Norske Skog

Last updated
Norske Skog ASA
Type Allmennaksjeselskap
OSE: NSKOG
Industry Pulp and paper
Founded1962
Headquarters Oslo, Norway
Key people
 Sven Ombudstvedt (President and CEO), Jen-Yue (John) Chiang (Chairman)
Products Newsprint and magazine paper and related fiber products
RevenueNOK 9.612 billion (2020)
NOK -1.339 billion (2020)
NOK -1.884 billion (2020)
Total assets NOK 7.787 billion (2020)
Total equity NOK 3.219 billion (2020)
Number of employees
2332 (2020)
Website www.norskeskog.com

Norske Skog ASA, formerly Norske Skogindustrier ASA, which translates as Norwegian Forest Industries, is a Norwegian pulp and paper company established in 1962. The company has long been one of the world's leading manufacturers of newsprint and magazine paper. Due to a declining market for publication paper, the company has increasingly focused on other uses of timber and recycled paper, such as packaging. [1] The company is headquartered in Norway and has factories in five countries [2] and an annual production of approximately 2 million tonnes of paper (2020).

Contents

History

Norske Skog started in 1962 with the construction of a paper mill at Skogn in Norway, with the plant opening in 1966 and a second paper machine added in 1967. Half the capital for the project was issued by the Norwegian Forest Owners Association. In 1972 Norske Skog started a cooperation with Follum Fabrikker in Hønefoss. By 1989 Norske Skog had acquired Follum Fabrikker and Union in Skien as well as Saugbrugsforeningen in Halden. With this Norske Skog controlled all the pulp and paper mills in Norway.

The first international acquisition came in 1992 with Norske Skog Golbey in Lorraine, France. The company later bought the entire plant in 1995. Norske Skog expanded with purchases in Austria in 1996 and the Czech Republic in 1997. In 1998 it purchased mills in Thailand and the Republic of Korea.

In 2000 Norske Skog bought the British Columbia-based Fletcher Challenge Canada with nine mills and Pacifica Papers (formerly MacMillan Bloedel) and created NorskeCanada. At the same time it absorbed the Australian Newsprint Mills, a subsidiary of Fletcher Challenge. By 2006 Norske Skog had sold its shares in NorskeCanada and the company changed its name to Catalyst Paper.

In September 2005 it acquired the Asian company PanAsia Paper, in turn making Norske Skog Asia's largest producer of newsprint and magazine paper.

During the following years, the company suffered from an oversupply in the paper industry and mounting debt. A number of factories were closed, downsized or divested. The closure of the Union paper mill in Skien in 2005 caused a massive outcry, including protests from a number of politicians. [3] Further closures include the closure of a factory in Steti in the Czech Republic, [4] the indefinite closure of a factory in South Korea, and the closure of one of the three paper machines at Follum. [5] From March 2007 to March 2008, the stock value plummeted from over NKr  100 to below NKr  18. [6] An editorial in the Norwegian business newspaper Finansavisen could not rule out the possibility of bankruptcy. [7] In September 2008, Norske Skog Korea was bought by Morgan Stanley Private Equity of Asia and Shinhan Private Equity.

Sven Ombudstvedt became CEO of Norske Skog in January 2010. Ombudstvedt was previously chief financial officer and a management board member of Yara International and strategy director of Norsk Hydro. Ombudstvedt succeeded Christian Rynning-Tønnesen. [8]

Norske Skogindustrier ASA went bankrupt in 2017 and was delisted from the Oslo Stock Exchange. [9] However, the operations continued, and was reorganized under a new parent company, Norske Skog ASA, which was reintroduced to the Oslo Stock Exchange in October 2019. [10]

Over the following years, the group has diversified in order to counter the downward trend of the publication paper market. In 2020, it was announced that two paper machines, at Bruck an der Mur in Austria and Golbey in France, would be converted to produce recycled containerboard. [11] The company is also pursuing fibre-based growth initiatives under the brand names Cebina [12] and Cebico [13] as well as energy related projects such as biogas. Norske Skog is also the major shareholder of Circa Group, which is listed separately on Euronext Growth with the ticker CIRCA.

