (EUWID, Packaging Portal)
Forestry & Timber
Ocean freight has opened an $8,300+/FEU gap in favor of European wood-product exporters to the US East Coast: Far East–USEC is $11,259/FEU (325% above late February) vs. North Europe–USEC at $2,956, with Far East–North Europe at $4,103 (Global Wood Markets Info)
Vietnam has overtaken China as the top market for US hardwood logs: $387.1M in Jan–Jul 2026 (49.6% share, up from 10.1% in 2024; walnut $207.6M) vs. China's $261.8M (33.5%, from 69.6%), as ~50 Vietnamese sawmills and 8 veneer plants opened during China's ban feed Chinese furniture makers (Wood Central)
China's forestry plan targets 22.4 billion m³ of standing timber and 25.8% forest cover by 2030 with new southern reserve forests; analysts warn it could erode demand for imported softwood logs, a risk for New Zealand, which sent 89.8% of its 21.38M m³ of 2025 log exports to China (H1 2026 volumes −3.1% to 9.10M m³) (Wood Central – plan, Wood Central – NZ)
Södra is paying a temporary SEK 50/m³ (~€4.4) premium on wood deliveries in southern Sweden from Sept. 22, reversing course after three rounds of price cuts earlier this year (Global Wood Markets Info); New Zealand sawmills are raising sawn-timber prices into spring on much stronger domestic order books, even as 2026 fuel surcharges are phased out (Global Wood Markets Info)
Dutch authorities (NVWA) seized more than 375 t of Gabonese azobé in a criminal investigation into a tropical-hardwood importer in the northern Netherlands (Global Wood Markets Info); separately, Danish specialist timber merchant PrimaTræ ApS (Horsens) entered bankruptcy Sept. 17 after four years in business (Global Wood Markets Info)
NSW's Improved Native Forest Management carbon method will generate credits from 176,000 ha of state forest to help fund the 476,000-ha Great Koala National Park; Timber NSW says the harvest moratorium hits six of 25+ regional mills and ~300 jobs, with hardwood power poles already being swapped for fibreglass and steel (Wood Central)
Krasnoyarsk customs and the FSB opened four criminal cases against a company director over 3,800 m³ of sawn softwood (54M roubles) exported to Asia on falsified supplier documents, alongside a 10,000 m³ (140.3M rouble) Central Asia case and a Far East birch/linden/aspen case (Wood Central)
Huber named Joe Burgess president of Huber Engineered Woods (OSB/ZIP System), making permanent the interim role he has held since May; he was previously SVP sales and marketing (Woodworking Network)
Industry Technology Vendors
Indufor — Launched ForestInsights, a remote-sensing and modelling platform that maps plantation boundaries, species and age class from satellite imagery and combines them with yield, cost and price data to forecast harvest volumes for investors, lenders and wood-supply planners (Timberbiz)
Valmet — Selected by Strategic Biofuels to supply the CFB boiler island and flue-gas cleaning for the Louisiana Green Fuels project in Caldwell Parish, a phased 300+ MW biomass power plant with post-combustion carbon capture that will burn ~3.5M t/yr of forestry residuals (~400 truckloads/day) (Valmet)
