Fortress Begins Final Phase of Dissolving Pulp Conversion at Thurso

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The Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill was purchased by Fortress in early 2010 with the plan to convert the NBHK (northern bleached hardwood kraft) mill to a dissolving pulp producer beginning in May 2011. Moreover, the construction of a cogeneration facility to provide 18.8 MW per year of green power to Hydro Quebec for a 15-yr term has also recently broken ground, and is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2012.

Peter Vinall, CEO of Fortress Specialty Cellulose, noted that "the Thurso mill conversion has entered the final shutdown phase, which represents the ending of NBHK production at the mill. We have mobilized a workforce of more than 800 workers on-site to assist with final mill connections and de-bottlenecking work. When the mill is restarted in early November, it will be a low cost, high quality dissolving pulp producer with an annual production capacity of approximately 200,000 metric tons."

The Lanqart Mill's signing of new banknote paper contracts for 2012 represents a significant portion of the mill's annual banknote production capacity.

Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Fortress Paper, explained that "our Landqart Mill was among the winning bids for a number of banknote contracts. Bidding on contracts of this volume would not have been possible prior to our recent PM 1 banknote machine upgrade, which increased our overall annual production capacity from 2,500 to 10,000 metric tpy."

Fortress operates three mills—the Landqart Mill in Switzerland, the Dresden Mill in Germany, and the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill in Quebec, Canada. The company's security papers include banknote, passport, and visa papers and its specialty papers include non-woven wallpaper base products, and graphic and technical papers. Its pulp business includes specialty pulp produced at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill.