And, the value of the Aylesford site has become clear with early proposals to develop it for housing and industry and that the site contains high volumes of valuable stainless steel scrap.
Contractor W&S Recycling of Poole, Dorset has been selected by the official receiver KPMG to clear the 100 acres site to slab level prior to redevelopment.
Sole rights
W&S have purchased the sole rights, from KPMG, for the disposal and sale of all the processing and site equipment plus all other site materials including machinery spares, maintenance equipment/material, office contents and all other additional material arisings throughout the project
Separately, in terms of a credit payment, letsrecycle.com has been told that a number of creditors have been offered sums by credit agencies seeking to buy the debt, in some cases of around 30p in the £.
And, it is expected that creditors might receive a “reasonable” amount back but no figures have been released, and much could depend on the amount realised from the assets and from the sale of the land.
Scroll down the page to view our gallery of images from the Aylesford site.
In 2012 Aylesford was sold by joint owners Mondi and SCA to the Martland Group Holdings, a private investment company. Prior to completion, the company was re-capitalised, with the proceeds used to repay in full its interest bearing debt and it had an additional net cash position of £23 million at completion, with pro forma gross assets amounting to approximately £99 million. “Aylesford’s high-quality asset base, its unique industrial know-how combined with a strong balance sheet with no financial debt and an improved operating structure will represent key assets for the future,” said Landry Kouakou, executive director at Martland said at the time.
Metal
Part of the reason now for any credits will be because of the value of the site itself plus the paper machine and the hundreds of tonnes of metal on the site, large volumes of which are high quality stainless steel.
Because of the amount of water used in the papermaking process, when developed as the world’s newest papermaking machine in the mid-1990s almost no expense was spared in terms of constructing the paper machine (PM14) and its associated infrastructure.
The project instructions given to W&S under a contract with KPMG is for the removal/processing of all site equipment consisting of the two major newsprint manufacturing lines (PM14 and 13) plus all support/ancillary equipment and all other site equipment. Then W&S are to reduce all structures to ground/slab level.
Tony Knowles, W&S commercial director, explained that “the initial priority is to maximise the re-use of the onsite sophisticated manufacturing and ancillary machinery plus as much of the miscellaneous site materials including extensive areas of building cladding panels, block pavers, office furniture, machinery spares and other various materials.”
Both paper machines could be sold, Mr Knowles, told letsrecycle.com. He said: “We have had interest in the smaller, older machine from Africa partly because it would need less feedstock. Other visitors looking at the large PM14 machine have come from the Middle East, China and the United States with the possibility of it being reengineered to produce lightweight paper for use in boxmaking.”
Clearance
However, with W&S on a timescale to get the site cleared in less than two years, time is of the essence in agreeing a deal to sell the machines. If no agreement is reached in time, the pair are likely to be sold as scrap.
Certain site buildings which are suitable for disassembly, shipment and re-assembly to a new site will also be sold to any interested parties.
W&S intend to appoint a single dedicated metal merchant to factor all ferrous and non-ferrous removed after the initial re-use programme for equipment and materials has been concluded.
The size of the demolition work at the site and the large amount of metal means that the Aylesford project is certainly one of the largest, if not the largest project of its type to be undertaken in recent years in the South of England and probably anywhere in the UK Mainland.
Mr Knowles added: “I would like to say that W&S Recycling are confident that under the hands on direct leadership of our CEO Mr Geoff Thompson, this major project will be successfully concluded with the minimum disruption and inconvenience to the local community.”
Several senior Aylesford Newsprint staff have remained on site to work with W&S. Stuart Chandler, technical service director at Aylesford Newsprint, said he was remaining at the plant in order to oversee the transition. He said: “We’re here to assist W+S in their mission to clear the site. Aylesford staff have reduced since the closure from 50 down to around a dozen.”
‘A strange visit in 2015’letsrecycle.com visited the Aylesford site this week to record a “farewell video” of what once was Britain’s newest newsprint papermaking machine and one which broke world speed records. Now, it is a strange experience visiting. Before the closure it was a warm site with a traditional papermaking feel to the air, and there was a sense of pride and excitement as thousands of tonnes of used newspapers and magazines arrived to produce the company’s Renaissance brand. Now the mill site seems larger than ever because of its massive storage areas and wide spaces alongside the paper machines. The amount of metal in terms of pipework, installed equipment and paper machines as well as spare rollers is amazing. The value of the metal is also clear. While the pipework appears grey in colour, it could well be polished into gleaming stainless steel. And, unlike modern stainless, much of which has other metals or even plastics within it, the Aylesford stainless is virtually pure stainless 316 grade, in other words, top of the range.
|
Register for free to comment