Nippon Paper has taken a hit following its exit from office paper production in Australia.

 

The earnings of Japanese group Nippon Paper have taken a hit following the withdrawal from office paper production at its Opal subsidiary in Australia.

 

In February, Opal announced it was permanently halting graphic paper manufacturing at its Maryvale Mill due to a lack of wood supply. At the time, Nippon revealed it would take a ¥20 billion (US$150 million) impairment loss in relation to the decision. Now, the Japanese firm has said it expects to record an extraordinary loss to earnings of almost ¥5 billion in relation to Maryvale.

 

The huge impairment loss announced in February was due to the closure of the M5 paper machine at Maryvale. Last week, Opal announced it was also closing its M2 machine at the facility due to continued supply issues. This, Nippon has confirmed, will lead to another – albeit smaller – impairment charge of around ¥1.2 billion, with the impact on earnings yet to be determined.

 

For more on this and other global news from OPI, go to https://www.opi.net/news/region/004-asia-middle-east-africa/nippon-posts...

 

Opal’s Maryvale Mill has ‘gone to waste’

 

Former copy paper plant at forefront of energy-from-waste project.

 

The Maryvale Energy from Waste (EfW) project, led by consortium partners Opal, Veolia and Masdar Tribe Australia, has been ramped up following the signing of the grant agreement for $48.2 million under the federal government’s Manufacturing Collaboration Stream of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI).

 

The Maryvale EfW facility will be the first of its kind in Australia to recover heat and power from residual nonrecyclable municipal and commercial waste to provide partly renewable power for large-scale manufacturing.

 

The state-of-the-art EfW facility will be constructed at Opal Australian Paper’s Maryvale Mill in the Latrobe Valley, which no longer manufactures white copy paper. 

 

Veolia, which already operates 65 state-of-the-art EfW facilities around the world, will operate and maintain the facility.