Fortress Paper Ltd. (FTP.TO) provided a general corporate update relating to its operations. The company said that construction of the cogeneration facility at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill is proceeding generally as planned with some minor delays due to delivery impediments of major equipment. The turbine and generator are on site and installed with delivery of the final critical path item expected in late September. The cogeneration facility is expected to be delivering power in January 2013.
The Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill has confirmed that the annual maintenance shut-down will be taken in the last week of September. During this outage, critical electrical work will also be completed to allow connection of the new power generating facility to the grid.
Initial work has commenced at the Fortress Global Cellulose Mill following the close of the acquisition in June 2012, including building and equipment repair and the reactivation of services and utilities in a planned sequence, the company said.
The company noted that the Fortress Global Cellulose Mill has also received an official authorization permit from the Québec Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs. This permit is required in order to proceed with the construction of the new dissolving pulp plant.
During the general maintenance shutdown of mill in the first 10 days of August, the Company completed the main portion of its 2012 capital expenditures program at the Dresden Mill.
To date in 2012, the company has spent about EUR3.7 million in Capex with the goal of increasing production speed from 450 metres per minute to about 475 - 500 metres per minute, depending on the product mix, and thereby increasing its theoretical annual production capacity from approximately 56,000 tonnes per year to approximately 60,000 tonnes per year, Fortress Paper said.
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