Kruger Trois-Rivières Mill sees $250M boost

Sept. 22, 2015 – Kruger Packaging has announced an investment of $250 million to convert the No. 10 Newsprint Machine (PM10) at Kruger’s Trois-Rivières Mill in Quebec to manufacture 100 per cent recycled lightweight linerboard.

The modernization project will generate significant growth opportunities for the Trois-Rivières facility, says Kruger, “contributing to secure operations” and the 270 jobs at the mill. The project has received $190 million in support from the Quebec government, which includes an $84-million loan to finance the cost of the conversion and a $106-million participation, through Investissement Québec, in a new company that now combines all of Kruger’s containerboard and packaging activities. As a result of this investment, the Quebec government will have 25 per cent ownership in this new company.

Over the coming 20 months, PM10 will be completely modernized to incorporate some of the “most advanced containerboard manufacturing technology,” says Kruger representatives. Once PM10 is up and running in 2017, it will produce 360,000 metric tonnes of 100 per cent recycled lightweight linerboard annually, a portion of which will be sold to Kruger Packaging’s box plants in LaSalle, Que., and Brampton, Ont., while the remainder will be sold on the market.

Kruger says the Trois-Rivières Mill will continue to produce newsprint on PM10 until two months before the end of the conversion project. Meanwhile, the mill’s other newsprint production line, PM7, will remain in operation into the future.