Tasman Mill

File:Kawerau christmas parade 2009.jpg

In 1952 the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company established a mill to process timber from maturing stands of Radiata Pine in the state-owned Kaingaroa Forest.{{cite web |url=https://www.norskeskog.com/Default.aspx?ID=3121 |publisher=Norske Skog |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309113017/https://www.norskeskog.com/Default.aspx?ID=3121 |archive-date=9 March 2021 |title=Norske Skog Tasman |access-date=16 August 2022 |url-status=live }} The site was chosen because of the ready availability of geothermal steam as a power source. Land for the mill was purchased from local Māori landowners for £50 per acre.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19530428.2.66 |title=LAND FOR TASMAN MILL |work=The Press |page=8 |date=28 April 1953 |access-date=20 February 2024 |via=Papers Past}}{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19530523.2.65 |title=TASMAN PAPER MILL SITE |work=The Press |page=6 |date=23 May 1953 |access-date=20 February 2024 |via=Papers Past}} Pulping operations were underway by 1955.

{{cite book

|title=Working together - The history of Carter Oji Kokusaku Pan Pacific Ltd 1971-1993 |last=Wright |first=Matthew|year=1999|isbn=0-473-05378-0|page=6}}

In the 1970s a number of expansion projects took place within the mill which in turn led to a significant increase in employees. More recently, introduction of new technology, coupled with the decline of the timber industry from 1980 onwards, resulted in a decline in the mill's workforce, from around 2,000 in the mid-1980s to 1,200 in 1998. The population of Kawerau reduced from 8,593 in 1981 to 6,921 in 2006.{{cite web |url= http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/bay-of-plenty-places/10 |title= 10. Kawerau district - Bay of Plenty places |first= Malcolm |last= McKinnon |publisher= Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand |date= 19 April 2010 |access-date= 28 July 2016 |archive-date= 24 October 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121024200808/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/bay-of-plenty-places/10 |url-status= live }}[http://www.tba.co.nz/pdf_papers/1998_wp_06_kawerau.pdf Resource Community Formation & Change: A Case Study of Kawerau] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015065911/http://www.tba.co.nz/pdf_papers/1998_wp_06_kawerau.pdf |date=15 October 2008 }} Wayne McClintock, Taylor Baines & Associates In 2000, Fletcher Challenge sold its shareholding in the mill to Norske Skog.{{cite web |title=Norske Skog's 50th anniversary |url=http://www.norskeskog.com/People-and-press/History.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190311015137/http://www.norskeskog.com/People-and-press/History.aspx |archive-date=11 March 2019 |website=Norske Skog |access-date=16 August 2022 }}

The accessibility of geothermal energy led to the construction of an on-site 100 MW geothermal power station, commissioned in 2008.{{cite news |author=Bradley, Grant |date=2 July 2008 |title=Full steam ahead for new Kawerau plant |publisher=The New Zealand Herald |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10519417 |accessdate=2008-09-10}} The plant provided cost certainty to industry operating within the mill.

Historically, Norske Skog Tasman supplied all of New Zealand's newsprint and telephone directory requirements and also provided around thirty percent of Australia's newsprint requirements. Norske Skog Tasman was a wholly owned subsidiary of Norske Skogindustrier ASA, a Norwegian pulp and paper company based in Oslo. The corporation is the world's largest producer of newsprint magazine paper. Annual paper production by Norske Skog Tasman was 300,000 tonnes from the company's two paper machines.

{{cite news |last=Pankhurst |first=Tim |date=25 August 2009 |title=A crop of paper |work=Stuff |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/features/greenzone/2673577/A-crop-of-paper |url-status=live |access-date=18 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091212053041/http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/features/greenzone/2673577/A-crop-of-paper |archive-date=12 December 2009}} A third paper machine was closed in an attempt to remain competitive in the overseas market.

In August 2012, Norske Skog announced that it intended to cut production in the face of declining global and regional demand for newsprint. The company stated that it was currently exporting two thirds of its annual production to Asia, but that low newsprint prices, unfavourable exchange rates and oversupply to the Asian region has made this market unprofitable.{{cite news |date=22 August 2012 |title=Paper mill cuts threat for power industry |publisher=The New Zealand Herald |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10828527 |accessdate=25 August 2012 |archive-date=21 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821225037/http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10828527 |url-status=live }}

