Antalis (KPP Group) has signed a binding deal to buy OptiGroup's Papyrus paper-distribution businesses in 10 European markets (Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Baltics) — ~€215M net sales, 255 staff, 13,000+ customers and 12 warehouses. Price undisclosed; closing expected between Dec. 20, 2026 and Mar. 31, 2027 pending competition approvals (Paper Advance)
Update: Most union workers returned to Nippon Dynawave's Longview, Wash. mill on Oct. 12, nearly five months after the tank failure, but full production has not resumed and no timetable has been given. Workers who can't yet return will be paid through at least Jan. 17, 2027 (Paper Advance)
Alberta's producer-funded EPR system for packaging and paper is now fully in place after its final phase took effect Oct. 1, shifting ~C$110M/yr in recycling costs to producers across 287 communities (~97% of residents). Sorting facilities in Edmonton and Calgary are slated for early 2027 (Paper Advance)
USDOC has set a final 2.70% dumping margin on The Navigator Company's uncoated woodfree paper for the March 2024–Feb. 2025 review period, confirming June's provisional finding and well below the 7.80% general rate (EUWID)
Four Swedish and one Finnish company joined a CRIBE-led trade mission to Thunder Bay, Ont. (Oct. 5–7) looking at underused poplar (~1.1M m³/yr) and white birch (~260,000 m³/yr) for veneer, engineered wood and biofuels alongside the Thunder Bay and Dryden pulp mills. No investment or supply deal yet (Paper Advance)
Forestry & Timber
NSW introduced the Great Koala National Park Reservations Bill on Oct. 13, which would permanently close ~176,000 ha across 40+ Mid North Coast State forests to hardwood harvesting. The Act can't commence until a federal carbon-method declaration is made, and Timber NSW says sign-off could slip past the March state election (Wood Central)
Stora Enso has increased its Finnish wood purchases this year despite a sharp national drop in timber trading, hit its Q2 procurement target and expects mill demand to stay on plan through year-end, supported by added sawmilling capacity and the new Oulu consumer-board line (Global Wood Markets Info)
GWMI analysis: global softwood lumber demand could reach ~335M m³ by 2030, needing ~22M m³ of new supply, while Canadian output keeps falling, Central Europe's bark-beetle spruce surplus is disappearing and Nordic sawlog costs stay high — leaving the U.S. South as the strongest candidate for expansion (Global Wood Markets Info)
Finnish and Swedish forest-machinery makers report weakening orders into H2 2026 as customers hold back investment, with some preparing temporary layoffs (Global Wood Markets Info)
U.S. wood-processing companies have announced further closures, suspensions and job cuts since early September across sawmills, panels and furniture, with the latest in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina and Indiana (Global Wood Markets Info)
Update: German forest and wood associations welcome the simplified EUDR paperwork but say the draft law's enforcement provisions — fines and sales bans for administrative violations — are too severe (Global Wood Markets Info)
Wood Pellets
Drax has added an interactive map to its Biomass Tracker (live since Sept. 30) showing pellet journeys from North American forest sourcing to its North Yorkshire plant, with road/rail/sea journey counts and emissions by mode; the dataset now includes Q1 2026 figures (Bioenergy Insight)
Industry Technology Vendors
Voith — Completed a multi-million-dollar expansion of its West Monroe, La. roll service center, growing the site by nearly 50%, adding a Voith Paper Training Center and 20+ jobs. Construction started Sept. 2025; Voith calls it Voith Paper's largest recent North American investment (Paper Advance)