Norske Skog have been accused of environmental destruction in New Zealand. One of their plants has consumed an entire inland fresh water lake, once full of marine life and a healthy eco system and replaced it with a large stagnant pit full of dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). Drums of zinc hydrosulphite and sodium dichromate are buried in the lake bed. Testing has also detected manganese, ammoniacal nitrogen, boron, arsenic, zinc, and chloride, these exceed the maximum concentration limits for drinking water, further polluting the ground water and feeding in to other areas.

Norske Skog have effectively walked away from the responsibility to clean up the work site, by closing the paper mill plant, they are refusing to engage with local indigenous Maori, guardians of the environment.

Norske Skog continue to ignore requests and written plans, to remediate the land. Norske Skog hide behind out dated and old legislation that gave them the legal means to pollute on such a huge scale. Around 600,000m3 of toxic sludge was dumped into Lake Rotoitipaku over 30 years. Norske Skog operates on 3.54 Billion of revenue as of September 2022 [14]

List of mills

As of 2021

Former mills

This list may be incomplete

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalyst Paper</span>

Catalyst Paper Corporation is a pulp and paper company based in Richmond, British Columbia. It operates five pulp mills and paper mills, producing a combined 1.8 million tonnes of paper and 491,000 tonnes of market pulp annually. The mills mostly produce magazine paper and newsprint.

Norske Skog Saugbrugs AS is a pulp mill and paper mill located in Halden, Norway, which produces supercalender (SC) magazine paper. Located in the river Tista in Tistedalen, the mill produces 550,000 tonnes per year in three paper machines. Pulp is produced both from virgin fibers at an on-site thermomechanical pulp (TMP) mill. Part of Norske Skog, it is the sole remaining magazine mill in Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norske Skog Follum</span>

Norske Skog Follum is a paper mill located in Follum in Norway. The mill is part of the Norske Skog Corporation and opened in 1873 with the name Follum Fabrikker. It has three paper machines and produces 410,000 tonnes of newsprint annually.

Norske Skog Union was a paper mill located in Skien in Norway. The mill was part of the Norske Skog Corporation and opened in 1873 with the name Union Co. The mill had two paper machines that produced 240,000 tonnes of newsprint and book paper. It was closed down in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parenco</span>

Parenco B.V. is a paper mill located in Renkum, Netherlands, on the shore of the Rhine. The mill was established on the site of an older mill in 1912 by Van Gelder & Zonen. The company operates two paper machines PM1 and PM2. PM1 has a capacity of 265,000 tonnes per year and is used for the production of so-called SC-B paper for magazines and advertising brochures. The other machine, PM2, was idled in 2009 by its then owner due to the declining demand of newsprint paper. This machine will be converted and from mid-2016 will produce about 385,000 tons of packaging paper, intended for the production of corrugated board.

Fiborgtangen is a peninsula and industrial site located along Trondheimsfjord in the northwest part of the village of Skogn in the municipality of Levanger in Trøndelag county, Norway. The 500-decare site hosts the paper mill Norske Skog Skogn and the associated port used to ship newsprint away from the plant. Fiborgtangen is also the site chosen by Industrikraft Midt-Norge to build a thermal power plant powered by natural gas.

Norwegian Forest Owners Association is an association representing 43,000 owners of forest in Norway. The main functions of the organisation is to assist the members, who are mostly farmers, to manage their forest. This includes forestry plans, part of the cutting of timer and negotiating agreements with lumber mills and paper mills. The association is one of the 13 agricultural cooperatives in Norway and based in Oslo with 366 local groups and eight district organisations, organised as BAs. In 2005 83% of all domestic timber was organised through the association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Södra Cell Tofte</span>

Södra Cell Tofte is a pulp mill located at Tofte in Buskerud, Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Rynning-Tønnesen</span> Norwegian businessperson (born 1959)

Christian Wilhelm Rynning-Tønnesen is a Norwegian businessperson. He has spent most of his career in Statkraft, first holding various positions from 1992 to 2005, and then as CEO since 2010. He was CEO of Norske Skog from 2006 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Follum</span> Village in Viken

Follum is a village in Ringerike municipality, Viken County, Norway.

The Tasman Mill site is a pulp and paper mill located on Fletcher Avenue just outside the town of Kawerau in New Zealand. The Tasman Mill site is the largest single employer in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region. Three pulp or paper companies previously operated in Kawerau: Norske Skog operated the mechanical pulp mill and newsprint paper mill; Oji Fibre Solutions, formerly Carter Holt Harvey, operated the kraft pulp mill; and SCA who manufacture tissue and base paper.

