Joint Venture Pilot Coating Plant to Startup in 1999
Three North American paper industry supplier companies will launch a joint venture paper coating pilot plant to be located in Trois-Rivieries, Quebec. Known as the Centre International de Couchage (CIC), the plant is scheduled to start up in the winter of 1999.
The partners in the venture, Mintech Canada Inc., J.M. Huber Corp., and Groupe Laperriere & Verreault Inc. (GL&V), announced that the facility will operate on a self-sustaining basis and should attain profitability in the first year. In a joint statement, the partners explained that all profits will be reinvested in CIC to make it a "world-class testing showcase for the paper industry."
The CIC will cost C$31 million, to be financed through a combination of debt and equity. Debt financing of $14 million has been secured from a commercial bank, and an additional $6 million will be provided under a federal-provincial government interest-free loan to be paid over a period of five years. The partners will make up the balance.
GL&V, one of Canada's largest designers of engineered proprietary equipment for the pulp and paper industry, will construct the facility through its subsidiary Hydro-Mecanique Construction Inc. Huber Engineered Minerals (EMD)--a division of Huber, Mintech Canada Inc.(a subsidiary of Minerals Technologies Inc.), and other coating chemical suppliers will use the CIC to test and evaluate existing and emerging coating formulations. Mintech, Huber, and several paper industry customers have already committed to 33 weeks of testing per year at the CIC for a 10-year term.
John Bellnap, vice president of sales & marketing for Huber's EMD, stated that his company will be using the pilot coater to further develop and promote its Coating Architecture approach to meeting a mill's unique, individual needs. Paul Saueracker, president of Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI), a subsidiary of Minerals Technologies, pointed out that the pilot plant will provide an important link in SMI's efforts to create customized coating products for its customers. He emphasized that SMI is rapidly developing precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) paper coating applications for both groundwood and freesheet publication paper sectors. GL&V added that the CIC's proximity to its paper machine group facility in Trois-Rivieres will provide excellent exposure for the GL&V family of products to visiting pulp and paper companies.
Founded in 1975, GL&V not only supplies proprietary equipment for the pulp and paper industry, it also provides turnkey construction engineering and project management services for industrial projects. The company employs more than 725 people and has operations across Canada and the United States, with revenues of $156.2 million at year end (March 31, 1998).
Huber's EMD is a leading supplier of processed minerals worldwide. EMD transforms kaolin clay, calcium carbonate, alumina trihydrate, magnesium hydroxide, precipitated silicas and silicates and other mineral materials into essential ingredients that address consumer and industrial product needs in the paper, plastic, and paint industries. Its annual revenues exceed $1.5 billion and the company employs 5,000 employees worldwide. Headquartered in Edison, NJ, Huber is one of the largest family-owned businesses in the United States.
Minerals Technologies develops and produces performance-enhancing minerals and mineral-based and synthetic mineral products for the paper, steel, polymer, and other manufacturing industries on a worldwide basis. The company, based in New York City, reported sales of $602.3 million in 1997.