Mercer International is preparing for a possible Chapter 11 filing that could come within weeks, most likely in Texas, Bloomberg reported Oct. 21; the company is withholding a US$25.8M bond coupon under a 30-day grace period, holders of more than three-quarters of its bonds are in advanced talks on new money and a debt reduction, its Canadian credit facility comes due in January and cash fell to US$78.8M at end-June. Celgar's log yard and woodroom were idled for two months from August and Rosenthal took 26 days of Q3 downtime, 12 of them market-related (Wood Central, Lesprom, Bloomberg)
CMPC's Natureza project — 2.5M t/yr eucalyptus pulp at Barra do Ribeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, ~US$4.6B — received a preliminary environmental licence (No. 00118/2026, valid to October 2031) from state agency Fepam on Oct. 22; the licence confirms site viability but not construction, which still needs installation and operating licences, and CMPC has set no date for its investment decision (Rio Times)
SCA's Q3 EBITDA of SEK 1,631M (-1%) on net sales of SEK 5,248M (+5%) beat consensus by ~6% (including SEK 42M of tariff refunds); Containerboard EBITDA jumped 130% to SEK 446M on higher kraftliner prices, with a further €60/t white kraftliner gain flowing into Q4 and Obbola ramping toward 700,000 t over about a year, while Pulp fell 18% to SEK 198M, Wood 50% to SEK 117M and Forest 23% to SEK 702M. Wood costs are expected to fall another 4–5% in Q4, Q4 maintenance adds SEK 130M, and 2026 capex was trimmed to ~SEK 1.4B (Investing.com, Investing.com)
Södra swung to a Q3 operating profit of SEK 267M (vs -360M) on net sales of SEK 6.49B (+2%), though a SEK 288M gain on its Sunpine stake masks an underlying loss of SEK 21M; Södra Cell earned SEK 380M (vs -80M) on higher pulp deliveries despite an oversupplied market, Södra Wood lost SEK 256M on weak UK and US sawn timber demand, overheads were cut ~15%, and the new tannin plant at Värö entered trial operation (Lesprom)
Billerud's Q3 adjusted EBITDA rose 56% q/q to SEK 1,032M (10% margin) on net sales of SEK 10,166M (+3%); North American operating rates topped 93% for a second quarter despite extended Escanaba downtime after annual maintenance, Escanaba's Phase 1 technical upgrades are complete, 2026 capex guidance was cut to SEK 2.4B (SEK 2.6B for 2027), and Q4 guidance calls for ~1% positive pricing against ~SEK 60M of input-cost headwinds, two-thirds logistics (Investing.com, Papnews)
Navigator's nine-month net profit fell 44.8% to €65.4M on revenue of €1,333M (-10.5%) and EBITDA of €212M (vs €300M; 16% margin), with net debt at €765M (2.66x); the company says gas prices more than tripled and power more than doubled between December 2025 and September 2026, but points to September's pulp price recovery, UWF price increases and the Setúbal PM3 start-up for a better Q4 (ECO)
Sonoco posted a Q3 net loss of $732M on an $829M goodwill impairment (mostly EMEA/APAC consumer packaging); Industrial Paper Packaging sales rose 5.2% to $646M but operating profit fell 6.2% to $88M as raw material, freight and energy costs outran pricing, North American URB trade volumes rose 10% with mills at 94% utilization, and 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance is $1.20–1.25B (Paper Advance)
Seven North American paper producers have layered fuel and freight surcharges onto fall price moves: Sylvamo ~$20/st from Oct. 1, Sustana $20/t from Oct. 12, Billerud $25/t and Kruger ~$20/st from Nov. 1, Sappi $25/t on graphics grades from Nov. 6, Garda ~$25/st on C2S from Nov. 9 and ND Paper $25/st from Nov. 13, the last staying in place until the EIA on-highway diesel index falls below $4.66 for four straight weeks (Paper Advance)
