as tsx cyt industry pulp and paper founded 2000 headquarters richmond british columbia canada key people joe nemeth ceo les lederer board chair number of employees 2 800 website catalystpaper.com catalyst paper corporation is a pulp and paper company based in the canadian city of richmond british columbia . it operates five pulp mills and paper mills producing a combined 1.8 million tonnes of paper and 491 000 tonnes of market pulp annually . the mills mostly produce magazine paper and newsprint . the company was established as norskecanada in 2000 when norske skog bought the majority of fletcher challenge canada with elk falls mill and crofton mill . the following year pacifica papers operating port alberni mill and powell river mill was merged into the group . a recycling plant in coquitlam was bought in 2003 . the group took the catalyst name in 2005 and the following year norske skog sold their shares . snowflake mill was bought in 2008 but in the following two years the elk falls coquitlam and one machine at crofton were shut down . snowflake followed suit in 2012 . the reason was falling demand for newsprint and increased cost of recycled paper . catalyst reentered us production in 2015 with the purchase of biron mill and rumford mill . contents 1 history 1.1 background 1.2 norskecanada 1.3 internationalization 2 operations 3 mills 4 references 5 bibliography history edit background edit port alberni mill in 1970 catalyst s canadian mills date back to 1912 when powell river mill was established by the powell river paper company . bloedel stewart and welch established port alberni mill in 1946 1 merging to create macmillan bloedel in 1951 . they merged with the powell river paper company in 1960 . the mill assets were spun off to create pacifica papers in 1998 . 2 crown zellerbach canada established elk falls mill in 1951 . british columbia forest products bcfp founded in 1946 established crofton mill in 1957 . 1 new zealand s fletcher challenge acquired crown zellerbach canada in 1981 changing its name to crown forest industries . six years later it also bought bcfp changing the canadian division s name to fletcher challenge canada . 2 norskecanada edit norskecanada had its origins in the 2000 purchase of fletcher challenge pulp and paper by norske skog . the latter had not been particularly interested in entering the north american market but fletcher challenge had offered its assets as an all or nothing deal . 3 this included its 50.8 percent share in fletcher challenge canada which owned elk falls mill and crofton mill . 4 the annual meeting in fletcher challenge canada approved with 99.97 percent of the votes on 26 october 2000 to take the name norske skog canada ltd. 5 at the time the company had nok 8 billion in cash which it paid in dividends to the owners . 4 powell river mill norske skog considered both selling its shares in norskecanada or developing the company further . the latter was chosen resulting in norskecanada purchasing pacifica papers on 27 august 2001 giving it control over port alberni mill and powell river mill . two months previously pacifica papers had sold mackenzie mill . the pacifica papers acquisition was funded through the issuing of new shares diluting norske skog s ownership to 36.1 percent . more new shares were issued in may 2002 reducing norske skog s ownership further to 30.6 percent . 4 unlike the rest of the group norske skog lacked the direct control over the assets in canada . ceo russ horner was part of norske skog s corporate executive board until the share was diluted . from then the two companies were legally regarded as competitors and the two were not allowed for cooperate closely for instance through joint sales offices . 4 crofton mill the company acquired newtech recycling of coquitlam in december 2003 . western canada s first and largest paper recycling plant was bought to vertically integrate a source of deinked paper . 2 the acquisition was partially paid for in cash partially in shares . 6 the site handled 163 000 tonnes of old newsprint from british columbia and alberta as well as more remote sources predominantly minnesota and kansas city shipped by train to coquitlam . once deinkled the pulp was sent by barge to crofton mill . 7 by 2005 norskecanada had operated with a deficit in 13 of 19 quarters and norske skog started considering its options for the company . p yry was hired to consider the operations and concluded that the mills were not competitive for export to asia a prime target market for norske skog . the paper particularly emphasized inefficient mill designs which subsequently led to higher operating costs . 8 the first step was taken in october 2005 when the general meeting approved the new name catalyst paper to signal that the group was leaving norske skog . 2 the norwegian group sold its 29.4 percent of catalyst for 186 million in a bought deal on 30 january 2006 . 8 at the time catalyst s four mills made it north america s fourth largest producer of printing papers with an annual production of two million tonnes of paper and half a million tonnes of kraft pulp . 6 train on the apache railway used to transport old newsprint and coal to and newsprint from the snowflake mill internationalization edit catalyst s first us investment was snowflake mill which was acquired in 2008 . 2 catalyst took steps to upgrade the mill including investments to allow the plant to produce finer grades of paper . 