May 11, 2005

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AUBURN UNIVERSITY'S PULP AND PAPER RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER is changing its name. Effective immediately, the center in the College of Engineering will be known as the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering (AC-PABE). Auburn University is located in Auburn, Alabama, USA.

According to the University, the change is being implemented to underscore the significant redirection in recent years in the center's education and research programs toward the pulp and paper industry of the future as a bioresource and bioproducts-based industry.

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CUIR CCM has announced an Open House Event to be held June 1-3 at its headquarters in Carvin, France. The company will demonstrate products such as the Rotaflexo Mark II Evolution high graphics flexo post printer and the MR 2 flat bed die cutter. For more information, contact CUIR CCM by email at commercial@cuir.com. CUIR CCM produces flexographic printing and diecutting machines for the corrugated board industry.

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FEFCO's 13th Technical Seminar attracted a larger-than-expected number of nearly 700 conference delegates. The seminar, held in Nice, was hosted by the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO). The event also included an exhibition area featuring approximately 70 supplier companies.

"The seminar was a great success," said Wim Hoebert, FEFCO's Secretary Genera. "It truly exceeded our expectations". His thoughts were echoed by Jan Svensson, chairman of the Production Committee, in charge of developing the program: "It was one of the most interesting technical conferences that FEFCO has ever offered, because of the amount of people attending the seminar and registering on-site, the diversity of countries and sectors represented, the variety of the papers presented and the quality of the technical program".

The conference started with an opening session which featured a brief presentation by Dr. Dermot Smurfit, President of Brussels-based FEFCO, who encouraged the whole industry to defend its image and its product and who underlined the importance of promoting Good Manufacturing Practices.

Chairman of UMG GmbH Josef Gmeiner's presentation on "Ultrasonic Bonding - A new way to make Corrugated" created quite a stir, and sessions on "RFID Revolution in the supermarket and the impact on packaging" by Prof. Bernd Hallier, President of Europäisches Handelsinstitut, Köln and the European Retail Academy, and "A retailer's vision on packaging: How to make packaging efficient for the supermarket" by Alfred Hofman, Intrepid (formerly of EDEKA) were particularly well received.

The Award for Best Novelty was presented to Bahmüller for their spotlight on the "Boxflow Robotic for Specialty Folder Gluers", and the Award for Best Spotlight Presentation to Terdeca: "75 years of trading". In addition, FEFCO President Dermot Smurfit and Secretary General Wim Hoebert presented Mr. Jean-Claude Billiet, formerly of Smurfit and Mr. Urs Ernst, formerly of EMPA, both long-serving contributors to the Federation, with a special FEFCO Achievement Award.

FEFCO was established in 1952 and represents the interests of the European Corrugated Board Manufacturers. Headquartered in Brussels, FEFCO has 22 active members, all European national corrugated packaging organizations. The role of the Federation is to investigate economic, financial, technical and marketing issues of interest to the corrugated packaging Industry, to analyze all factors that may influence the industry, and to promote and develop its image.

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JEFFERSON SMURFIT GROUP, Dublin, Ireland and KAPPA PACKAGING have confirmed that they have commenced preliminary discussions that may or may not lead to a transaction.

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LEWISBURG CONTAINER, recent recipient of the Best in Show TAPPI Award at SuperCorr Expo, has had success with Carta Solida as the outside liner for litho-lamination on corrugated consumer packaging cartons. The Ohio-based company is now printing high graphics on several very demanding corrugated boxes using Carta Solida with the flexography method. David McKinney, VP and General Manager, is very proud of his company's award-winning packaging for Anchor-Hocking Glassware. "It's all about your people and that is what makes Lewisburg so successful, he says." Awards like that bring out my employees' talents and let them shine."

