Norske Skog Skogn AS is a pulp mill and paper mill situated in Levanger Municipality, Norway, which produces newsprint. Situated on the Fiborgtangen peninsula in Skogn, the mill has three paper machines with a total annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes. Pulp is produced both from virgin fibers at an on-site thermomechanical pulp (TMP) mill and from recycled paper at a deinking (DIP) mill. Part of Norske Skog, it is the sole remaining newsprint mill in Norway.
Proposals for a mill came from the Norwegian Forest Owners Association, who wanted a major industrial facility to buy lumber in Central Norway. Originally named Nordenfjelske Treforedling AS, the company was incorporated on 1 March 1962. Forest owner associations held a majority of the shares and the mill was long considered part of the agricultural cooperatives. The first lumber was delivered on 1 March 1966 and the first paper machine, PM1, became operation on 15 September. PM2 started running on 14 November 1967. After buying Van Severen and Ranheim Papirfabrikk, the company took the name Norske Skog in 1972 and gradually expanded beyond their inaugural mill at Skogn.
A TMP mill was installed 1977, but not until a series of upgrades were completed in 1992 could the former grindstone production be scrapped and the need to buy sulfite cellulose could be dropped. PM3 became operational on 23 June 1981. The machines have been through several major upgrades, the most extensive in the late 1980s and early 2000s. A deinking mill became operational in June 2000. Proposals for PM4, which would have produced magazine paper, were abandoned after the plans to build a gas-powered on-site thermal power plant were scrapped by Industrikraft Midt-Norge.
History Planning In the period following the Second World War the wood industry in Trøndelag was outdated and had limited capacity. Forest-owners were forced to sell large portions of their lumber to industries in Eastern Norway. The long distances and hence transport costs cut into the prices, giving the forest-owners reduced revenue.Pollen: 10 At the time the forest industry was until 1957 organized through a price regulation mechanism, with maximum prices for lumber set by the government. Prices were set through negotiations between forest owner associations, organized by drainage system, and the industry.Pollen: 20
The initiative for establishing a major industry for lumber Nordenfjells was therefore both based on the desire for proximity as well as the desire for the forest owners themselves to own the mill. Plans were therefore gradually articulated within the Norwegian Forest Owners Association and its chapters.Pollen: 23 Various proposals were made, including expanding Folla Bruk, or building new mills either in Namdalen or Helgeland. Formal talks were initiated at a meeting held between the regional forest owners associations on 14 June 1958, initially discussing the possibilities of establishing a mill in Stjørdal Municipality. Central in the initiative was Ivar Aavatsmark and Anders B. Werp.Pollen: 24 This led to the establishment of the Forest Owners Industrial Committee Nordenfjelds on 8 December. An important preliminary work was the calculation that Central Norway had a chronic overproduction of of lumber annually, which needed to be allocated to new industry.Pollen: 25
Negotiations with the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture commenced in January 1959.Pollen: 27 One issue which lay in the air was that the government might want to instead establish a government-owned mill, similar to Norsk Jernverk which had recently opened. The ministries gave a preliminary support to the forest owners' proposal, allowing funding for further investigations. This ultimately led to Nordenfjell Commission being established on 19 June 1959. It had three members each from the government, forest owners and the forest industry. The commission was set to consider the mill's location, the amount of lumber it needed, processing techniques as well and financing and ownership issues.Pollen: 28 A pulp mill was considered, based on recently abandoned proposals for one in Kirkenes, a site found to be too remote. The commission recommended unanimously on 27 January 1961 that the mill be organized as a cooperative, that it receive one paper machine with an annual output of 100,000 tonnes, a mechanical pulp mill with an annual production of 80,000 tonnes and 20,000 tonnes of pulp produced through the sulfite process.Pollen: 29
Representatives for the forest owners traveled in February 1961 to Finland to inspect cooperative mills there. The Norwegian Forest Owners Association approved the plans on 20 March.Pollen: 31 The main opposition to the mill came from the other forest industry companies in the country. Follum Fabrikker proposed that they could build a new mill in Trøndelag, and offered to allow forest owners and the government receive a third of the ownership each.Pollen: 35
Instead of organizing the company as a cooperative proper, the new company was to be an aksjeselskap where the various forest owner associations would purchase a majority stake.Pollen: 38 The reason for avoiding a cooperative proper was that it would have difficulties raising the necessary capital. The forest-owner domination was retained based on the experience from the purchase of Borregaard in 1919, where the direct ownership of forest owners had been gradually diluted and had ultimately lost control. The central and southern associations had sufficient capital to simply pay out, while forest-owners Nordensfjells were charged a six-percent fee on all lumber for five years to secure sufficient equity.Pollen: 34
