November 10, 2004

Sponsored by

LEWISBURG CONTAINER'S Anchor Hocking "Tartan Set" packaging has won the coveted Corbie Best of Show at the 2004 TAPPI CorrPak^® competition. TAPPI's Corrugated Packaging Division sponsors this distinguished event each year to select and recognize the finest commercially produced corrugated package products manufactured, judged for quality, design, graphic excellence, technical difficulty, and innovative application. The annual CorrPak^® Competition is open to ALL corrugated manufacturers worldwide.

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THE ARC ADVISORY GROUP, Dedham, Massachusetts, USA conducted an Emerging Practices study in which ARC talked to 24 companies that were actively investing in EPC RFID (Electronic Product Code Radio Frequency Identification). Only one company ARC talked to believed they could have under a two-year payback period. 95 percent of the respondents believed the payback period would be greater than two years.

ARC Advisory Group is now selling "Emerging Practices in EPC RFID." This study offers information on:

• The status of the Wal-Mart mandate and advice on how to prepare for mandate meetings with retailers
• An analysis of how companies are changing their processes to meet these mandates and the strengths and weaknesses of the various process choices
• An analysis of the three critical inflection processes when it makes sense to move from handling RFID in a certain way to doing it differently
• An analysis of the reliability of RFID technology as well as companies' satisfaction with various RFID solution providers
• The costs of preparing the RFID infrastructure
• The benefits of RFID and what will be necessary to reap those benefits
• 13 key recommendations which can conservatively save your company hundreds of thousands of dollars if you must implement RFID to meet a mandate.

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CASCADES INC., Kingsey Falls, Québec, Canada, announced a shutdown of the operations of Cascades FjordCell, its virgin pulp mill located in Jonquière, Québec. Considering the deterioration of the labor relations and recent events, management has decided to lockout the unionized employees at that mill. The collective agreement expired on April 30, 2004. Though part of Cascades FjordCell's production is sold to Cascades Boxboard Group, the lockout should not affect the operations of the boxboard mill which can obtain pulp from alternative sources should the lockout persist, according to Cascades.

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NORAMPAC, Montreal, Quebec, Canada announced the recent ratification of a new 3-year contract with the Independent Paperworkers' Union, Local 595, at the Norampac Etobicoke Division. Norampac said the ratification has paved the way for it to proceed with a C$17.5 million investment in two of its Ontario corrugated products converting facilities: Etobicoke and St. Marys Divisions. This investment project is in addition to the over C$ 70 million the company has invested in its Ontario box plants over the last 4 years. The largest part of this investment, $13.5 million, will be slated for Norampac Inc., Etobicoke Division.

This includes a large 86" x 220" Jumbo, two-color flexo with full in-line die cutting, folding, gluing and stitching. This high-speed state-of-the-art machine will replace 5 older pieces of equipment. The new jumbo press will be the largest and most versatile bulk box converting machine in Canada. The Etobicoke Division corrugator will be upgraded with two new single facers, cut- off knife and down stackers to add "AAC" triple wall capabilities, with overall improved board performance, at faster speeds. The plant will also add upgraded power conveyors, smart cars, and material handling equipment. The project shall be completed by March 2005. This high performance equipment will serve a targeted market in bulk bin packaging that includes: triple wall, double wall, and large single wall boxes used in the automotive, resin, furniture, food processing, fresh produce, chemical and appliance industries.

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PAPIERFABRIK SCHOELLERSHAMMER in Düren, Germany, has ordered a rebuild of their board machine PM5 from Metso Paper. PM5 is designed for the manufacture of high quality recycled packaging grades. The start-up is scheduled for the summer of 2005. The rebuild of the 5.5-meter wide machine will be supplied by Metso units in Finland and Italy and will consist of proven boardmaking technology as well as Metso Paper's new technological concepts for packaging grades. The machine will produce fluting and test liner in the basis weight range of 90 - 170 g/m². Metso's delivery scope includes a new SymPress Combi, a size press for pond sizing, a ValReel, as well as main modifications in the dryer section, including a new tail threading system with OptiForce family products (PressForce, FoilForce and SingleForce web stabilization).

