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  • 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

 #1461710  by gokeefe
 
Between that and the upgrades of Catalyst? Yes. Note also that the machine restart includes upgrades. Pretty big deal really.

Here are some other thoughts:

In the past twelve months we have seen the following developments: Sappi Somerset decides to invest about $80-$100 million in a new machine, Catalyst in Rumford decides to make major capital investments ($10 million +). In the past two weeks alone Old Town has been sold to new ownership which is planning a restart and just a few days ago Millinocket was announced as the site for a new cross laminated timber mill ($100 million).

The last twelve months have probably seen about as many new announcements for new capital investment as the last twenty years combined.
 #1461725  by KSmitty
 
NHV 669 wrote:What are they now? Up one day/down the next?
Yes.
gokeefe wrote:...In the past two weeks alone Old Town has been sold to new ownership which is planning a restart...
The facility isn't reopening as a pulp mill. It's going to be redeveloped as a wood products oriented business park. Its not going to bring back the jobs that the Verso announcement promises and its not going to do much for rail traffic.
 #1461789  by gokeefe
 
What do you think about the Millinocket project? I don't have a very good feel for whether or not this type of mill would generate demand for rail service.
 #1461861  by gokeefe
 
A second cross laminated timber mill has announced its intention to locate in Maine subject to site selection.
SmartLam, a Montana-based company that is the first manufacturer of Cross-Laminated Timber in the United States, announced Thursday it plans to expand its operations to the East Coast by opening a new manufacturing facility in Maine.

Located in Columbia Falls, Mont., SmartLam is among the six companies the Maine Technology Institute announced Thursday would receive collectively $10.5 million through the Maine Technology Asset Fund 2.0 program. The program is funded by the $45 million R&D bond approved by voters last June.

MTI awarded SmartLam $3 million toward a $23.5 million project to build a CLT manufacturing facility in Maine that is expected to create 100 direct jobs and 200 indirect jobs.

Site selection for the facility is "in process and will be completed within the next two months," SmartLam reported in a news release.

The company, whose president and general manager Casey Malmquist was a keynote speaker at the 2016 annual meeting of the Maine Forest Products Council, is the second CLT manufacturer to announce plans for Maine this week.
120,000 square foot facility. 48 million board feet per year.
 #1461874  by Cosakita18
 
gokeefe wrote:A second cross laminated timber mill has announced its intention to locate in Maine subject to site selection.


120,000 square foot facility. 48 million board feet per year.
would either the new Millinocket project or this project generate significant rail traffic? I assume they wouldn't replace what was lost by the mills, but anything is better than nothing I suppose.
Last edited by Cosakita18 on Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1461878  by gokeefe
 
I've been wondering the same and took the time to look at the Smart Lam plant. They do in fact have rail access but it does not appear to be for raw materials. There was a hopper of some kind on site. I think the plants in Maine may end up using rail for some shipping and receiving but it is unclear how much. Verso Machine No. 3 and the pulp mill are a much more straightforward proposition.
 #1461888  by fromway
 
Similar products are produced at the LP plant in Houlton. There is some rail traffic on finished products only,but not sure how much. I think it depends on how long the product is. Only time will tell.
 #1461930  by NYC27
 
Some of the stories about the Old Town mill indicate some interest in starting the pulp mill back up. I find it hard to believe that Carrier, Gardner and Varney would form a JV without a really big upside in the form of wood chip consumption - a lot more than a simple biomass boiler would consume. The former tissue mill and warehouse have plenty of space for a CLT plant and more. If Trump pulls us out of NAFTA that would help the economics greatly. There is a large amount of western Canadian softwood pulp imported to Maine and the rest of the Northeast.

As far as CLT - I would think studs would be trucked in from area mills (they are mostly off rail) although some may arrive that way as might the adhesive and any custom CNC produced beams and panels will go truck straight to the job site. Perhaps the occasional job or crane mat order would go rail. We’ll have to see how the product develops.
 #1483346  by CN9634
 
newpylong wrote:Tell that to Bucksport.
This mill in KY is a pulp and brown wrap mill... given the pulp markets are way off (huge shortage for a variety of reasons) this is not a surprise. At the time of its closure, Bucksport was producing Groundwood & speciality papers -- completely different product line from the this KY mill. Also, Bucksport wasn't exactly know for being the most efficient mill out there.
 #1483347  by newpylong
 
Bucksport could have been converted to pulp OR sold to another party, of which there was at least one interested. Instead it was a ramrod sale to a scrapper, that should tell you something. The fact of that matter is the mill was sacrificed so that the New Page merger could continue with less scrutiny.
 #1483387  by roberttosh
 
If Bucksport was still operating, some of the recent expansions at the surviving Maine mills may have not come to fruition. Probably better to have fewer, healthy, growing mills than more ones with questionable futures. The Sappi, Verso and NIne Dragons mills all seem to be on solid ground right now and will hopefully continue to expand their capacities going forward.