On 9 June 2021 Norske Skog announced the paper mill that produces newsprint would close at the end of that month, with the loss of 160 jobs.{{cite web |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/444376/kawerau-paper-mill-to-close-160-people-to-lose-jobs |title=Kawerau paper mill to close, 160 people to lose jobs |publisher=RNZ |date=9 June 2021 |access-date=9 June 2021 |archive-date=9 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609065437/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/444376/kawerau-paper-mill-to-close-160-people-to-lose-jobs |url-status=live }} The closure was a result of a decline in demand for newsprint, the mill's only product.{{Cite news |first=Cira |last=Olivier |title='Sombre' mood as book closes on Kawerau paper mill |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/kaweraus-tasman-paper-mill-production-finishes-clean-up-begins/D6AXWW5GPTGU6E3EMATNTIIVKI/ |access-date=16 August 2022 |work=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ |archive-date=18 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018214207/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/kaweraus-tasman-paper-mill-production-finishes-clean-up-begins/D6AXWW5GPTGU6E3EMATNTIIVKI/ |url-status=live }} The Norske Skog Tasman Mill closed on 29 June 2021.{{Cite news |first=Charlotte |last=Jones |title=The last days of the Norske Skog Tasman Mill |date=29 June 2022 |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/the-last-days-of-the-norske-skog-tasman-mill/XD2EQJGH5DWI74DOPVEJ3WSUWI/ |access-date=16 August 2022 |work=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ |archive-date=29 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629143715/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/the-last-days-of-the-norske-skog-tasman-mill/XD2EQJGH5DWI74DOPVEJ3WSUWI/ |url-status=live }}

Currently Oji Fibre Solutions process approximately 1.25 million cubic metres of wood annually, converting it into specialty bleached and unbleached pulp for use in the manufacture of paper, tissue and building products.{{Cite web |url=http://www.transfieldservices.com/page/Media_Centre/News/2009/Transfield_Services_wins_five-year_contract_with__Carter_Holt_Harvey_in_New_Zealand |title=Archived copy |access-date=5 May 2009 |archive-date=17 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717085031/http://www.transfieldservices.com/page/Media_Centre/News/2009/Transfield_Services_wins_five-year_contract_with__Carter_Holt_Harvey_in_New_Zealand |url-status=live }} Forty percent is subsequently sold to customers in New Zealand, primarily Norske Skog.

Essity also purchases pulp from Oji Fibre Solutions for manufacture of base paper for their brands Purex and Libra, among others.

The balance of production from both Norske Skog and Oji Fibre Solutions is exported throughout Asia and Oceania earning export income of $224 million.

In 2014, a major expansion of the SCA Kawerau tissue paper production site was officially opened.{{Cite web |title=PM opens $60 million expansion of SCA Kawerau |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/pm-opens-60-million-expansion-of-sca-kawerau/FW4S6A22YXG56BBLHM4K5SDKEA/ |access-date=2022-08-16 |website=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921175139/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/pm-opens-60-million-expansion-of-sca-kawerau/FW4S6A22YXG56BBLHM4K5SDKEA/ |url-status=live }} The SCA Group was split into two companies in 2017, with Essity taking the hygiene products.{{Cite web |date=February 2017 |title=Separate ways - all about the SCA split |url=https://www.essity.com/Images/EN_Shape-2-17_tcm339-66025.pdf |access-date=26 August 2022 |website=Essity.com}} In August 2022, an industrial dispute led to 145 workers being locked out by Essity, causing concern about the supply of toilet paper, because the plant is the only domestic producer of toilet tissue.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-26 |title='You don't need to hoard toilet paper' - Consumer NZ |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473591/you-don-t-need-to-hoard-toilet-paper-consumer-nz |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=RNZ |language=en-nz}}

{{Portal|New Zealand}}

• Tarawera River

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF-ZCuyh0zE Documentary about the mill] (1957) on YouTube

• [http://www.norskeskog.com/Business-units/Australasia/Norske-Skog-Tasman.aspx Norske Skog Tasman homepage]
• [http://www.ojifs.com/ Oji Fibre Solutions]
• [https://collection.fletcherarchives.co.nz/persons/1003/tasman-pulp-paper-co-ltd History of Tasman Pulp & Paper Co. 1952-2000] at the Fletcher Trust Archives
• [https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/tasman-pulp-and-paper-mill/ The Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill] at Engineering New Zealand

{{Norske Skog}}

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{{Whakatāne District}}

Category:Norske Skog

Category:Pulp and paper mills in New Zealand

Category:Industrial buildings in New Zealand

Category:Buildings and structures in the Bay of Plenty Region

Category:New Zealand–Norway relations

Category:Kawerau District

Category:Fletcher Challenge