Mercer International did not pay ~US$25.8M of interest due Oct. 1 on its 12.875% senior notes due 2028 and is using the 30-day grace period. It is in advanced recapitalization talks with an ad hoc group that holds more than 75% of its 2028 and 2029 notes. The plan would bring in fresh capital and cut funded debt and interest costs, but no terms have been agreed. Mercer says its pulp, lumber and mass-timber operations are running as normal. The shares fell ~20% on Friday (Panabee, ad-hoc-news)
Mercer has also stopped restarting its Rosenthal pulp mill in Thuringia (~360,000 t/yr) after a planned maintenance shutdown, and has suspended wastewater discharge into the Saale while authorities look into discolored water. Police say an unknown substance got into the river near Rosenthal on Oct. 1 and killed fish. Part of the Bleiloch reservoir is closed to swimmers (Rallies, Presseportal)
Forestry & Timber
Russia's timber-harvesting sector is shrinking. WhatWood counts 1,590 firms liquidated in Jan–Aug 2026 (+9.6% y/y) and only 1,210 new registrations (−19.9%). Active firms are down 5.4% to 19,640. Weak demand, slow payments and new mandatory forest-survey costs are the main causes (Wood Central)
Two employers are moving into former mill sites in North Cowichan, B.C. Ron Anderson & Sons (65 staff) is putting $8M into more prefab wall and floor fabrication at Chemainus Industrial Park. Shinohara Nexus Group plans up to 70 jobs on part of Western Forest Products' closed Chemainus sawmill site, making components for ~600 homes a year. Several investors are looking at the Crofton mill site, but there is no deal yet (CHEK News, Tree Frog)
Vida is adding downstream processing capacity at several Swedish sawmills to move more of its output into higher-value products. Hjältevad gets the largest expansion (Global Wood Markets Info)
Estonia's Palmako has bought Jūrės Medis, one of the Baltics' larger glulam producers. This gives Palmako its first production base in Lithuania (Global Wood Markets Info)
Wood Pellets
NB Power signed a long-term biomass supply agreement with the Belledune Joint Venture: Pabineau and Eel River Bar First Nations, Arbec Forest Products and Airex Energy. The deal supports the utility's move from coal to advanced wood pellets. The ~$100M plant at the Port of Belledune will make ~150,000 t/yr of torrefied pellets from forestry residues and sawmill by-products. It will create 75 direct jobs, sustain 325+ forestry jobs and cut GHG emissions by 220,000+ t/yr (Bioenergy Insight)