9 snowflake was an early user of deinkling pulp and was amongst the first in the us to accept single source recycling materials . this moves some of the recycling work from the recyclers thus cutting their costs in exchange for a stronger market position and lower raw prices . however snowflake mill was stuck with a raw product flow which contain contaminants such as plastic and metals . 10 elk fall mills was shut down on 30 november 2008 . in addition to falling demand for newsprint the mill increasingly failed to secure sufficient virgin fiber as the mill used sawdust rather than woodchips as its source material . the 2008 recession caused a steep drop in demand for building materials causing at least three of the main sawdust suppliers to elk fall mill to shut down . this was made worse by increasing power prices and a strengthening of the canadian dollar . 11 especially after 2005 china started buying large quantities of old newsprint from north america particularly from the west coast . in addition to causing a shortage in recycled paper the exports caused a steep increase in the prices . 12 combined with reduced demand for newsprint catalyst decided to curtail production at paper machine 1 from 23 december 2009 . the following year the corporation decided to close the coquitlam plant and permanently terminate production at paper machine 1 in crofton . 13 rumford mill is situated on the androscoggin river from 2008 snowflake fell into a steadily more competitive environment . prices of recycled fibers rose with increased demand from chinese importers . slack at quality controlling received papers at chinese mills allowed for the export of a steadily more contaminated wastes which again effected the quality and prices for snowflake . this led to higher prices and lower quality for snowflake mill . 10 the price of old newsprint increased by 163 percent from 2009 to 2012 . . the mill was therefore permanently closed on 30 september 2012 after having provided a negative ebidta every year since 2009 . 9 as part of the verso corporation 2015 acquisition of newpage us authorities required two mills to be sold . catalyst therefore bought biron mill in biron wisconsin and rumford mill in rumford maine . both produce coated paper allowing catalyst to expand its paper portfolio into finer grades . the mills were bought for us 62 million . 14 the deal led to a 65 percent increase in catalyst s production . 15 operations edit catalyst paper corporation is headquartered in richmond british columbia . it has an annual production of 1.8 million tonnes of paper and 491 000 tonnes of market pulp . it has an annualized sales of 2.0 billion per year and is listed on the toronto stock exchange . 16 mills edit list of pulp and paper mills mill location pms production period ref biron biron wisconsin united states 2 coated groundwood paper 335 000 t 2015 17 coquitlam coquitlam british columbia canada 0 deinking 163 000 t 2003 10 7 crofton crofton british columbia canada 2 newsprint 350 000 t nbsk 377 000 t 2000 18 elk falls campbell river british columbia canada 2 newsprint 373 000 t uncoated fine paper 153 000 t 2000 08 19 port alberni port alberni british columbia canada 2 coated paper 224 000 t directory paper 116 000 t 2001 20 powell river powell river british columbia canada 2 uncoated fine paper 350 000 t 2001 21 rumford rumford maine united states 3 coated groundwood paper 438 000 t 2015 22 snowflake snowflake arizona united states 2 newsprint 289 000 t uncoated fine paper 48 000 t 2008 12 23 references edit a b christie doug 1 january 2004 . looking west historical overview of the industry in bc . pulp and paper canada . archived from the original on 9 july 2015 . retrieved 9 july 2015 . a b c d e our history over a century of papermaking pdf . catalyst paper . january 2015 . archived pdf from the original on 9 july 2015 . retrieved 9 july 2015 . pollen 264 a b c d pollen 266 pollen 265 a b pollen 301 a b strandberg diane 25 january 2006 . the business of recycling part 2 paper power pdf . tri city news . p. 16 . archived pdf from the original on 28 october 2007 . retrieved 14 july 2015 . a b pollen 302 a b catalyst to permanently close snowflake recycle paper mill . catalyst paper . 2012 . archived from the original on 2 december 2014 . retrieved 13 july 2015 . a b svaldi aldo 30 september 2012 . closure of arizona paper mill leaves colorado recyclers scrambling . the denver post . archived from the original on 13 july 2015 . retrieved 13 july 2015 . hamilton g. 9 february 2007 . catalyst permanently shuts down elk falls pulp mill . vancouver sun . archived from the original on 28 october 2007 . retrieved 14 july 2015 . china scoops up recycled paper . the ottawa citizen . 9 february 2007 . archived from the original on 28 october 2007 . retrieved 5 july 2009 . catalyst idles crofton paper machine coquitlam de inking plant . catalyst paper . retrieved 14 july 2015 . fishell darren 7 january 2015 . verso completes newpage buy ; catalyst gets rumford mill and another for 62.4 million . bangor daily news . archived from the original on 3 february 2015 . retrieved 14 july 2015 . lawder melanie 31 october 2014 . newpage selling biron paper mill to canadian company . wisconsin rapids daily tribune . archived from the original on 3 february 2015 . retrieved 14 july 2015 . company at a glance . catalyst paper . retrieved 14 july 2015 . biron mill . catalyst paper . 2015 . archived from the original on 13 november 2013 . retrieved 13 july 2015 . our mills crofton bc pdf . catalyst paper . may 2014 . archived from the original on 9 november 2013 . retrieved 9 july 2015 . our mills elk falls bc pdf . catalyst paper . may 2014 . archived pdf from the original on 9 november 2013