ND Paper to restart paper machine at Biron mill in Wisconsin

After sitting idle for nearly a year, ND Paper, the U.S. division of Chinese containerboard producer Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd., has revealed plans to restart PM 25 at its recycled paper mill in Biron, Wisconsin.

In late March 2024, the company laid off about 70 employees at the Biron site and consolidated operations to its other paper machine, PM 26, while PM 25 took market-related downtime.

PM 25 was rebuilt in 2019 and converted from producing coated publication papers to produce recycled packaging grades. The machine currently produces recycled kraft, linerboard and corrugated medium, and ND Paper expects to restart PM 25 in the second half of this year, adding additional capacity to its existing recycled packaging product portfolio.

PM 26, meanwhile, was converted in 2022 from producing coated publication papers to recycled packaging grades.

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The Biron mill first began producing paper in 1896, and after changing hands over the years, ND Paper acquired the mill in 2018.

The mill processes approximately 166,000 pounds of mixed paper, 691.6 million pounds of old corrugated containers (OCC) and a little more than 6,100 pounds of double-lined kraft annually.

The recycled furnish is supplied by ND Paper’s OCC pulping facilities. The first, installed in 2019, produces about 700 metric tons of pulp daily, and the second is a newly built pulping line with a starting production rate of about 1,200 metric tons per day that is expected to ramp up to more than 2,000 metric tons per day, according to ND Paper.

“Biron has established itself as a reliable, quality producer in packaging grades,” the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company says in a news release. “Adding the capacity of PM 25 back to the system will provide the ability to serve more customers with our breadth of products.”