St. Marys considers adding paper machine.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Brief Article

St. Marys Paper is investigating the possibility of adding a new paper machine to secure its position as a leader in the North American supercalendar market.

The Sault Ste. Marie-based pulp and paper mill has been conducting trials in Europe in recent months to determine whether to invest $250 million to $350 million in a machine capable of producing a premium supercalendar paper.

"We're looking at supercalendar paper in the offset market," says Marc Dube, woodlands manager, now the acting interim general manager at St. Marys.

"We figure it's an excellent opportunity for us to expand," Dube says.

The different printing process would produce a high-quality premium paper used. by the catalogue and insert industry for magazines and coupons.

Base sheet produced at St. Marys is being shipped to testing facilities in Finland and Germany where the gloss is added and then brought back to Canada.

"Our next step is to print the paper that we've run through the test facility and check to see how the printing compares to our competition and how the market likes it," Dube says.

The machine would boost production at the 430-employee mill by 35 per cent, dependent on the availability of wood fibre.

Once testing is complete, and provided a new machine is approved by the board of directors, it will likely take more than two years to build and install.

It would replace two older supercalendar B paper machines and would require expanding the mill by four to five acres.

St. Marys has entered discussions with the City of Sault Ste. Marie, which owns some pieces of property across from the International Bridge Plaza to house city buses and public works vehicles.

Among their other capital projects, the company is currently installing a new Fuji-King debarking system which should be operating by late September.

Dube says the $12-million investment provides a number...