Italian paper company buys ST Paper tissue mill in Minnesota

Sofidel, an Italian tissue paper manufacturer, has acquired an ST Paper tissue mill in Duluth, Minnesota, enabling the company to “immediately meet the ongoing increase in demand in the country.”

ST Paper, based in Oconto Falls, Wisconsin, purchased the facility from Verso Corp. in May 2021. The Duluth mill was idled in 2020, with Verso citing weakened demand for supercalendered paper. Upon its purchase, ST Paper converted the site to produce recycled tissue and began production in January 2023.

“This is an important acquisition, allowing us to immediately meet the growing demand, which saw significant upturn in 2023,” Sofidel CEO Luigi Lazzareschi says. “What we are acquiring is a technologically advanced plant that further improves our geographic coverage and creates the conditions to strengthen and sustain growth in what is our main market.”

The mill has a production capacity of 65,000 metric tons per year and 80 employees.

As part of its conversion to produce tissue, ST Paper installed a PrimeLineTM W 2000 paper machine from Austria-based technology group Andritz, which offers plants, equipment, systems and services to the pulp and paper industry. The production line is equipped with an Andritz PrimeControl MCS automation system, which includes extended features for automation throughout the tissue line and minimizes the number of subsystems and associated interfaces.

The Duluth acquisition follows Sofidel’s organic growth investment to expand its integrated plant in Circleville, Ohio, which was the company’s first greenfield investment in the United States.

Sofidel announced last September its plans to invest $185 million to expand the Circleville site, including a new paper machine, eventually reaching a production capacity of 200,000 metric tons per year to become Sofidel’s largest production site worldwide. The mill produces mostly virgin tissue products but does use some production scrap as part of its feedstock.

At the time of the announcement, Sofidel called the Circleville plant its most important production site globally.