Purchased by Love Box Co. in 1955, Lewisburg Container predominately manufactured wooden crates. The company began offering corrugated products in 1961. As business grew and customers demanded more specialty corrugated needs they started offering direct print, window capabilities, assembled partitions, and flat bed die cutting to just name a few. Now, Lewisburg Container has grown into a corrugated sheet plant of over 500,000 square feet and offers many services in-house. The plant has over 300 employees, several high-end graphics presses and had sales of US$ 62 million in 2004.

According to Paul Zelinsky of Kemiart US Inc., he started selling Carta Solida to Lewisburg in late 2002 and 2003 was the first year with the product. In 2004, Carta Solida became the M-real sheet-of-choice at Lewisburg Container. McKinney says that multi-color graphic print jobs are on the rise and presently take up 40% of their business. "Our in-house technology allows us to print competitively but Carta Solida took us to the next level because of its brightness," he says. "When Carta Solida was introduced, we had a whiter sheet than other SBS and it did not fracture when used on demanding print jobs."

Lewisburg Container produces corrugated packaging products for consumer home electronics brands such as KitchenAid, Delta Faucets, Anchor Hocking Glass and Senco. In addition, Lewisburg produces cartons for beverage makers of Beefeater Gin and Baileys Irish Cream.

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MANNKRAFT CORP., Newark, New Jersey, USA has acquired all the assets of the Kraftsman Group, formerly headquartered in Clifton, New Jersey. The deal, which closed in March, follows Mannkraft's acquisition of Arrow Display (formerly Arrow Art) in 2003, and includes a variety of equipment and other assets that further strengthen the Company's value added packaging and display capabilities.

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STANDARD & POOR'S RATINGS SERVICES, New York, has lowered its ratings on recycled paperboard producer, Caraustar Industries Inc., including its corporate credit rating, to 'B+' from 'BB-', and its senior secured bank loan rating, to 'BB-' from 'BB'. The outlook is stable. The downgrade reflects Austell, Georgia-based Caraustar's persistent subpar credit metrics because of weak earnings and its aggressive capital structure, according to S&P. Total debt, including capitalized operating leases, at March 31, 2005, was $550 million, with debt to EBITDA of 9x.

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SOUTHERN CONTAINER CORP., Hauppauge, New York, USA has agreed to acquire the business and certain assets of Regal Corrugated Box Co. Inc. The business will be transitioned to Southern's Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Dayton, New Jersey facilities. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of July. Regal Corrugated Box is located in North Philadelphia and has manufactured corrugated boxes for over 50 years. Abbie Hoffman, President and CEO, will join Southern Container as a Senior Sales Executive and will manage the former Regal Sales team, who will also join Southern.

Southern Container Corp. is the largest U. S. independent manufacturer of corrugated boxes. Existing facilities include seven large-scale corrugated box plants and two sheet plants. In addition, they are involved with five joint ventures in complement to their core business, specifically; Solvay Paperboard, the largest independent containerboard producer in North America; SCI-Canada, North America's largest pre-print operation; GraphCorr, a manufacturer of micro-flute and litho laminate packaging; Pohlig Brothers, a folding carton and rigid box manufacturer and MPG, a leading marketing products group.

FLUTES LLC, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA has taken delivery of a rebuilt Woodward Jogger Aerator, model WJA-7000 This is Flutes' fifth Woodward machine, and fourth installed at this location. One of Flutes' older jogger aerators in Indianapolis will be shipped back to Woodward, completely overhauled, and returned to the company . Flutes also has a Woodward Jogger Aerator at its Akron, Ohio plant. The machines cleans, aerates, and aligns loads of paper, paperboard, or corrugated sheets to a side guide and gripper edge. Loads can be rotated 180 degrees and placed down in the same spot, saving floor space. For more information, go to www.joggeraerator.com.

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MICHELMAN®, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA has launched an addition to its barrier product line - HydroGrease White Series. HydroGrease White is a pigmented barrier coating with exceptional water and grease resistance. Whenever a need exists for a one-pass white barrier coating, HydroGrease White is ideal, says the company. Industries that may find significant value in HydroGrease White include bakery and produce. HydroGrease White 20 is easy to run and can be applied in-line or off-line with conventional coating equipment. Excellent performance properties, easy-to-run, printable, one-pass white barrier technology - HydroGrease White delivers Special Chemistry® for the entire supply chain.