Elk Falls Mill was a pulp mill and paper mill located in the Canadian town of Campbell River, British Columbia, operating between 1952 and 2010. At the end of its life, the mill had three paper machines, with a combined annual production of 373,000 tonnes of newsprint and 153,000 tonnes specialized papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powell River Mill</span>

Powell River Mill was a pulp mill and paper mill located in the Canadian town of Powell River, British Columbia. Part of Catalyst Paper, the mill has three paper machines which produce 469,000 tonnes of newsprint and uncoated fine paper. The mill had 441 employees as of 2014.

Jeonju Paper Corporation, trading as Jeonju Paper, is a South Korean pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Seoul, it operates Jeonju Mill and Cheongwon Mill, with a combined 1,030,000 tonnes annual production of paper, mostly newsprint. The company is owned by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and Shinhan Private Equity. The company was established as the South Korean operating subsidiary of PanAsia Paper on 1 February 1999, PanAsia Paper Korea. Ownership passed to Norske Skog in 2005, with the company becoming Norske Skog Korea. They sold the company to the current owners in 2008, after which the current name was adopted.

Cheongwon Mill is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in Cheongju, South Korea. Owned by Jeonju Paper, the mill sources its fiber from deinking to feed a single paper machine producing newsprint. PM1 has an annual production of 183,000 tonnes, featuring a trimmed width of 6,380 millimeters (251 in) and a production rate of 1,300 meters (4,300 ft) per minute.

Jeonju Mill is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in Jeonju, South Korea. Owned by Jeonju Paper, the mill produces 850,000 tonnes of newsprint and magazine paper annually. The mill sources fibers both from virgin wood, including sawmill residue, as well as from deinking. The mill has four paper machines. The mill has the third-largest production capacity for newsprint in the world and the largest deinking mill in the world.

Singburi Mill is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in Sing Buri, Thailand. Owned by the CAS Group, the mill sources its fiber from deinking to feed a single paper machine producing newsprint. PM1 has an annual production of 125,000 tonnes. The mill had 239 employees in 2013, and was the sole manufacturer of newsprint in Thailand, approximately producing the entire country's consumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norske Skog Walsum</span>

Norske Skog Walsum is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in the Duisburg neighborhood of Walsum, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The mill starts operations in 1962, established by Haindl and owned by Norske Skog from 2001. Since the 1990s the mill had two paper machines producing lightweight coated paper, a type of magazine paper. Both paper machines have a trimmed width of 725 centimeters (285 in). PM4 has an annual production of 225,000 tonnes, PM10 has 215,000 tonnes. The mill used as its source one-third thermomechanical pulp, one-third kraft pulp and one-third coating. The mill is situated on the Rhine. Until production curtailment in 2013, the mill employed 460 people.

Arnfinn Hofstad is a Norwegian businessperson.

References

  1. ↑ "Norske Skog / Norske Skog to enter the European packaging markets". www.norskeskog.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  2. ↑ "Business units | Norske Skog". www.norskeskog.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  3. ↑ Union scrapped by minimum margin Aftenposten, October 5, 2005
  4. ↑ Her legger Norske Skog ned uten protester e24.no (in Norwegian)
  5. ↑ Norske Skog stenger en maskin nrk.no March 4, 2008
  6. ↑ Lavest på 25 år ("Lowest in 25 years") e24.no (in Norwegian)
  7. ↑ Hegnar: Ikke utenkelig at Norske Skog går konkurs ("Hegnar: Not unthinkable that Norske Skog will go bankrupt") hegnar.no March 14, 2008 (in Norwegian)
  8. ↑ Press release [ permanent dead link ] Cision
  9. ↑ "NewsWeb". Oslo Stock Exchange.
  10. ↑ "NewsWeb". newsweb.oslobors.no. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  11. ↑ "Norske Skog to enter packaging market". Printweek. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  12. ↑ "CEBINA | Norske Skog". www.norskeskog.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  13. ↑ "CEBICO | Norske Skog". www.norskeskog.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  14. ↑ "The toxic paper mill sludge that consumed a lake". 27 January 2023.

59°53′50.25″N10°36′18.97″E / 59.8972917°N 10.6052694°E / 59.8972917; 10.6052694

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