Photo courtesy of Norske Skog
Norwegian pulp and paper company Norske Skog officially has started up its new recycled containerboard machine at its paper mill in Golbey, France, after several delays pushed the project into this year.
The new containerboard machine represents an investment of approximately $373 million—the largest investment in company history—will increase Norske Skog’s capacity by about 550,000 metric tons, raising its total capacity to 760,000 metric tons.
It also increases the company’s recycling capacity to more than 1 million tons of paper and old corrugated containers.
Norske Skog initially announced the project in 2021, revealing plans to convert its Golbey newsprint machine to produce recycled containerboard in a project that was expected to take about 18 months. However, in September 2024, the company said work relating to piping and electrical cabling was taking longer than planned, and after pushing the target start date to late 2024, announced a new 2025 targeted startup.
“The startup of the world-class containerboard machine at Golbey is a significant milestone for Norske Skog and for everyone working at the Golbey mill,” Norske Skog CEO Geir Drangsland says in a statement. “Although the project has been challenging, we want to thank everyone involved and look forward to delivering volumes to our customers.”
The company expects the new machine to begin delivering containerboard to customers during the second quarter of this year, and the mill is projected to achieve a capacity utilization of 50-60 percent by the end of 2025 and 95 percent utilization in the first half of 2027.
Along with containerboard production, the mill also maintains 330,000 tons of annual newsprint capacity.
“The containerboard business will become an important and strong contributor to Norske Skog’s operations going forward. At the same time, Norske Skog will remain a reliable supplier of high-quality publication paper products.”