While there is little secret about Aylesford’s hopes to install a second large
capacity paper machine at its plant in Kent, exactly which company would be involved in any
Teesside development is unclear.
Latest reports suggest that SCA Recycling may be interested in the project which is being
pushed hard by the Tees Valley Development Company which has suggested two sites for a mill using recycled paper along
the River Tees.
SCA Recycling could not comment on the situation today. It is currently thought
to be without a UK chief executive as Richard Holdren, who held the post until recently, is
understood to have left the company with Steve Smith finance director now holding the
reigns.
A new plant could be as large as 300,000
tonnes and cost substantially more than 100 million to build.
Tees Valley chief executive Neil Etherington told letsrecycle that plans for the plant were at
an advanced stage.
“We have identified two sites and have excellent provision of water and power. We
have the space, the will, the utility provision and long experience in the process sector.”
One of the identified sites is within an Enron power supply site and while Enron is
itself involved in the paper sector and has bought in to two mills in North America it has ruled
out taking a stake in a new mill on Teesside.
Operational costs for a new mill could be competitive because it would be able to
use partially treated water from the recently built Brans Sands treatment plant owned by
Northumbrian Water, which in turn is in the SITA group.
An announcement about whether or not a new mill will be built on Teesside is
expected next month, according to the development company which was formed by five
unitary local authorities in the region.
Meanwhile, an announcement is still awaited about the potential for a new machine
at Aylesford. There is competition from Scotland for the machine which may mean that the
government decides to run some form of competition for a grant towards the new machine. This could
see both Aylesford and the Scottish Executive bidding for funds.
However, paper industry insiders say that Aylesford is still the favoured site
because single machine sites are less economic to run and so the costs of a Scottish
recycled newsprint plant with only one machine could make it less competitive.
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