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Tasman Mill
38°04′26″S 176°43′12″E / 38.074°S 176.720°E The Tasman Mill site is a pulp and paper mill located on Fletcher Avenue just outside the town of Kawerau in New Zealand. The Tasman Mill site is the largest single employer in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region[citation needed]. Three pulp or paper companies previously operated in Kawerau: Norske Skog operated the mechanical pulp mill and newsprint paper mill; Oji Fibre Solutions, formerly Carter Holt Harvey, operated the kraft pulp mill; and SCA (now Essity) who manufacture tissue and base paper (physically separate mill on Fletcher Avenue).
The Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill has been a source of controversy due to the discharging of waste into the Tarawera River. Despite protests from locals (including local Iwi), resource consent was renewed in 2009 to allow for discharge into the river for the next 25 years.
The workforce at the Tasman Mill declined from its peak in the 1980s. The Norske Skog Tasman mill that produced newsprint was closed in June 2021, with the loss of 160 jobs.
The main product from the Oji Fibre Solutions site is kraft pulp that is used for making containerboard and kraft paper.
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. 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. Pulping operations were underway by 1955.
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. In 2000, Fletcher Challenge sold its shareholding in the mill to Norske Skog.
The accessibility of geothermal energy led to the construction of an on-site 100 MW geothermal power station, commissioned in 2008. 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. A third paper machine was closed in an attempt to remain competitive in the overseas market.
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Tasman Mill
38°04′26″S 176°43′12″E / 38.074°S 176.720°E The Tasman Mill site is a pulp and paper mill located on Fletcher Avenue just outside the town of Kawerau in New Zealand. The Tasman Mill site is the largest single employer in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region[citation needed]. Three pulp or paper companies previously operated in Kawerau: Norske Skog operated the mechanical pulp mill and newsprint paper mill; Oji Fibre Solutions, formerly Carter Holt Harvey, operated the kraft pulp mill; and SCA (now Essity) who manufacture tissue and base paper (physically separate mill on Fletcher Avenue).
The Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill has been a source of controversy due to the discharging of waste into the Tarawera River. Despite protests from locals (including local Iwi), resource consent was renewed in 2009 to allow for discharge into the river for the next 25 years.
The workforce at the Tasman Mill declined from its peak in the 1980s. The Norske Skog Tasman mill that produced newsprint was closed in June 2021, with the loss of 160 jobs.
The main product from the Oji Fibre Solutions site is kraft pulp that is used for making containerboard and kraft paper.
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. 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. Pulping operations were underway by 1955.
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. In 2000, Fletcher Challenge sold its shareholding in the mill to Norske Skog.
The accessibility of geothermal energy led to the construction of an on-site 100 MW geothermal power station, commissioned in 2008. 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. A third paper machine was closed in an attempt to remain competitive in the overseas market.