<b>Norske Acquiring Two Haindl Mills</b>

Norske Skog entered an agreement to acquire two paper mills owned by Haindl. The four other Haindl mills will be acquired by UPM-Kymmene.

Norske will acquire the Walsum mill in Ruhr, Germany and the Parenco mill in Renkum, Netherlands. The two have a combined capacity of 860,000 metric tons of publication paper.

According to Jan Reinas, Norske’s CEO, “This acquisition is another step forward for Norske Skog as we continue to expand within our core area of publication paper.”

According to the company, the acquisition, along with the increased ownership in Pan Asia Paper, builds Norske’s position in value-added grades and in the newsprint markets.

The Walsum mill has two paper machines with a total capacity of 420,000 metric tons. The Parenco mill has paper machines with a total capacity of 330,000 metric tons of newsprint and 110,000 metric tons of supercalendered magazine paper.

In an unrelated move, Norske Skog Canada announced that it is taking additional downtime at its Canadian mills. The move is being done to balance supply and demand. According to Norske, downtime will include an additional 24,000 metric tons of newsprint and 12,000 metric tons of market pulp. Downtime will be taken by the middle of July.

The latest measures are in addition to curtailment already taken or scheduled for the second quarter amounting to 24,000 metric tons of newsprint and 29,000 metric tons of pulp.

The company said that weaker economic conditions, particularly in key US and Asian markets, has created a supply-demand imbalance.

The company said the curtailment would result in eight-day closures at its Elk Falls and Crofton pulp and paper operations, starting the July 1 weekend.