Stora Enso has completed the co-determination negotiations concerning the closure of one standard newsprint paper machine (PM3) and the deinking plant at Stora Enso’s Hylte Mill in Sweden. The maximum personnel impact is 140 people.
As a result of the co-determination negotiations, PM3 will be shut down by the end of 2020 and the DIP latest in Q2 2021. Negotiations on organizational restructuring, including the risk analysis, have started. According to our earlier article, the closure could result in total cost savings of Euro 14 million.
“The decline in global newsprint demand continues due to changes in consumer behavior, and it is not expected to recover. This has lead to global overcapacity, low operating rates and poor profitability at the Hylte Mill. The planned measures would improve the competitiveness of the mill. Also, Stora Enso has invested in the site’s future to produce formed fibre products and biocomposites,” says Kati ter Horst, EVP, paper division.
Stora Enso will continue to produce standard newsprint at Hylte, Langerbrugge and Sachsen mills. The closure of Hylte Mill PM3 will not impact Stora Enso’s newsprint product offering. This closure is part of more than 2 million tons of newsprint and other publications being taken out of production. For a complete list of changes of products and reductions please see our article and Table 2 in the article, IppStar newsprint expert outlook and update uploaded on 14 September 2020.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
