Press release from International Paper reads:
Brazil’s IP launches cutsize paper for European market
Brazil’s International Paper has launched to the European market an A4 and A3 new cutsize paper in a basis weight of 80 m/g2. In a statement, IP said that it expects to produce around 30,000 tonnes/yr of this paper at its mills located in Mogi Guaçu and Luiz Antônio, both in São Paulo state.
These volumes will particularly serve England, France, Scotland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. “IP will commercialize this new product with the brand and all technical specifications of its European customers,” the company stated.
This sort of arrangement does not happen overnight, and must have been very advanced in the plnning stages while International Paper were still ‘in discussion’ with unions at ex. Tommy Taits mill at Inverurie in Scotland, which makes such ‘under review’ situations a nonsense.
There are two questions here: 1) Can it really be financially justifiable to closed down a perfectly good mill in Scotland and make a similar product in Brazil, then ship it half way around the world to feed the European markets previously serviced from I.P.’s Scottish mill?
2) There must be a massive environmental cost involved in the shipping and distribution of this Brazillian paper, even when it docks, presumably in Rotterdam. Does this mean nothing to International Paper?
For now I will draw a veil over the forestry and social aspects of the issue, other than to suggest that you do your own research starting with I.P.’s own website for Brazil at http://www.internationalpaper.com.br/ and then running through all the usual environmental ‘activist’ sites for their opinion.