KUOW's review of chemical safety at Washington pulp mills after May's Nippon Dynawave implosion in Longview (900,000 gal of white liquor, 11 dead) reports that L&I has expanded its investigation to ten mills including the three white-liquor mills, with Nippon Dynawave findings due in November and the rest after the new year, and the Attorney General has opened a criminal probe; Smurfit Westrock Longview held up to 8,600 t of white liquor in six tanks in 2025, Port Townsend Paper has replaced three smaller liquor tanks since the disaster and carries $918,500 in cumulative fines including a $734,000 September penalty under appeal, and Sen. Jeff Wilson is pursuing above-ground chemical tank rules (KUOW)
Update: Two more workers at Smurfit Westrock's Covington, Va. mill were treated at LewisGale Alleghany and released within 24 hours, a week after 16 contractors were treated for nausea; Virginia's Department of Labor and Industry opened two separate investigations on Oct. 20, OSHA's July 14 investigation remains open, and the company says no gas or chemical source has been identified and there is no confirmed H2S leak (WDBJ7)
Tasmania's Boyer mill is now producing Mandura Australian Made Copy Paper from FSC-certified radiata pine on a $2M line using thermo-mechanical pulp (about half the wood per ream of conventional copy paper); the brand is a First Nations-owned joint venture with Winc, which sells it exclusively, and the owners say the line helps protect 300 jobs — Australia made ~200,000 t/yr of copy paper before domestic production stopped in 2023 (Wood Central)
Forestry & Timber
CMPC's Forestal Mininco agreed Oct. 21 to sell ~60,000 ha of radiata pine plantations in Chile's Maule region — 5% of its estate — to Bosques San Pedro, part of J.P. Morgan Natural Capital (formerly Campbell Global), for US$365.5M, with registration expected within three months; CMPC keeps a long-term timber supply contract for its Maule paperboard mill, proceeds help fund Natureza, and CEO Francisco Ruiz-Tagle has flagged further forest sales in Argentina, Brazil and Chile toward a US$1.5B+ non-core asset target (Wood Central)
Stora Enso has confirmed the permanent closure of CLT production at Gruvön, Sweden by the end of 2026 after concluding negotiations, affecting ~80 positions; the sawmill continues (GWMI, Wood & Panel)
Vida says softwood lumber demand has begun to improve in parts of Europe, including Scandinavia, but does not expect a substantial upturn across its markets in 2026 as weak UK construction and high sawlog costs squeeze Swedish sawmills; separately, European softwood lumber shipments to the US remain well below last year's level despite a narrower year-on-year decline in August (GWMI, GWMI)
Co-generation & Mill Energy
FPInnovations will trial oxygen enrichment of kraft lime kiln combustion air at a member mill, partly funded by NRCan's Forest Innovation Program, starting with benchmarking of the causticizing plant and kiln and procurement of an oxygen-injection skid; earlier studies suggest raising O₂ from 21% to 26% could lift kiln capacity up to 10% or cut fossil fuel use 13%, worth $1–3M/yr (capacity) or $0.5–1M/yr (fuel) against $1–1.5M/yr in oxygen cost, with refractory overheating, overburnt lime and NOx the risks to be assessed (Papnews)
Wood Pellets
Update: Destatis' September producer-price data put German wood pellet prices up 38.5% year-on-year, by far the largest driver of the 7.1% rise in wood-product producer prices, while softwood lumber slipped 0.8% from August (Lesprom)
UK generation from bioenergy and waste fell 3.4% year-on-year in Q2 2026, according to DESNZ data published Sept. 29 (Biomass Magazine)
Industry Technology Vendors
Kemira — Q3 operative EBITDA of €113M (15.9% margin) and EPS of €0.21 missed estimates, sending shares down ~1.9% to near a 52-week low; Fiber Essentials organic revenue fell 6% on lower pulp volumes and prices (plus a ~€2M hit from the Olkiluoto 3 outage) and Packaging & Hygiene margins sank to 9.3%, with management citing prolonged pulp maintenance breaks in the Nordics and North America, possible indefinite mothballing of some US and Canadian pulp mills, and raw material and logistics costs staying elevated through year-end (Investing.com)
Woodland Mills — Launched an Endura sawmill blade lineup for its portable band mills, headlined by a longer-lasting Endura+ blade (PR Newswire via Morningstar)
