September 8, 2010 A.T. Clayton News

Supply News

NewPage Kimberly Mill May Have Buyer
NewPage closed its Kimberly, Wisconsin paper mill, which produced 500,000 short tons per year of coated freesheet, in the fall of 2008. The company put the facility up for sale, with the stipulation that the mill would not make paper that would compete with NewPage grades. Now state and local officials have been asked to jointly fund a potential buyer’s $300,000 engineering study to determine the feasibility of converting the coated paper machines to produce other grades. The plant had employed 600 people. (RISI, Post Crescent)

Sappi Will Auction Muskegon Mill Assets
Sappi, through LiquiTec Industries and Can-Am Machinery will hold a public auction in September to sell the assets from its Muskegon, Michigan paper mill. The facility, which had the capacity to produce 170,000 short tons per year of coated freesheet, was closed in 2009. (PaperAge)

Norske Skog Plans to Shed Brazilian Timberlands
Norske Skog plans to sell its 20,000 ha of the its timberland in Brazil and use the proceeds to reduce the company’s debt by an estimated NOK 200-700 million ($33-117 million) by the end of the year. Norske Skog reported losses of NOK 874 million in the second quarter. The company also operates a newsprint mill, Norske Skog Pisa, in the same state in Brazil. (PPI Latin America)

Demand News

DMA Quarterly Review Reveals Improvement in Spending
Direct Marketing Association has published its quarterly review and it appears to contain some good news. Of respondents, 53% of the marketers and 53.6% of suppliers said their profitability improved in the second quarter of 2010. 51.2% of marketers and 50.3% of suppliers have expectations of increased profitability for the third quarter over the second. 40% of the 532 respondents in the poll said they will spend more in the third quarter. The study, which was done in a partnership with Winterberry Group, found that marketers spent $149.3 million on direct marketing in 2009, which represented 54.3% of all advertising expenditures. (dmnews.com, btobonline.com, Direct, DMA)

SNL Kagan Joins Positive Predictions for Ad Market
In July, Zenith Optimedia (Publicis Group) changed its 2010 forecast for advertising growth in North America from a loss of 1.5% to a gain of 1.3%. In the same month, Magna Global (Interpublic Group) revised its outlook to a 2.1% growth rate for advertising revenue. Now, SNL Kagan, a media and marketing research firm, has forecast a jump of 3%, to $210 billion, for the advertising market. After two years of contraction in the sector and amid continuing concerns for an as yet uncertain economic environment, the reports bring welcome news. (Adweek)