Tembec Plans to Power-Up Pulp and Paper Mills in U.S. and Canada

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Tembec, Incorporated (Montreal, Canada), like so many other pulp and paper companies in the U.S. and Canada, has embarked on a multi-year restructuring plan aimed at improving the company’s overall cost structure. A key aspect of the company’s cost reduction effort is to relieve its operations from the chokehold of high oil and natural gas prices. In addressing that measure, Tembec plans to make capital investments over the next couple of years to upgrade its steam and electrical generating units at pulp and paper mills in North America.

Tembec’s only U.S. operation is a pulp and paper mill located in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The company is planning a project that will boost the plant's electrical generation capacity from 15-megawatts (MW) to around 45 MW, with the installation of a new biomass-fired boiler, along with a 30 MW steam turbine. Pending regulatory approvals, the project could come online in 2006.

In Ontario, the company operates pulp mills in Smooth Rock Falls and Kapuskasing. Later this year at the Smooth Rock Falls site, Tembec plans to make efficiency upgrades to its G3 steam turbine, which is rated for 15 MW, but currently producing 10 MW. Studies are underway to convert the No. 3 gas-fired boiler at the Kapuskasing mill back to a biomass boiler in 2006.

At the Temiscaming complex in Quebec, Tembec is pursuing the installation of a 2 MW-8 MW condensing steam turbine. The majority of the electrical needs for the complex, averaging 100 MW, are purchased from Hydro-Quebec, while on site generation is a minimal 10 MW.

In Canada’s western province of British Columbia, the potential for a new boiler is in the preliminary stages of development at the company’s mill in Chetwynd.

Tembec is a leading integrated forest products company well established in North America and France, with sales of approximately $4 billion and some 11,000 employees.

Industrilainfo.com's coverage of the Pulp, Paper & Wood Industry in the United States and Canada includes data on over 3,300 major manufacturing plants that produce pulp, paper, and wood products. Industry sectors include tissue, newsprint, coated and uncoated papers, packaging and industrial converting, lumber, plywood, and reconstituted wood products, such as particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF) and oriented strand board (OSB).

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