when competitors became a team when competitors became a team

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ekaecho The Eka Echo is a staff magazine for all employees within the Eka Chemicals group. It is produced by the Communications department at Eka Chemicals, Sweden. The magazine in published in English and Swedish, four times a year. EDITOR Anne-Cathrine Hartmann anne-cathrine.hartmann@eka.com Telephone: +46 31-58 71 22 PUBLISHER Erik Widén, communications manager erik.widen@eka.com EDITORIAL STAFF Lene Schack (lene.schack@eka.com), Kristina Fagerholm (kristina.fagerholm@eka.com), Adela Guerrera (adela.guerrera@eka.com), Nancy Nilsson (nancy.nilsson@eka.com), Steve Main (steve.main@eka.com) ART & LAYOUT Williams information ab ADMINISTRATION Ing-Marie Trygg, Communications department ing-marie.trygg@eka.com PRINTED BY Elanders, Göteborg CIRCULATION 4 300 ex Cover picture: Plant managers Jean Goyette and Cynthia Martin, Canada. Photo: Monica Rossing. Latest date for sending material to Eka Echo no 5 is 19 November, 2007. ADDRESS Eka Echo SE-445 80 Bohus, Sweden Fax: +46 31 15 62 12 ISSN: 0345-2840 2 ekaecho | # 4 2007 ekaecho WHEN WHEN COMPETITORS COMPETITORS BECAME BECAME A A TEAM TEAM f CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS AND PROFITS f EKA BUILD FOR GROWTH IN BRAZIL f GIVE STUDENTS DEGREE PROJECTS! an Akzo Nobel company T H E E K A C H E M I C A L S S T A F F M A G A Z I N E # 4/2007 EDITORIAL Safety important to result DEVELOPMENT IS TAKING large strides towards a new Akzo Nobel. After the sale of pharmaceuticals and the planned acquisition of ICI, once the deal has been realized, we will be part of an entirely new group, compared to the Akzo Nobel of a few years ago. We shall be by far the biggest paint producers in the world and have fivel growth areas occupying good positions within chemicals. Eka Chemicals is one of these and will have considerable opportunities for development within the new and stronger Akzo Nobel. During the first six months of the year profits were good and sales increased by 6%, despite hydrogen peroxide sales in North America being entered in our OCI joint venture. The second half of the year does not look as stable, although so far the economic situation has been favorable, and this applies to our markets too, with high production and high capacity utilization. As earlier, most growth in pulp and paper is taking place in Asia and South America. We are happy to see we are acquiring large parts of this growth, and our new contracts with accompanying investment plans at both Três Lagoas and Jundiai in Brazil are further evidence of this. Moreover, our new plant in south China has rapidly increased its capacity utilization. REVENUES HAVE INCREASED, partly owing to success in raising prices that have been low for a long time. We have succeeded in compensating, to a certain extent, for the major power costs rises, especially in the Nordic countries, which represent a considerable drawback for chlorate production. Nordic power prices are presently low on the spot market, but company power supply is based on longer contracts and these have not benefited from any price drop. Nor are we witness to any decisive political measures that could improve the energy situation in Europe in the future. Increased costs for emission allowances in Europe, in the wake of the climate debate, could well contribute to even higher power supply costs. Two industrial accidents occurred during the first half of the year, resulting in lost working hours, and two more have since occurred. This means we have succeeded in cutting back LTIs to the 2007 target, but we still have some way to go before we reach zero accidents; a figure many work sites have been demonstrating is a feasible target and have been doing so for long time. The number of reported injuries is still high.. On the one hand this is good, because it provides a way to countermeasure incidents and prevent these from causing new injuries. On the other hand it is still most important to eliminate injuries altogether. OUR PROGRAM FOR BEHAVIOR based safety, BBS, has now been fully implemented at eight plants. Others are working on it. This work must be given high priority. Once again I wish to emphasize there is no contradiction in striving for both high safety and high productivity. On the contrary, it has been found that plants with the best safety statistics and the best orderliness also return the highest productivity. Our most important goal is that no-one should be injured at work. If this results in better orderliness at our work sites and increases productivity, it will also help us to achieve an even better result for the second half of 2007. JAN SVÄRD President � Eka Chemicals, with 2,900 employees in 30 countries, is a business unit within Akzo Nobel. Turnover 2006 amounted to 963 mEUR. Eka Chemicals is a leading supplier of bleaching chemicals, paper chemicals and systems to the pulp and paper industry throughout the world, and supplies certain special chemicals to the pharmaceuticals industry, water treatment, the electronics industry etc. www.eka.com
