Mercer International

Mercer is a pulp manufacturing company with production facilities in Europe and North America. The company is progressive and growing rapidly. Flexible, innovative management maximizes long- term wealth creation through a strong strategic focus on modern, world-class NBSK facilities.

LOCATIONS

Canada

Company History

Mercer International Inc. maintains its legal address in Seattle, Washington, although its CEO, Jimmy S.H. Lee, resides in Zurich, Switzerland, and the company’s business of pulp and paper manufacturing is conducted in Germany.

The corporate entity that evolved into Mercer was launched in 1968 as a real estate investment vehicle, organized under the laws of the state of Washington and named Pacific West Realty Trust.

Mercer’s current CEO Jimmy S.H. Lee. Press reports reveal that he was born into a wealthy Korean family and came to Canada by way of Hong Kong.

With a focus still on environmental services, Mercer gained a foothold in the paper industry in 1993 with the acquisition of Dresden Paper AG, a state-owned paper recycling company. As Mercer began to convert Dresden Paper into a specialized maker of grease paper, tissue paper, and wallpaper, it also lined up its next deal in Germany and further committed the company to the paper industry. To gain access to raw material, and forward its new goal of becoming a leading supplier of specialty pulp and paper in Europe, in 1994 Mercer acquired another state-owned business, Sellstoff & Papierfabrik Rosenthal GmbH, a 160,000-ton sulfite paper mill producing chlorine-free pulp and ethanol. Also in 1994, Mercer acquired a 70 percent interest in another German pulp operation, Bundesanstalt fur Vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben.

Management began in late 1997 to restructure its remaining business to focus on specialty papers, especially wallpaper based paper production. The Rosenthal mill completed an important capital project in 1999 when it was converted from the production of sulfite pulp to that of kraft pulp, making it the only kraft chemical facility operating in Germany. In 2002, Mercer also began construction on a new 552,000-ton kraft-pulp facility near the town of Stendal. When operational by the end of 2004, the plant would nearly triple the company’s pulp capacity and make Mercer into one of the largest pulp producers in the world.

In February 2005, Mercer acquired the Celgar mill located north of Vancouver for $210 million. At this time, the mill had an annual pulp capacity of 430,000 ADMTs and one electricity turbine with a capacity of 52 MW. In 2007, “Project Blue Goose” was completed – a $24 million capital project that improved operational efficiencies, increased production and improved environmental performance. This project also increased annual pulping capacity by 50,000 ADMTs per year to approximately 480,000 ADMTs per year. Since 2007, additional process efficiencies have further increased annual production capacity to 520,000ADMTs.

As part of our focus on the generation of green electricity, in 2010, Celgar completed the approximately $61 million “Green Energy Project”. This project included the installation of a second turbine-generator with a design capacity of 48 MW to increase the mill’s installed generating capacity to 100 MW, and upgraded the mill’s bark boiler and steam facilities. At this time, Celgar also finalized a 10-year Electricity Purchase Agreement (EPA) with BC Hydro, a local utility, under which it sells its excess energy at favorable green energy rates.

Company Facts

In October 2009, as part of its Green Transformation Program, the Canadian government, through Natural Resources Canada, agreed to provide approximately $56 million of funding to Celgar for projects designed to meet certain energy efficiency or environmental improvement requirements. As a result, the Green Energy Project received approximately $45 million of this funding and the balance was used to fund other eligible high return projects.

Celgar is strategically located within one of BC’s most valuable fiber baskets. It is also in close proximity to the BC coast, thereby facilitating sales to Asia, where the majority of the pulp is sold.

Celgar’s efficiency and operational excellence are recognized through its ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications. Its sustainably harvested wood is recognized through its Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certification. In addition, Celgar’s green energy production is EcoLogo certified.

Products

Other Forest Products : e.g. lignin, cellulose filaments, nanocrystalline cellulose, wood-derived bioethanol, etc.