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STORA ENSO, Helsinki, Finland announced that it will acquire 66% of the shares in the Polish packaging producer Intercell S.A. from private shareholders and the International Finance Corporation. The acquisition is expected to be closed by the end of 2004, subject to approval by regulatory authorities. The Polish State Treasury owns the balance of the shares in Intercell. In February 2004 the Polish State Treasury announced its intention of privatizing its shareholding in the Company. The acquisition is part of Stora Enso's strategy of increasing its Packaging Boards operations. The transaction will expand Stora Enso's corrugated packaging business and strengthen its presence in the fast-growing Polish market.

Intercell is one of Poland's biggest corrugated packaging companies, with integrated operations from waste paper collection to corrugated packaging production. The Company has three corrugated packaging plants in Poland, as well as one sack factory in Poland and one in Serbia. Intercell's paper and board mill at Ostroleka, Poland has an annual production capacity of about 250 000 metric tons of containerboard and sack and kraft paper. Its annual corrugated packaging capacity is about 250 million m2. In 2003 Intercell's sales were EUR 150 million, 60% of which was from packaging and 40% from containerboards and paper. Its EBITDA in 2003 was EUR 27 million. The Company employs about 1700 people. Intercell also operates Poland's largest recycled paper collection business, covering approximately 15% of the business in Poland.

International Finance Corporation, based in Washington D.C., is the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group. It holds 12.4% of the shares in Intercell.

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SMURFIT-STONE CONTAINER CORPORATION has introduced SmartDisplay^TM, the latest in RFID enabled point-of-purchase displays Consumer product goods companies and retailers looking for radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking and inventory management are looking to Smurfit-Stone for solutions. RFID technology is rapidly moving forward at major retailers including Wal-Mart and Target as well as the Department of Defense. Retailers are testing RFID labels on pallets and outer packaging to track shipments in the supply chain. In the foreseeable future, retailers will be wired to transmit data throughout the stores. SmartDisplay^TM makes traditional point-of purchase displays "smarter". It will enable measurements as to how consumers respond to a promotion, display, or placement within a retail environment, as well as deliver realtime inventory data.

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UBOXES LLC, a leading online source of moving supplies and an independent corrugated cartons manufacturer selling direct to residential consumers, announced an online retail agreement with Monstermoving.com, a brand extension of Monster(R), the flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, Inc. This agreement positions UBoxes to power the moving supplies center of the Monstermoving.com site and its affiliate sites, enhancing Monstermoving's services offering and giving Monstermoving clients direct access to UBoxes' factory direct catalog of moving boxes and supplies. UBoxes, LLC is based in Miami, Florida. For more information, visit www.uboxes.com

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THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION has formally approved Georgia- Pacific Corp. as the first company in OSHA's new VPP Corporate Pilot program. The VPP Corporate Pilot was designed to streamline the VPP application and onsite evaluation processes for corporations that have made a commitment to VPP. The initiative also focuses on eliminating redundancy in the application requirements for sites from the same corporation.

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WEYERHAEUSER CO. has ordered a board machine dry end rebuild from Metso Corp. for its Valliant, Oklahoma, USA. The rebuild is designed to increase line capacity and to help manufacture high quality linerboard grades. The dry end machine rebuild will start up in late 2005. The rebuild consists of dryer can relocations with new framing, threading from the end dryer section to the last calender stack, new ValReel with new spools and a winder unwind rebuild. The design speed of the machine will be 3,000 FPM (914 m/min), and it will produce Unbleached Kraftliner linerboard with basis weight ranges of 42 to 69 lb/1000ft2 (205 - 338 g/m2). The Valliant mill is located in the southeast corner of Oklahoma, and is one of the largest producers of board products in the United States.

KADANT BLACK CLAWSON INC., a subsidiary of Kadant Inc., received an order from Cascades Boxboard Inc, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for a Float Purger stock cleaning system. This mill location was the first to install a Float Purger when the equipment was introduced in 1981. The new Float Purger will replace the mill's existing unit which has operated for more than twenty years as a secondary coarse screen in the filler cleaning system.

The Float Purger cleaning system incorporates the concentration and removal of light contaminants, the defibering of undeflaked stock, and the collection and removal of heavy grit into a single machine. Cascades will utilize the new equipment to process old corrugated containers (OCC) in the production of coated boxboard. Start-up is scheduled for the end of 2004.