100 largest surveyed ■ The PPI magazine has published its review of top 100 pulp and paper companies of the world in 2006. Based on the sales from pulp, paper and converting operations, the largest companies have been International Paper (US), Stora Enso (Finland), Procter & Gamble (US), SCA (Sweden), UPM- Kymmene (Finland), Oji Paper (Japan), Weyerhaeuser (US), Smurfit Kappa Group (Ireland),Kimberly-Clark (US) and Nippon Paper Group (Japan). Total sales of the top 100 companies from pulp, paper and converting operations amounted to US$ 273,997 million, up 7.5 % compared with 2005. Total earnings increased to US$ 23,641 million in 2006 from US$ 15,823 million in 2005. Market pulp production of the companies amounted to 33.782 million tonnes and paper and board production to 205.189 million tonnes. Central Asia in the lead ■ How are Central Asia Golden Dragons doing? Eka Retention World Cup has reported on the September results, but no dramatic changes have occurred among the leaders, although excitement is mounting. The Central Europe Golden Hordes team is gaining ground in one of the competition categories. For more information about competition status please visit the intranet; key in the following address on your web browser: http://mcms.eka.intra/Eka Forum/Pulp+and+Paper/ERW 2007 Result. htm The chlorine factory is the first building visitors see when they drive into Eka, Bohus. Built in 1969-70… ...the building is now to be demolished, and the appearance of the north entrance will be radically altered. Hans Karlsson is driving the excavator with Ulf Olsson in the background. Both are contractors. Chlorine building demolished at Bohus ■ The demolition of the chlorine production building at Eka Chemicals, Bohus started in September this year. The building was used for chlorine production until September 2005 when the operation was closed down. It is the last and the largest in a series of buildings and plant to be demolished, and project managers expect work to have been completed by the year end. The project involved dismantling and taking care of 54 mercury cells and all the equipment contained within the building, and has been well planned and carefully controlled. Work was started in 2006. CONTENTS # 4 2007 New plants in Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Lee Sampson at green office in Marietta . . . . . . . . 6 The Eka detectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Close-knit team in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-13 ECF bleaching presented in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Peter Kemi IN BRIEF Safety record in Venezuela ■ In May 2007, Eka Chemicals de Venezuela set a safety record for reaching 5 years without a Lost Time Incident (LTI). “Safety is one of the most important issues for us, our customers and the community,” said Anibal Cermeño, plant manager. “This achievement is very gratifying for Eka Chemicals de Venezuela. This record was reached thanks to the efforts of all our employees and contractors due to the strong safety culture in Santa Cruz. Training and Behavior Based Safety processes are ongoing, and we conduct Process Hazard Analysis to maintain and improve our safety systems. We are proud to share this achievement with the rest of our Eka family.” Tips to Eka Echo! ■ For those who wish to express views on our staff magazine or who have suggestions about content – you are very welcome to contact the editorial office. You can call or e-mail us. Contact information is provided in the left-hand column on page 2. Eka®, Expancel®, Purate®, SVP-Pure® and SVP-Lite® are registered trademarks owned by Eka Chemicals AB and/or other companies within the Akzo Nobel group in several countries around the world. ekaecho | # 4 2007 3
Page 1: ekaecho T H E E K A C H E M I C A L
Page 5 and 6: Chlorine dioxide to Skutskär - mor
Page 7 and 8: Meet a master of degrees How to att
Page 9 and 10: Dollar affects profits Since 2002,
Page 11 and 12: the same point of view. At meetings
Page 13 and 14: er that leads into the lake. The ri
Page 16 and 17: We’ve added Highlights! A new pag
Page 18 and 19: PICK & MIX New Names moves to the n
Page 20: Eka Chemicals 445 80 Bohus AT WORK

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