Owner of the last publication paper mill operating in Australasia, Norske Skog, has allegedly received several expressions of interest over the sale of its Boyer Mill site in Tasmania.
The company has been running a sale process for the past 12 months, with a report by WA today assessing the site as an “attractive asset for potential buyers looking to take advantage of the government’s regulatory demand for renewable energy in the state”.
Even though a buyer is yet to be confirmed, the report attributes comments from “a person close to the company who was not authorised to speak publicly” who said the Norwegian parent company and one of the world’s biggest paper suppliers had received a number of expressions of interest for the site.
The report also mentioned that the person close to the company said a sale could end in Norske Skog leasing back the paper-making assets, resulting in the mill taking up only about 10 per cent of the site.
This could potentially be detrimental to the regional news printing industry, which has been seeing some companies consolidating their newspaper portfolios.
A spokesperson for Norske Skog told Sprinter, “The company remains a committed owner of the Boyer Mill, which is the sole producer of publication paper in Australia.
“Norske Skog wants to further develop the unique Boyer industrial site and the location is attractive for green industrial players to develop new biomaterials and renewable energy either on their own or in partnership with Norske Skog Boyer.”
In May 2022, the Norske Skog Boyer Mill received a total grant of $4 million from the Tasmanian and Federal governments to support the long-term future of the site.
At that time, the company said the funding will assist in three key areas at Boyer Mill:
- Accelerating a range of projects designed to improve long-term financial sustainability
- Progressing the development of new business opportunities for the site
- Bringing forward work to examine the opportunity to reduce greenhouse emissions by about 160,000 tons of CO2 per year
In a statement in 2022, Boyer general manager Patrick Dooley said, “Adding Norske Skog’s $2.9 million commitment, we can deploy a $6.9 million package of initiatives to support the long-term future of the Boyer mill, allowing us to reduce emissions, keep costs down and continue to deliver an Australian source of newsprint”.
Established in 1941, the Boyer Mill was Australia’s first newsprint mill.
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