The dramatic proposal comes from paper industry newcomer Ecco Newsprint UK, set up to develop plans for the mill near Redcar which would use newspapers and magazines as feedstock.
A spokeswoman for Ecco said: “I can confirm that Ecco has been looking at a number of investment opportunities in Europe and the site in Tees Valley is one of the favoured options for a significant manufacturing project. At present no final investment decision has been made by Ecco, but we have submitted a planning application and we are hopeful to have more news by the summer.”
Overseas
The mill would provide an additional source of newsprint for the UK newspaper industry which, while buying material from the three existing UK newsprint mills, still uses large volumes of newsprint from overseas. The UK newspaper industry currently uses about 2.3 million tonnes of newsprint a year with less than half of this manufactured domestically.
” We are in the process of selecting an operating team, the very best you can get.“
Marcus Moir – Ecco Newsprint
A new mill would also give local authorities another outlet for newspapers and magazines collected from the domestic waste stream. Because the existing UK mills are working at full capacity, the three companies and other merchants currently export surpluses of used newspapers and magazines to overseas mills.
Although Ecco’s plan’s are at an early stage details of the project are now beginning to emerge. The company wants to build the recycled newsprint mill, which has an estimated cost of 260-290 million at Wilton, east of Middlesbrough.
Capacity
It is thought that the plant would be built partly on the same site that St Regis and Mondi had considered – and rejected – for a new mill to produce cardboard. Capacity of the new mill is estimated to be a production of more than 300,000 tonnes of newsprint a year although figures have not been disclosed.
Benefits of the location include good access to power and water supplies plus uncongested transport links.
Marcus Moir, commercial director of Ecco Newsprint, told letsrecycle.com that plans for the site were well-developed and that the financial process of securing investment capital was well in hand. Outline plans have been submitted to the local authority with the support of local development agency Tees Valley Regeneration.
As yet, the full members of the Ecco team are still to be revealed. However, Mr Moir emphasised that paper industry experts were involved with the bid and that a larger team for the project was being assembled. “We are in the process of selecting an operating team, the very best you can get.”
He said that the project would start moving forward from February this year and that it was intended to have the mill operational and “to be shipping a saleable product from the start of 2008.”
Financial support is key to the project’s success and discussions with leading investment banks are well developed. Mr Moir confirmed that as the project is in an area which qualifies for development funding, grant aid enquiries are being made. “The mill will be situated in an area that is being targeted by grant giving bodies although this project has to stand up in its own right as we can’t go to the financial markets with a project that is dependent on aid.”
Two factors
Encouragement for the plant is thought to be coming largely from two factors.
One is that the UK continues to import more than half of the newsprint it needs, despite having three domestic mills – Bridgewater on Deesside owned by Abitibi-Consolidated; Aylesford Newsprint, owned by Aylesford and Mondi; and Shotton, owned by UPM-Kymmene. The last new newsprint paper machine to be built in the UK was at Aylesford and this started operating in 1995.
A second factor is that there have been some closures of overseas newsprint mills, particularly in Canada, and this could have influenced the UK newspaper industry into looking for more security in the domestic market.
WRAP
The government is expected to be delighted at the plans for the mill, and more so if construction is confirmed. However, one surprise among some observers is that the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which gave almost 23 million towards conversion of the UPM-Kymmene Shotton mill to recycled newsprint production, does not appear to be involved in the Wilton project.
WRAP has a target of increasing the domestic consumption of used newspapers for recycling of 500,000 tonnes. It provided for an increased usage of 320,000 tonnes at Shotton but it is not thought to have plans for the remaining 180,000. Whether it would count the Wilton tonnage in its figures is unclear.
A view from WRAP is expected soon.
Subscribe for free