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KIWIPLAN has released the Transport Scheduling System (TSS). Transport Scheduling is an integrated shipping system that automatically plans deliveries to:

• Optimize "Pull Through" scheduling function
• Optimize truck routes
• Maximize trailer utilization in order to reduce "air" space shipped-thus reducing the number of trucks hours required, resulting in significant savings
• Meet customer delivery requirements

Kiwiplan's Transport Scheduling automatically reacts to all plant schedule changes and re-plans the most desirable shipping schedule-proactively. Kiwiplan's Transport Scheduling also feeds back shipping changes allowing the plant scheduling system to also automatically react and re-plan the production schedule-proactively.

For more information, send email to: sales@kiwiplan.com.

SuperCorrExpo^® News
SuperCorrExpo^® Attracts Thousands to Atlanta
More than 6600 people are participating in SuperCorrExpo^® this week in Atlanta, Georgia. Sponsored by AICC and TAPPI, SuperCorrExpo^® is the largest corrugated packaging machinery show in the Western Hemisphere. Converters from 38 different countries representing 570 plant locations are participating in this unique weeklong event. Highlights include a variety of educational sessions and free show floor training as well as unparalleled networking opportunities.

See the SuperCorrExpo^® Video!
Get a first-hand look at SuperCorrExpo^® through the first-ever SuperCorrExpo video.

Machine Sales at SuperCorrExpo^®
Lakeway Container, Inc. purchased a Model EM Electrostatic Method Label Laminator from Automatän Inc. during SuperCorrExpo. Automatän has 20 Model EM Label Laminators installed in the US. The product is available worldwide. Model EM runs small litho format sizes, as well as the largest format size available on a wide range of substrates. It is known for quick changes on short runs.

You Can Still Participate in SuperCorrExpo^®!
The largest machinery show in the Western Hemisphere happens only once every four years. SuperCorrExpo® features nearly 300 exhibiting companies displaying over 2,000,000 pounds of machinery. The show is open through Friday, November 12 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and attendance is free. Visit www.supercorrexpo.org for complete details.

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Upcoming Events
Intelligent & Smart Packaging USA
January 24-26, 2004, Orlando, Florida
Sponsored by Pira, IDTechEx, and TAPPI

Maintenance and Operations Reliability Week
Sponsored by TAPPI and IDCON
April 4-7, 2005 Perdido Beach Hotel, Orange Beach, Alabama

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Check out the new TAPPI Recognized Education Provider Program!

• FREE web-based tool to search training providers and courses!
• REP criteria reflect best practices in adult education!
• Recognition process guarantees consistent quality!
• REP raises workforce effectiveness!

For more detailed information please visit www.tappi.org/REP.

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Leap to New Heights in Your Career with TAPPI's Membership Campaign
TAPPI's Leap to New Heights in Your Career membership campaign will reward you for recruiting new or former members or joining yourself. Simply recruit a new or former member before November 30, 2004 and you'll receive a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com for every person who joins. Not a member? Join with a colleague and you'll each receive a $10 gift certificate.

In order to qualify, the referring member's name or member number must be included on Referring Member line of the application. If you and your colleague are joining together, please list each other as the Referring Member.

Visit TAPPI's website for more details about the campaign, and helpful recruiting tips. Start recruiting today!

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It's Membership Renewal Time!
You should have received your 2005 membership renewal information. The Individual membership dues for 2005 are $154. Order the 2005-2006 TAPPI Technical Information Papers CD-ROM at the time of your renewal for only $50 - you save $100!

In the meantime, take advantage of your membership benefits for 2004 - including ten free downloads of technical documents from www.tappi.org and a 50% discount on the registration for one TAPPI Virtual Seminar. Already used your benefits for 2004? Renew early and begin using next year's benefits today!

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Web Tip of the Week
Technical Divisions and Committees give TAPPI members the opportunity to meet and work with other members to share ideas and solve problems. TAPPI members can join any of nearly 80 different Technical Committees organized into eleven Technical Divisions serving specific segments of the industry. You can find a link to the divisions and committees under the People & Resources heading located on the left hand side of www.tappi.org. Division and Committee membership is open to all TAPPI members. To join a Division, contact TAPPI's Member Connection Center, memberconnection@tappi.org. If you'd like to join a Committee, send an email to the Committee's chairman. You'll find a roster of the officers in the Leaders/Officers section of each division and committee page.

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