Madison Paper made the news tonight!

[Maine logger88]

Yeah let's hope they get some orders or fir really won't be worth cutting! I finally got two pine pulp tickets for verso which should clean up the pile I pulled out with my logs. Hope things loosen up a bit there this summer. Looks like Monday morning will be the end of it for this winter supposed to be warm all week

[Woodhauler]

Setting at Madison now. 25 trucks here. They are in slow motion here. Sad they can't unload more then 4 trucks a hour with the huge cat loaders they have.

[AfraidChocker]

I am not one to automatically look for blame, but I am a bit miffed at the University of Maine. They have been gleaning tax money from us from years in the form of state bonds to do wood based research, and their efforts have all been towards off-the-wall, radical new products when in my opinion they should have been looking at alternative products for what was already coming off the paper mills here. Those were the ones keeping towns employed.

I agree that it is really cool for them to make gasoline, and use the resins to make an alternative type of plastic, but it is too bad they could not have looked for something more practical.

Even I admit that very little paper goes through my printer attached to my computer today, but with modern adhesives I cannot believe there are not other uses for something that employs so many, comes off rolls in sheets 24 feet wide and miles long every hour, and is renewable. Someone just has to think outside the box for what paper mills could gravitate towards.

[Logger RK]

I believe Sappi in Clouqet Minn went from making paper or whatever they used to make,to making cellulose. I think there's a big Asian market for it. I think they make clothes out of it.  :P

[concretecutter]

Logger RK you are correct I worked for sappi as a sub contractor cutting concrete for the shut down 100 million dollar transformation they still make paper but there main supply is making cellulose fibers out of pulp to ship over to China so they can make it into clothes I have many shirts from sappi made from wood you couldn't tell the difference it was either make the change or shut the doors glad they did

[barbender]

     I think Sappi made a lot of pulp, that they sold wholesale to other mills, before the conversion. One downside of the conversion was the shut down of a line at the Boise paper mill in International Falls, as they were dependent on the Sappi material. When they shut down that line, it also a killed a good portion of the chip market because Boise bought a lot of chips for that line. Several loggers went belly up as a result. So lots of repercussions, but likely a wise move by Sappi. Their mill is munching up the wood again. When they first started back up, they were only taking clean aspen and maple. That caused some difficulty, because prior to this they had bought pine pulp, ash, balmy, basswood, pretty much everything. But as time goes on, they get the chemistry down for their process on the other species and they have been taking some of them again.

[Corley5]

They're going to close by the end of May  :( :( 

http://www.wlbz2.com/news/local/madison-paper-industries-to-close-by-may-affecting-214-workers/82037787

[Woodhauler]

Yes they are done!! Workers need 60 day notice, that's why its end of may closing. Very depressing state of affairs in maine logging now.

[Woodhauler]

Well they are buying a little wood till the end of may! Hope this is a good sign, but I don't think so.

[Ed_K]

 Bloomberg, said I.P. just bought the pulp supply side of werehouser, maybe this will help some?

[snowstorm]

Well they are buying a little wood till the end of may! Hope this is a good sign, but I don't think so.

and you asked me to keep it quite  and you blab it all over the interweb

[snowstorm]

Bloomberg, said I.P. just bought the pulp supply side of werehouser, maybe this will help some?

how is tis going to work? wherehouser  just bought plum creek

[Woodhauler]

Well they are buying a little wood till the end of may! Hope this is a good sign, but I don't think so.

and you asked me to keep it quite  and you blab it all over the interweb

Well its everywhere anyhow. Don't think its any biggy. They are still closing end of month the wood buyer said today. Hope something changes.

[Mountaynman]

just saw that IP bought all Weyhausers pulp mills so they could pay down debt on buying Plun Creek Timber not sure what that means for all of us contractors but the big get bigger and those of us that cut the wood will have to work for nothing to do what we want to do maybe one day they will figure out that professional woods contractors and off road log haulers are a dying breed cant find any young men round here to go in the woods when the CEO's of the big companies don't have any Sheet paper they might ask what happened

[grassfed]

IP bought all Weyerhaeuser's pulp mills

I just looked up the story and it seems that IP is betting that global demand for disposable diapers is going to be increasing ( for young and old perhaps  :D ) I guess they use softwood pulp for that but I could be wrong. From what I could tell it looked like all of Weyerhaeuser's pulp mills are down south.  It sure would be nice if demand for softwood pulp would increase in the north east.

[WDH]

Fluff pulp for diapers is made from southern pine because of the long fibers.  Better for absorption. 

[Mountaynman]

That's the future boys grab me another beer and change my diaper when u get a chance they want all of us to keep putting the wood out till we cant anymore then who will do it I really wonder about that it has always amazed me that the men with the biggest and most expensive iron cut wood that aint worth much and then those of us with old small outfits cut the wood that is worth something keep plodding along