WestRock Declares Significant Upgrades to U.S. Facilities

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): WestRock Company has announced significant upgrades to a couple of its mill facilities in the US. The proposed investments cover installation of a new linerboard production line at its Florence mill. Also, the company’s Saltillo facility will get a new corrugator machine to boost mill throughput. The above plant upgrades are expected to create a handful of new job opportunities.

According to the company press release, it has already entered into an agreement with Valmet- the world’s leading automation and service provider towards purchase of state-of-the-art kraft linerboard machine at its Florence mill. It must be noted that the company has been making significant investments at the facility for some time now. The new machine will have a production capacity of up to 644,000 metric tons of kraft linerboard per annum and will replace three of the existing old paper machines. The new machine is expected to become operational sometime during H1 2020. The investment will boost the mill’s efficiency, thus making it one of the lowest cost kraft linerboard mills in the entire North American region.

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Meantime, the company’s Saltillo, Lee County, Mississippi facility will have a 132-inch corrugator machine installed latest by August this year. The installation of the equipment will be carried out by Germany-based solutions provider BHS, which in turn will replace the existing 87-inch machine. This investment will help WestRock to expand its capacity and improve its wide and latest range of product offerings. WestRock plans to add 25 new jobs, in addition to the existing 169 in the Saltillo plant.

Rick Parris, senior vice president of WestRock Central Region Corrugated Packaging stated that the new corrugators machine will make the plant more efficient and flexible. He thanked all the employees for their dedicated hardwork- the only factor that motivated them for the multimillion dollar big investment, he added.