The shares were offered for sale on 30 October 1961, with a total value of NOK 49 million.Pollen: 40 The forest owner associations purchased shares for NOK 28 million. This consisted of NOK 12 million by the southern associations, NOK 11 million by the northern associations, and NOK 5 million by the central organization. NOK 10 million of the shares were offered on the open market, with individual forest-owners encouraged to buy shares. NOK 5 million was bought by various agricultural cooperatives and the same amount by Nord-Trøndelag County Municipality. The remaining NOK 7 million State-owned Land and Forest Company. Securing the remaining NOK 125 million through loans proved to be more difficult. The District Development Fund issued a NOK 50-million loan, while the rest was eventually split between Vesta and Hambros Bank.Pollen: 41
Construction Nordenfjelske Treforedling A/S was incorporated on 1 March 1962, initially registered in Trondheim. The annual meeting elected Reidar Due as the board's chairman.Pollen: 42 One of the issues the company had to address was the location of the mill. Sites were considered in Namsos, Steinkjer, Verdal, Skogn, Stjørdal and Orkdal. The government pressed for it to be located near Namsos, but on 5 December the board chose unanimously to locate it at Fiborgtangen in Skogn.Pollen: 46 The peninsula had bedrock, which was needed to support the up to 3000-tonne paper machines, and there was sufficient space for five machines. There was also a shallow bay which could be filled in to store lumber. There was ample access for fresh water. The site was located next to the Nordland Line, European Road E6 and was on the ice-free part of the Trondheimsfjord, allowing for good transport. In addition to being located centrally in the forest-rich Trøndelag, it was near routes to the Swedish forests in Jämtland.Pollen: 47
Initially the plans had called for a single paper machine with an annual production capacity of . In the midst of construction the issue of building a second machine was raised.Pollen: 51 There was an overproduction of chemical pulp and this could be bought cheaply and easily. An additional of pulpwood would be needed; this could be secured from Jämtland.Pollen: 52 There was a certain political opposition, especially in the Conservative Party, with concerns that it would lead to an overdemand for lumber.Pollen: 54 The second machine, PM2, received political approval,Pollen: 55 and was approved by the annual meeting on 10 April 1964. The extra NOK 75 in funding was secured through issuing additional shares, bringing the share equity to NOK 64 million. The rest was borrowed.
The company contracted Jaakko Pöyry to design the mill.Pollen: 49 Fifteen homes had to be abandoned to build the mill, which took over an area of . This included of agricultural land.Pollen: 48 Fiborgtangen was leveled by removing of earthwork in addition to bedrock which was blasted. This included the island of Valøya. The lumber harbor was dredged of of earthwork, while on the opposite side of the site a port was built.Pollen: 50 The leveling was completed in mid 1964, after which work on the actual mill building started. Total building area measured , of which the paper machine halls filled in a hall measuring . The first ship, with steel to the oil tanks, docked on 2 September 1965.
Delivery of the first parts of the paper machine, manufactured by Valmet, took place in late December. Water was provided by Levanger Municipality from the lake of Hoklingen. Supply was provided through of tunnels and of pipes. By agreement the mill could use of water each second. A branch road was built from the E6 and a branch railway line was built from Skogn Station. An agreement secured 300 gigawatthours per year of electricity from Nord-Trøndelag Elektrisitetsverk.Pollen: 55 Construction cost NOK 31 million,Pollen: 69 making it at the time the most expensive privately funding industrial complex in Norway.
The first lumber was delivered to the mill on 1 March 1966, months before the mill was completed. The company used the time to establish a buffer of lumber. The company started courses opened to all interested to attract potential workers.Pollen: 59 PM1 was started on 15 September at 23:00.Pollen: 57 PM2 started operations on 14 November 1967.Pollen: 68 By then the company had a staff of 417 employees.Pollen: 70 In their original configuration the two paper machines had a production of per minute. Most of the lumber came from an effectivization program carried out in the woods, through construction of more roads and increased mechanization, allow the workload per cubic meter of wood to drop to a fifth during the 1960s. This allowed more marginal areas to be logged.Pollen: 62
The village of Skogn had previously been concentrated around Skogn Station. The opening of the mill caused the area to experience rapid expansion. Two new subdivisions were built around the village – Holåsen for engineers and functionaries and Holsandlia for foremen. The increased population was key to the development of Skogn reaching a population of 2,400 and has helped develop the village and its services.
Early operation
Only ten percent of the newsprint production could be sold domestically.Pollen: 64 The main Norwegian competitors, Union Co. and Follum, had joined forces with Swedish and Finnish counterparts to form the newsprint sales organization Scannews. Nordenfjelske was barred for entering the cartel and instead chose to ally with Borregaard. They formed the joint venture Borregaard & Nordenfjelske on 1 October 1964, in anticipation for Borregaard to start their own newsprint mill. This continued onwards even after Borregaard shelved their newsprint plans.Pollen: 66
Contracts were predominantly signed for one year at a time. Sixty-one percent of the production the first year was exported to Western Europe, while thirty percent was shipped intercontinentally. The company gradually established a series of sales offices and contracted agents globally. The organization varied somewhat. In for instance Germany and the United Kingdom subsidiaries were eventually established. In the Netherlands and Belgium this was conducted through joint ventures.Pollen: 162