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How can a commercial printer automatically increase efficiency in paper consumption? In the early part of the decade, the answer was simply to install very large presses. The Cerutti line [...]

The text, writing and cover paper businesses are undergoing a restructuring. Yes, shipments were up in 2004. And as it gathered for National Paper Week in New York last month, [...]

By Mike Ducey Papers never intended to run on an iGen3 press show off this printer's mettle, as the machine's limits are explored. To market its new Xerox iGen3 110, [...]

By Mike Ducey While just a few mills exhibited on their own, paper as a critical consumable was well represented in Chicago. A limited number of booths at Graph Expo [...]

By Mike Ducey Incredible surge in imports from Asia leads to an action that changes U.S. policy. For the first time in two decades, the U.S. government ruled to impose [...]

By Mike Ducey Paper Editor Best practices take an adjustment as coated groundwood paper buyers move to meet environmental concerns of customers. It's not easy to meet everyone's objectives on [...]

By Mike Ducey Sustainable papers for digital use: been there, done that? Or will the movement be permanent this time around? The paper industry has followed environmental trends since the [...]

By Mike Ducey When jobs go bad: 30% of complaints are paper related, 35% are operator errors. In the quest for heatset web offset run efficiency, corners are sometimes cut [...]

By Mike Ducey To save energy, papers are dried less. But that adds to paper curl and wears cutting blades. Here are some tips to help. Good economic times pull [...]

By Mike Ducey One major distributor took in some 700,000 paper orders via its Website in 2006. Paper consumers large and small are moving from spreadsheets and fax lines to [...]

By Mike Ducey Mills are increasing optical performance, smoothness, stiffness- and reducing weight and dry time. Coated board demand is humming, tied to the growth in high-end consumer ads, and [...]

By Mike Ducey Conditions for buyers of premium coated paper products are relatively good. Terrific overcapacity has widely broadened opportunities to purchase high-quality products at low prices. This market should [...]

By Contributing Editor Mike Ducey Markets for multiwall bags are facing renewed competition from woven bags. Printing presses and bagmakers will have to change, too. Multiwall bags have enjoyed reasonable [...]

By Mike Ducey Over 70% of designers say quality is the top client request. The text, writing and cover paper business continues to change with increasingly narrow applications, driven by [...]

By Bill Esler, Editor in Chief & Mike Ducey, Paper Editor Designers know that dropping from a premium coated to a No.2 for price is foolish and self-defeating. Hurrah! Like [...]

Narrowing distribution channels set up price increases. Retailers and Xerox offer alternatives. Those steadily rising prices in your cut sheets and roll stock white papers are not temporary. Since the [...]

Imagine eliminating the phone and fax machine when searching for that perfectly priced paper grade. A Chicago-area commercial printer found a way to enhance purchasing by having its paper suppliers [...]

Firms looking for an over-the-top promotional run are using something that is really not paper at all--but rather an extruded film, commonly known as synthetic paper. For decades, synthetics have […]

Substrates intended for digital work place great demands on key deliverables: high quality, good runnability and, of course, ready availability for a variety of applications. Given the quick turnaround that [...]

Increasingly, commercial printers receive paper or paper specs and quantities that their customer has ordered directly from mills or brokers. 'Customer-owned' paper, when no longer part of sales, gets treated [...]

Shade, color, tint, gloss, opacity: Selecting papers based on these properties can impact performance and cost. The most recent trend--selling whiteness instead of brightness--is an international movement. For the last [...]

Digital production volumes are picking up. The evolution of the hardware is the dominating factor in accounting for growing success, along with slight but significant changes in the ink or [...]

Technological advances in supply chain management are finding their way into paper and packaging. Paper companies have begun releasing substrates geared for so-called 'smart' labels and packaging materials incorporating radio [...]

Paper rolls (and sometimes pallets) can pile up time of year. Inventory management systems (FIFO and LIFO) experience stress and stock gets lost--butt rolls are ignored, certain stock is buried [...]

A diversified label producer was challenged by new business from a wine industry cooperative. The project entailed short-run labels using water-based flexographic inks on uncoated premium papers--with precise color. While [...]

Publishers continue to trim widths and page counts--and now basis weight is under pressure. Lowering basis weight is on the ledger at the big titles, in the hopes of increasing […]

A large national book manufacturer, after spending more than $100 million to acquire a sizable commercial print firm, decided to rationalize production. But it got a big surprise, as we […]

The print industry continues its transformation, 'rationalizing' into fewer plants and bigger ones--or existing plants diversifying operations. The impact on operations, and particularly the people who manage that change, often [...]

The true picture of industry-wide printing les may have been masked in recent years by shifting operational strategies in material procurement and by increased after-sales services. Recent data shows that […]

The article discusses a resurgence of interest in jumbo rolls of paper and wide presses among printers, as of May 2006. Abitibi-Consolidated, a producer of newsprint and value-added grades for inserts, catalogs and commercial printing, moved product development into higher value-added grades and supercalendered grades for rotogravure presses. Myllokoski OY has reported some interest in jumbo rolls for offset printing. Challenges in providing jumbo rolls include the use of retrofitted railway cars for delivery.

This article focuses on the effort of private equity investment firms and banks to purchase paper mills and their assets in the U.S. The paper industry is undergoing a quiet restructuring. Instead of widely publicized mergers and corporate takeovers, mills and assets are silently falling into the hands of money managers and banks. These entities treat companies like an income fund or bank, profiting from the spread between what is borrowed and what is returned. Private equity investments will total about $400 billion in 2005. Natural resources are an attractive target since they provide tangible assets to borrow. The shift in ownership to entities concerned more with the financial side of operations may yield a mini-renaissance for papermakers.

This article discusses the paper specifying process adopted by a book printer after acquiring a smaller, more diverse printing and fulfillment house. The parent subsequently closed one of its satellites, distributing the work between the main plant, another small sheetfed plant, the new plant and another existing sheetfed operation. The smaller plants had adequate staff knowledge and testing equipment to evaluate customer-specified paper at the door. Jobs were shorter and somewhat more flexible because of the finishing options available. The chief difficulty was handling transferred equipment and expanded operations. Operations at the main plant did not have sophisticated receiving and inventory methods. A protocol for handling and loading paper was needed to make the transition a success. Problems ranged from poor reproduction to mottle and misregister, and included unhappy customers. Once commercial jobs were part of everyday production, problems worsened. Practical solutions were developed and adapted to resolve the problems: a barcoding system for managing inventory; processes for a paper quality inspection: predictors for print quality--all of which provided feedback that allowed prepress and other systems to be tuned optimally within the plant.

The article reports on the economic implications of the price increase in paper in 2004 for U.S. commercial printers. The 2004 Presidential election and Olympics fed demand, as did general increases in magazine page counts and catalog runs. Positive factors like retail spending, housing sales, even employment buoyed consumption. Prices were even more influenced by supply. North American capacity to produce coated paper remains in decline, dropping below 10 million tons. Reduced capacity and increased demand drove operating rates for most mills above the price-hike trigger point. The U.S. dollar's decline and soaring fuel oil prices make importing coated paper unattractive, as European and even some Asian producers increased prices dramatically. As a result, imports have fallen or remained flat, depending on the grade analyzed. Closely related buyers, who have standing purchase orders, mitigated hikes in coated paper through the mid-year, exercising options to buy steady volumes, topping out at increases of 5%. Coated price increases were indicated offshore by South African Pulp and Paper Inc. and Stora Enso. But U.S.-based International Paper claims its coated prices would not increase, despite concerns about higher wood and natural gas prices.