Business Management - Government/Governmental

Wausau Paper’s mill in Brokaw (WI) has been a major local employer for more than a century. A company memo obtained by the Wausau Daily Herald revealed that the Brokaw mill has been losing money for almost a decade, even as the company has taken steps to cut costs there.

To be sure, part of what is happening is that the market for paper is changing. But there also are concrete changes to public policy that could help to ease the way for Wisconsin’s paper mills, and leaders at all levels of government should be working hard at putting them

AbitibiBowater discussed its future direction behind closed doors Thursday, less than a day after Quebec politicians granted pension changes required for its restructuring. The Montreal-based forestry company barred the public and media from its first annual meeting in three years and the first since it exited 20 months of creditor and bankruptcy protection in Canada and the United States.

Annual meetings are routinely open to observers in Canada. But company spokesman Pierre Choquette said the newsprint giant considered the event a private meeting “from a legal standpoint.”

“It’s a private meeting so I cannot tell you about the content of what’s

A USA TODAY editorial yesterday ranked black liquor tax credits #6 on the list of “10 terrible tax breaks” that should be eliminated or scaled back. “‘Black liquor’ = much green,” the unsigned editorial said. “Paper companies make a mockery of tax law by claiming a credit meant to promote biofuels. They take a flammable byproduct of the pulping process known as black liquor, mix it with diesel fuel and—presto!—they are promoting alternative fuels and eligible for massive tax breaks. (Cost: $6.6 billion.)”

After many months of crusading to bring to light this boondoggle for a pulp byproduct,

The cost of the “Son of Black Liquor” giveaway to U.S. pulp and paper companies officially passed $1 billion last week and could eventually grow much larger. A dozen publicly traded pulp manufacturers recently reported actual or expected federal Cellulosic Biofuel Producer Credits (CBPC) totaling $1.1 billion in their annual and quarterly reports.

That number includes only $65 million, so far, for #1 pulp manufacturer International Paper and nothing from #2 Georgia Pacific, which is privately held. Both giants seem likely to join or surpass Packaging Corp. of America, Weyerhaeuser, and Domtar, each of which recorded or expects

NPES is monitoring the unfair trade practice cases filed by three U.S. paper manufacturers and a workers’ union, which allege that China and Indonesia are harming the U.S. paper industry by providing unfair support to their domestic paper manufacturers that export to the United States.

A U.S. Department of Commerce proposal to impose stiff tariffs on coated free sheet paper imported from China and Indonesia would help save American jobs and allow domestic companies to compete more fairly for business, supporters say.

But the plan could launch an international tariff war, warns a Connecticut printer and other opponents, that could backfire and almost certainly would drive up the cost of printing everything from multicolored catalogs, magazines and books to advertising flyers, menus and greeting cards.

Last September, a petition was filed charging Indonesia and China with illegal subsidies and dumping during 2008 and 2009, which subsequently caused "material injury" to the U.S. paper industry.

Well, my friends, it’s a new year. In the paper industry, that means the end of the “Black Liquor” tax credits that served to subsidize the industry in 2009 to the tune of $8 billion.

Several U.S.-based coated paper manufacturers, led by NewPage Corp., are asking the federal government to level the playing field by imposing duties on China and Indonesia for subsidizing and dumping certain coated paper.

MONTREAL—The Quebec Superior Court and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York have given their blessings to Quebecor World's reorganizational plans, leaving the company perhaps days away from exiting bankruptcy protection. A joint hearing to resolve any outstanding issues relating to the terms of the new securities to be issued by Quebecor World will be held on Monday.