The new managing director is Hans Wortner. He succeeds Richard Holdren who recently left the company. Mr Wortner is expected to be in the UK for several a days a week starting after Easter.
Mr Wortner, speaking from the Netherlands, said he was pleased to be returning to work within the UK. Although he has been with SCA for the past 14 years he previously worked for Reed International when it was a key player in the UK waste paper sector.
AGM
Last Friday, SCA Recyclings's parent company, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, held its agm in Stockholm. The company is a major international player in the paper market and is currently creating a North American business unit as a result of the acquisition of Georgia-Pacific's tissue operations and the Tuscarora packaging company in North America,
SCA brands include Aylesford Newsprint's Renaissance newsprint, Double Velvet toilet tissue and several brands of corrugated board. It owns the Aylesford plant in the UK in a joint venture with Mondi.
In the agm report, Sverker Martin-Lf, president and chief executive of SCA said that there is stable demand for corrugated board in Europe “although volumes are clearly lower than in the fourth quarter of 2000”.
However, there is stability in the market said the president, although he pointed to increased price competition. He also reported that the demand for pulp and recycled fibre continues to weaken and that “the pulp price has been successively adjusted downward and remains under pressure”.
Recovery
On an optimistic note Mr Martin-Lof noted that the recycled fibre market in southern Europe has shown signs of recovery after a sharp decline last autumn. “Testliner and kraftliner deliveries are lower than in the fourth quarter of 2000, but markets are in balance as a result of production cutbacks. The lower recovered paper prices have resulted in temporary discounts on testliner.
“Kraftliner prices are currently stable, despite a continued weak market situation in North America. An increase in imports of kraftliner to Europe has also been noted.”
The president said that market conditions for coated fine paper remains weak, which has created uncertainty for the light weigh coated grade in the form of reduced deliveries and increased price competition. And, “a slower delivery pace has also been noted for other publication paper grades.”
SCA finds that demand for tissue is stable, but volumes are lower than in the fourth quarter of 2000.
On the costs front, while energy and transport costs continue to rise, this is mainly being offset by declining raw materials costs.
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