Deinked pulp mill of liquidated company Vertaris to be sold to Swiss investment firm for €1.5M; plans call for restarting the mill in Voreppe, France, to produce deinked pulp, investing €53M to add a pulp dryer

Debra Garcia

LOS ANGELES , November 13, 2013 (Industry Intelligence) – Liquidated Vertaris SAS’s idled deinked pulp mill in Voreppe, France, might restart under new a new owner, reported Euwid on Nov. 13.

The assets, which were valued at €3.75 million (US$5 million), are to be sold to Swiss investment firm Activapro for €1.5 million, according to an announcement from the municipality of Pays Voironnais.

The municipality owns the assets, after buying the machinery and facilities in July; and it has paid three former workers to keep the mill in good condition, Euwid reported.

Activapro plans to spend €53 million to add a pulp dryer that is now located in Sweden. The mill is capable of producing up to 140,000 tonnes/year of deinked pulp using existing and planned technology.

The mill might require up to 15,000 tonnes per month of recovered paper for its feedstock, according to industry observers, reported Euwid.

As a next step, the company would build a biomass power plant. Plans for that project, which would create about 70 new jobs, are in the preliminary stages. The biomass plant itself would employ 12 workers.

Vertaris was liquidated in the middle of 2012. After encountering financial difficulties related to higher costs, the company was sentenced to a court-led reorganization in 2011, Euwid reported.

The primary source of this article is Euwid, Gernsbach, Germany, on Nov. 13, 2013.

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