Tag Archives: Buchanan

There was an upbeat ceremony in Terrace Bay, Ontario yesterday to celebrate the restarting of the Terrace Bay Pulp mill.

It was a long and emotional 19 months for the company and the workers while Terrace Bay Pulp sought credit protection to restructure.

After losing their financial support twice, Terrace Bay Pulp’s luck turned around when they looked towards a little known Toronto lender, Callidus Capital Corporation.

Last month, Callidus Capital Corporation came through with $30 million in investment capital that allowed the mill to finally reopen.

Terrace Bay Pulp founder Ken Buchanan Sr. paid tribute Monday to Callidus president Sam Fleiser, who was among the crowd.

“Sam worked diligently to help us get where we are today,” Buchanan said. “He helped lift this mill off the ground.”

Just four years ago it was Buchanan himself who was seen as the saviour in Terrace Bay, after his company took over the mill from Neenah Paper who was making plans to scrap the operation.

At the ceremony yesterday, Buchanan said, “This is the second opening we‘ve had, and I hope it‘s the last. It‘s been a very hard grind to get where we are.”

Read more:
Back in business (The Chronicle Journal)

Terrace Bay Pulp has been cleared for re-opening.

The Buchanan Group has announced that late last night, it exited creditor protection.

Now 340 people can be recalled to their jobs at the mill in Terrace Bay, Ontario.

The deal was finalized last night with $30 million in investment capital provided by Callidus Capital Corporation.

With Callidus’ investment, Terrace Bay Pulp has ensured that it will receive a $25 million loan from the province of Ontario. This loan was conditional on finding additional financing that would used to pay off nearly $35 million that Terrace Bay Pulp owes to creditors.

Currently the company is aiming to have the mill producing pulp by the first week of October.

Woodland operations will restart immediately.

Read more:
Back in Business (TbNewsWatch)

Terrace Bay Pulp is still putting the pieces together so that they can except from creditor protection and restart their idled mill.

Right now, the company is aiming to emerge from their protection period between September 5 to 10.

The company is working with a new lender so they can receive an asset backed loan that will provide them with operational funding to restart the mill.

Terrace Bay Pulp recently dropped the lender they had been working with over the last 2 months because it looked like that lender would cause the company further delays.

The Superior Court of Justice has given the company an extension of their creditor protection period – until September 17.

Sixty employees are back at work in Terrace Bay already, with another 400 workers ready to receive their callback notice in the next two weeks.

Read more:
Terrace Bay Pulp closes in on funding from lender (The Chronicle Journal)

With the Mackenzie Forest Products sawmill in Hudson, Ontario shutting down on Friday, that leaves all of Buchanan Forest Products sawmills in Northwestern Ontario sitting idle.

Buchanan’s idled sawmill operations in Northwestern Ontario include:

• Dubreuil Forest Products (Dubreuil)
• Atikokan Forest Products (Atikokan)
• Northern Sawmills (Thunder Bay)
• Northern Hardwoods (Thunder Bay)
• Great West Timber (Thunder Bay)
• Mackenzie Forest Products (Hudson)

To clear up wood inventories, the Mackenzie planer mill will operate for 4 days beyond this Friday’s closure of the sawmill.

The Mackenzie Forest Products sawmill had only been up and running for about 3 months, but the price of lumber is too low to make the operation profitable.

Source:
Sawmill going down again (The Chronicle Journal)

Terrace Bay Pulp is one step closer to reopening this summer.

Today the company announced that their Plan of Arrangement has been sanctioned by the Ontario Superior Court, clearing the way for the company to exit bankruptcy protection.

The decision by the court is subject to a three week appeal period which will expire on Aug. 17.

50 employees are expected to return to work next week.

The full work force of 300 employees are expected back on the job by August 16th.

Source:
Terrace Bay Pulp clears another hurdle (TbNewsWatch)

Terrace Bay Pulp executives submitted their creditor payment plan to Ontario’s Superior Court in Toronto yesterday. That plan will see Terrace Bay Pulp pay $35 million to about 170 creditors.

