Railroad Forums 

  • Paper Related Traffic and Cars

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1068387  by gokeefe
 
The Dayton Daily News has coverage from July 6, 2012 of NewPage's rejection of the merger proposal.
Bankrupt NewPage Corp. has rejected a proposal to merge with another company, the company said Tuesday.
The Miami Twp.-based paper producer — which has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since September 2011 — said a group of its second-lien note holders proposed to a group of first-lien note holders to combine NewPage and Memphis, Tenn.-based Verso Paper Corp.
“After thoroughly evaluating this proposal, NewPage determined that the combination posed significant downside risks to its stakeholders, employees, and business,” the company said in a statement. “NewPage has also been advised that the first-lien note-holder group did not support the proposal. Accordingly, NewPage does not anticipate further discussions.”
NewPage’s announcement came a day after Verso released a statement saying talks about a possible merger were being held.
In its release, Verso said its proposal would provide NewPage’s first-lien noteholders with $1.425 billion of value, consisting of $1.075 billion of new Verso first-lien notes, $150 million of Verso common stock and $200 million cash.
Also, Verso said, the deal would include a 100-percent recovery in cash to repay NewPage’s debtor-in-possession financing, a 100-percent recovery in cash for the priority and administrative claims in the bankruptcy proceedings, a to-be-determined amount of Verso common stock for the holders of NewPage’s second-lien notes, and a to-be-determined recovery for NewPage’s unsecured creditors.
 #1068532  by markhb
 
NewPage is the current owner of the Rumford mill (formerly Mead, originally in my memory Boise Cascade), are they not?
 #1068537  by gokeefe
 
markhb wrote:NewPage is the current owner of the Rumford mill (formerly Mead, originally in my memory Boise Cascade), are they not?
That is correct. They took over from Meade Westvaco (previously Meade, etc. etc.).

Those who know say one of their biggest apparent mistakes was selling their hydro generating assets to Florida Power & Light.

Verso is in a much stronger position particularly in Jay.

I would note that apparently we may be breaking the news re: Verso as I haven't found reports of this anywhere else on the internet. I'm assuming all this means is that Verso hasn't filed yet. Perhaps they may yet avoid bankruptcy but the indications I have heard were pretty strong.
 #1068731  by Tim Mullins
 
Hello Mr. gokeef.....I have heard rumors to the effect that P/A is making great strides to improve service to the Mills...Is that true and have you heard anything??

Thanks!
 #1068757  by gokeefe
 
Tim Mullins wrote:Hello Mr. gokeef.....I have heard rumors to the effect that P/A is making great strides to improve service to the Mills...Is that true and have you heard anything??

Thanks!
... Fair enough...
 #1072632  by ferroequinarchaeologist
 
From the Bangor newspaper:
>>NewPage filed for bankruptcy in September 2011. It is owned by private equity investment firm Cerberus Capital Management.

This is the same bunch of pencil pushers who owned Chrysler before Fiat. They didn't know the car business, they don't know the paper business, or any other business they "invested" in. Their business model appears to be: buy in at depressed prices, flip it at a quick profit and run.

PBM
 #1073286  by Cowford
 
The Chairman of Cerberus is no other than John Snow, former long-time head of CSX. Not that that's a good thing...
 #1381320  by gokeefe
 
Interesting article from MaineBiz regarding the Rumford mill machine restart:
The indefinite shutdown of the No. 12 paper machine at the Rumford Catalyst Paper Holdings mill has come to an end as the mill has restarted production, bringing back 51 employees who were laid off after the parent company ceased operation of the machine in September.
Tony Lyons, a spokesman for Catalyst at the Rumford mill, told the Bangor Daily News that the No. 12 paper machine will operate at a reduced schedule tied to the demand it receives for its limited run of its Rumford Offset grade paper.
The BDN reports that the uncoated freesheet paper being produced by the No. 12 paper machine is new to both the mill and its parent company, and was developed following an effort by Catalyst to "hone its offerings."
"We have put a lot of effort and resources [into] migrating our grade mix to a more profitable mix of products," Lyons told the BDN.
Here are some additional interesting comments from the Bangor Daily News article that MaineBiz quoted in part:
“We have put a lot of effort and resources to migrating our grade mix to a more profitable mix of products,” Lyons said.
...
The Rumford mill has the most diverse capacity of products of all of Catalyst’s mills, with capacity for coated specialty grades, uncoated freesheet grades, coated groundwood grades and market pulp.

Catalyst, based in British Columbia, announced last year that it planned to invest $16 million (Canadian) in the Rumford mill, including upgrades to the recovery boiler and about $4.5 million in other capital investments.
 #1454214  by gokeefe
 
Another item from David Fink's speech at the 29th Annual Meeting of TrainRiders Northeast:

PAR has just finished work on a new 475,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Ayer for paper. 18 interior unloading spots for boxcars and 10 exterior. It is the largest warehouse for paper in New England.

I had no idea at all that they were making any investments in paper service.
 #1454235  by newpylong
 
Don't you think a warehouse, which can be used for anything really is a little bit different than service? This is just a new GMX warehouse, for which has been operating for 20 years but has now been overtaken effectively by Tighe. Investing in service would be upgrading the abysmal branches leading to the mills.
 #1454252  by gokeefe
 
Sure. Very fair point. I was just surprised to hear that there was any money going into paper logistics facilities at all. Although the branches to the mills clearly need work I'm sure it doesn't hurt that the main line has been brought back up to Class 2 all the way to Waterville (and beyond).

As always we will have to see how this work holds up in the spring but for the moment it appears to be a permanent policy change. Poland Spring has made it very clear that they have certain expectations on transit times.
 #1461690  by gokeefe
 
Verso has just announced a surprise restart of the No. 3 machine at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay.

This machine had supposedly been "permanently" shutdown.
Verso Corp., which last July said it had permanently shut down its No. 3 paper machine and idled 120 workers at the Androscoggin Mill in Jay, said Thursday it will upgrade the pulp line and paper machine there as it expands into new markets.

The machine and associated pulping operations were temporarily idled in January 2017 and then shut down in July as demand fell for the coated paper used in magazines and other glossy publications previously made on that machine.