Millar Western will indefinitely curtail its Quesnel River Pulp mill in Quesnel, B.C., affecting about 90 workers; the mill went down in September with a November restart planned, but the company now has no revival date, having earlier cited weak markets and Chinese tariffs. Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson called it a "hard blow," and Mayor Coralee Oakes is seeking transition teams and federal supports comparable to those for auto and steel (CBC via Yahoo, My Prince George Now)
KPS Capital Partners will buy 70% of MM Packaging — Mayr-Melnhof's folding carton business (50+ sites in 19 countries, ~8,500 employees) — at a €2.4B enterprise value, with MM Group keeping 30%; closing is expected in H1 2027, MM Group will refocus on its board & paper mills and plans a €500–600M special distribution (PULPAPERnews, Packaging Gateway)
Nippon Dynawave aims to restart its Longview, Wash. mill in phases in December using externally bought pulp and base paper, as president Matt Peerboom retired Nov. 3 (SVP Finance Yusuke Mano is acting president); Nippon Paper now expects a ~¥21B (~US$133M) full-year operating loss at the mill, and Washington L&I issued a US$77,800 citation over a hot-pulp sinkhole unrelated to the May 26 tank implosion (Packaging Dive)
Ilim Group's nine-month net loss widened 37% to RUB 20.4B (~US$248M) as sales fell 10%, exports dropped 14% and operating profit shrank 68% (Lesprom)
Germany's wood pulp production slipped 2.8% y/y (–5.6% m/m) to 222,100 t in September, while particleboard and similar panel output jumped 22.6% y/y (Lesprom, Lesprom)
UPM Communication Papers launched a renewed digital-printing paper offering, consolidating its UPM Digi grades with selected woodfree coated, uncoated and book papers validated for inkjet, HP Indigo and laser presses (PULPAPERnews)
Forestry & Timber
Stora Enso concluded its year-long strategic review and will keep its Central European sawmills and building solutions business (seven sawmills in Austria, Czechia, Poland and Lithuania plus three CLT mills), but will close the small-log line at the Brand sawmill in Austria by end-Q1 2027, with up to ~250 jobs affected pending consultations (PR Newswire)
Sexton Lumber, Newfoundland and Labrador's largest sawmill (~65 MMBF/yr, Bloomfield), has suspended operations indefinitely after an Oct. 29 fire caused heavy smoke damage; harvesting and log purchasing are on hold with no restart date (Lesprom)
Pentarch closed its Kyogle hardwood sawmill in NSW in early November (25 redundancies) after its Herons Creek mill ran out of state-forest logs in July; Timber NSW says the Great Koala National Park has removed ~40% of North Coast supply with harvesting halted across 176,000 ha, and the government's regional transition plan is not due until mid-2027 (Wood Central)
Industry Technology Vendors
Valmet — Will modernise the CFB boiler it delivered in 2010 to Stora Enso's Ostrołęka containerboard mill in Poland — new boiler bottom, upgraded coarse-material removal and a bottom-ash sieving system plus two years of spares — to cut unplanned downtime and support the mill's growing use of refuse-derived fuel; installation during the June–July 2027 shutdown, order booked in Q3, value undisclosed (Valmet)