The court will not be considering Terrace Bay Pulp’s repayment plan until July 27.

In the meantime, Terrace Bay Pulp is in discussion with the province of Ontario on various remaining issues and conditions, including fibre supply and the financing to be provided by the province.

Terrace Bay Pulp has retained its license to cut logs in the Kenogami Forest, but would like to gain access to more wood on Crown land.

Another lender, who has come forward to lend the company $40 million, remains anonymous.

The Ontario government is still willing to lend the company $25 million, as long as they also have additional private financing.

Read more:
Wait continues for mill restart (Chronicle Journal)

Terrace Bay Pulp received a nearly unanimous vote to continue with its plan to pay off creditors and move forward towards reopening the mill this summer.

165 of the company’s 168 creditors voted in favour of the payment plan that would permit the company to exit from its creditor protection period. Creditors weren’t expected to recoup more than 8% of their claims should the payment plan vote have failed.

A separate agreement has been reached between Terrace Bay Pulp and about two dozen logging contractors who are collectively owed about $9 million for logs and wood chips that were brought to the mill and its bush operations before it was idled in Feb. 23 2009. The loggers have settled their claims for 75 cents on the dollar.

A unnamed lender, who had committed to $40 million in funding, recently backed out of its deal to help the Terrace Bay Pulp mill restart. However, company spokesman Yves Fricot has said an agreement with another lender is very close to being finalized.

The company had earlier secured an additional $25-million loan from the Ontario government on the condition that it secure its own financing.

At this time, Terrace Bay Pulp hopes to be restarting by the end of July.

Read more:
Mill plan receives big boost (Chronicle Journal)

Terrace Bay Pulp has lost its funding provider of $40 million.

This is the latest dark cloud greying the company’s delayed restart plan.

Terrace Bay Pulp does have a $25 million loan agreement with the province of Ontario, providing the company is able to arrange additional private financing.

Papers filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice last week say that Terrace Bay Pulp “is currently in discussions with an alternative funding provider (but) should Terrace Bay not be able to secure an operating loan, it is unlikely that it will be able to satisfy the conditions of a province (sic) loan agreement, nor be in a position to finance the restart of its mill operations.”

On June 28th, the creditors of Terrace Bay Pulp will be voting on a payment plan that would permit the company to exit from its creditor protection period. Creditors aren’t expected to recoup more than 8% of their claims should the payment plan vote fail.

425 people were working at the mill when it was idled on February 23, 2009. If the mill is not able to restart, the estimated cost of removing its hazardous materials and doing an immediate environmental cleanup is estimated at $13 million.

Source:
Mill looks for new lender (The Chronicle Journal)

Terrace Bay Pulp has been filed $150,000 after the company plead guilty to fouling the air and contaminating a sewage system in two separate incidents while the plant was still running in 2008.

The fine is significant, and with just 90 days to pay, Terrace Bay Pulp is faced with another bill that stands in the way of the mill reopening.

The sewer system contamination occurred in February of 2008 when a boiler failed, spilling an undetermined amount of black liquor into the local sewer system.

In May of 2008, an air-cleaning scrubber device malfunctioned. Some mill workers and residents of the town of Terrace Bay, Ontario felt sick by the resulting sulphur smelling smog.

Buchanan owned Terrace Bay Pulp will be meeting with its creditors on June 21 with the hopes of receiving approval for a payment plan that would allow the mill to reopen in July.

Source:
Terrace Bay Pulp fined (Chronicle Journal)

Buchanan Forest Products, parent company of Terrace Bay Pulp, will be back in court tomorrow.

The company will be asking for the Ontario Superior Court’s approval to have a meeting of creditors on June 21, 2010. The purpose of the meeting is to hold a vote on Terrace Bay Pulp’s restructuring proposal.

Terrace Bay Pulp is hopeful the company can exit from CCAA (Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act) protection by the end of June.

Sources:
Terrace Bay Pulp Keeps Working to Re-Open (Net News Ledger)
Wednesday Big Day for Terrace Bay Pulp (CKDR Dryden)