Michelman, Inc. is a global manufacturer of performance-enhancing, water-based functional and decorative coatings for the paperboard and corrugated box industries; and inline coating application equipment for webbed paper and paperboard substrates. For more information about HydroGrease White Series or other Michelman products, please contact Michelman, Inc., 9080 Shell Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236. Phone: 1-800-333-1723. Fax: 513-793-2504. www.expandingpaper.com.

TAPPI/FBA Productivity and Waste Survey Now Underway
Corrugated Box Plants around the world are participating in the 2005 TAPI FBA Productivity and Waste Survey. This biennial survey provides useful benchmarking data otherwise unavailable from any other source and includes information on machinery, labor operations, and waste. This survey allows the corrugated containers industry to evaluate productivity, waste, and starch consumption data for participating plants.

If you are interested in participating in the survey, please contact Brian O'Banion, FBA Vice President, at bobanion@fibrebox.org or (847) 364-9600. New data should be collected for the month of May and must be submitted to FBA by the end of June. You do not have to be a member of either organization to participate. The compiled 2005 FBA / TAPPI Productivity and Waste Survey will be available in the fall.

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It's not too late to register for the Best Practices In Corrugator Operations Short Course!
The course will be held next week, May 16-19, 2005 at TAPPI Headquarters in Atlanta, GA, USA. Get all the details online today. Online registration is closed, but late registrations can still be made by calling TAPPI's Member Connection Center at 1-800-332-8686 (USA), 1-800-446-9431(Canada) or +1-770-446-1400.

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Don't Miss the Introduction to the Process of Printing Virtual Seminar
Plan now to participate in the Introduction to the Process of Printing Virtual Seminar on May 25 at 2:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. This live, one-hour event is the first in a new multi-part virtual seminar series titled The Printing System: What You Need to Know Before the Ink Meets the Paper, developed by industry expert Nancy Plowman. Once you've completed the first session, Introduction to the Process of Printing, you'll be able to identify the different printing processes, their mechanics and the demands of the inks and printing substrates. TAPPI Virtual Seminars are delivered to your site via computer and speaker phone. Select your sessions, and gather the crowd because attendance is unlimited per site. Find out more about The Printing System Virtual Seminar series online.

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Attention International Members!
Visit the TAPPI booth at ACCCSA, June 20-23, 2005 in Cancun, Mexico.

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Check out the TAPPI Recognized Education Provider Program

• Industry developed quality criteria reflecting best learning practices
• FREE, easy to use web-based tool to locate REPs and courses
• FREE access to training and development resources

Find out more at www.tappi.org/REP.

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Corrugated Packaging Division Calendar of Events

May 16-19, 2005 - Best Practices In Corrugator Operations - Atlanta, GA, USA

June 15-17, 2005 - CORBOTEC Committee Meeting - PCA, Tomahawk Mill, Tomahawk, WI. For information, contact Jim Carbone at boardmanpl@msn.com.

June 20-23, 2005 - ACCCSA - J.W. Marriott Cancun Resort and Spa, Cancun Mexico www.acccsa.org TAPPI/AICC booth # 83

August 23, 2005 - Chicago TAPPI - Annual Golf Outing - Location TBA

September 26-27, 2005 - Corrugated Packaging Conference - Caesars Palace - Las Vegas, NV, USA

October 26-29, 2005 - AICC - Westin Copley Place - Boston, MA

November 1, 2005 - Chicago TAPPI - Trade Fair and guest speaker - location TBA

May 15-20, 2006 - Corrugated 2006 - Paris, France

October 11-14, 2006 - AICC - Sheraton - Chicago, IL

September 22-26, 2008 - SuperCorrExpo 2008 - GWCC - Atlanta, GA, USA